Birmingham City 0 Liverpool 0 ( English Premier League 12 September 2010 )

Paul Konchesky and Raul Meireles made their Liverpool debuts as the Reds played out a 0-0 draw with Birmingham City at St Andrews on Sunday afternoon.

Roy Hodgson's side had Pepe Reina to thank for securing a share of the spoils as the Spaniard delivered a goalkeeping master class in a first half in which the hosts enjoyed the better of the action.

Liverpool were improved in the second period, although Blues' stopper Ben Foster remained largely untroubled with neither side able to break the deadlock in a tight encounter.

The Reds went into the contest seeking their first Barclays Premier League away victory of the new season, and Hodgson's first points on the road at the helm.

But they journeyed to the Midlands knowing in order to do so, they'd have to overcome a side who had not tasted defeat on home soil in the league for 16 matches.

Furthermore, Liverpool were without a top-flight victory at St Andrews since 2004 - which was also their last Premier League win over the Blues - though the last six meetings had ended in stalemate.

Hodgson named two of his transfer deadline day signings in his squad, with Konchesky starting the game at left-back and Meireles included on the bench.

Maxi Rodriguez was also drafted into the XI to replace the injured Dirk Kuyt wide right, while Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres would supply the firepower in attack.

After a tepid opening 10 minutes, in which neither side mustered a chance of note, Glen Johnson's raid down the right wing resulted in the full-back cutting the ball across the box for Torres, who scuffed wide from a promising position.

At the other end, Martin Skrtel produced a timely intervention to prevent Cameron Jerome from going through on goal - though the afternoon had yet to come to life.

But on 22 minutes, Jerome should have put Birmingham into the lead when Lee Bowyer's left-wing cross found the unmarked forward drifting into space inside the six-yard box, but his powerful downward header was acrobatically flicked around the post courtesy of Reina's world-class save.

James McFadden's free-kick then cleared the Spaniard's crossbar as the hosts endeavoured to seize the initiative.

The chances were starting to come for Birmingham. Sebastian Larsson fashioned a chance for Craig Gardner as Lucas Leiva and Christian Poulsen got in each others way inside the area, but the midfielder's attempted chip was too high to trouble anyone but the fans behind the goal before Reina had to be alert to divert a dangerous cross away from Jerome.

The Reds' stopper was certainly demonstrating why he's regarded as one of the world's top custodians - and Reina arguably bettered his earlier save when somehow managed to get down low enough to thwart Gardner's bullet header from a Stephen Carr centre.

However, the No.25 was little more than a spectator as McFadden's deep cross reached Roger Johnson, who had remained forward from a corner, unattended yards from goal. Thankfully, the centre-back could only steer into the visiting supporters on the stretch to ensure the scoreline remained goalless at the break.

A much-improved second-half showing was the order of the day for Liverpool and Gerrard drew a stop out of Foster 30 seconds after the interval with an arching volley.

Milan Jovanovic's driving run and shot was blocked by Johnson as the Reds finally began to threaten their hosts - but Scott Dann should have done much better when he evaded the visitors' defence to thump a free header from Larsson's free-kick into the ground and over the bar for Birmingham.

But it was much better from Hodgson's contingent and, on 63 minutes, a jet-heeled counter-attack saw Gerrard slide Torres into space inside the right-hand channel of the Blues' box. The Spaniard steadied himself before powering a strike towards Foster's goal from an acute angle, which the stopper parried to safety.

Jerome then glanced Carr's cross wide before Hodgson opted to introduce Meireles to the action with less than 15 minutes left on the clock - the Portuguese ace becoming Liverpool's 100th foreign player as he replaced Lucas.

However, an injury to fellow debutant Konchesky forced the boss to bring on Daniel Agger in his place.

Torres tested Foster as the game headed towards a conclusion, with Meireles lurking, while Poulsen cracked a volley against the legs of a Birmingham defender on the edge of the box.

However, despite a late spell of pressure, Liverpool were unable to find the breakthrough and had to settle for a hard-fought point.