Birmingham 0 Aston Villa 0
Aston Villa regained their pride and won their first away point of the season as they blunted the challenge of Steve Bruce's side in a derby which proved a massive anti-climax.
Villa were desperate to put right the events of last season when they lost both derbies without scoring a goal.
That objective was achieved with a superb performance from skipper and central defender Olof Mellberg ensured Christophe Dugarry and Mikael Forssell made little impact after a bright start.
The home side failed to repeat their performance of midweek against Chelsea as Villa frustrated them by packing their midfield in a 4-5-1 system with Juan Pablo Angel the lone striker.
Stan Lazaridis was the only home player who looked as if he could pose any sort of a threat on the left flank. But, while Villa may be happy with their reward, the game was lacking in quality and was littered with unforced errors.
The atmosphere seemed strangely muted and maybe both sides and supporters were conscious of the need to show restrain after the ugly scenes which had marred last season's two derbies on and off the pitch.
While Mellberg shone in the Villa defence, his Blues counterpart and skipper Kenny Cunningham was equally dominant.
The best opportunity of the opening 45 minutes fell to the home side when Lazaridis squared his low centre back into the patch of Stephen Clemence. The midfielder struck his low shot from 15 yards and forced Sorensen to make a good low save away to his right.
Birmingham tried to take the game to Villa after the restart and Forssell could have given them the lead when he met a corner from Lazaridis at the near post but headed wide.
At the other end Robbie Savage made a crucial interception to deflect a close range effort from Whittingham over the bar after he collected a header from Juan Pablo Angel.
But these moments of excitement were few and far between and the second half was barely an improvement on the first in terms of quality.
Dugarry's frustrating afternoon continued when he failed to connect properly with his shot after a good break forward and he was eventually replaced by Clinton Morrison.