Stoke City 0 Cardiff City 0 match report: Charlie Adam lucky to escape red card on night to forget

Never mind Lionel Messi not being able to do it at Stoke City on a cold midweek night - Stoke themselves struggled in a goalless draw with Cardiff City which had plenty of honest endeavour from both sides but little quality where it mattered.

This was one of those grim evenings which Richard Scudamore declines to mention when travelling to faraway places to talk up the wonders of the Premier League and the only consolation for two teams who began the night looking directly over their shoulders at the bottom three is that each took home a point and climbed two places in the process, Stoke to 14th, Cardiff to 15th.

In the post-Pulis era, Stoke have yet to score a single header this season but they are struggling to find other ways to put the ball in the net, as five goals in seven home fixtures now testifies. Hughes admitted afterwards that he might look for attacking reinforcements in the January transfer window. “We had half-chances but no clean-cut chances,” he said. “We need to try and improve that aspect of our play.”

Hughes had responded to Saturday's heavy defeat at Everton by dropping Jonathan Walters after 102 straight league starts and the returning Marko Arnautovic created their best opening of the first half when his crossfield pass sent Oussama Asaidi clear but his first touch was poor and his toe poke at the onrushing David Marshall lacked conviction. Geoff Cameron did put the ball in the net on the stroke of half-time but was offside.

Cardiff were defending stubbornly - too stubbornly for the home crowd's liking with Crouch's battle with the visiting centre-backs resembling a wrestling match at times; indeed the big striker seemed to have a decent penalty shout in the second period when going to ground as he grappled with Ben Turner. The simmering frustration threatened to spill over when Frasier Campbell tangled with Crouch and Adam as Cardiff lined up a defensive wall; Adam, who had already been booked, pushed over Campbell but referee Michael Oliver missed it and showed yellows only to Crouch and Campbell. “I suppose that Charlie Adam was lucky to stay on the pitch,” said Malky Mackay, the Cardiff manager.

Stoke kept pushing but substitute Stephen Ireland blazed over and in the end Cardiff might have nicked it with Asmir Begovic, the Stoke goalkeeper, saving well from Jordon Mutch's first-half header and Cardiff teenager Declan John's last-minute shot. “We've come to another tough place and been very resilient,” concluded Mackay, grateful for small mercies.

Man of the match Caulker.

Match rating 4/10.

Referee M Oliver (Northumberland).

Attendance 25,014.