Last updated on .From the section Championship

Curacao international Leandro Bacuna joined Cardiff City from Reading in January 2019

Cardiff City picked up their first away point of the season as they were held to a goalless draw at Blackburn Rovers.

Joe Ralls and Leandro Bacuna both saw strikes hit the upright in the 90 minutes at Ewood Park, but the Bluebirds could not find a way past Christian Walton.

The hosts also hit the woodwork late on when Derrick Williams' first-time effort beat everyone except the crossbar.

It was a first draw of the season for both sides, as each finished Saturday in mid-table.

Blackburn almost got off to the perfect start when Amari'i Bell, starting in place of Greg Cunningham who was ineligible to face his parent club, played in striker Danny Graham.

Unfortunately for the former Swansea City striker his effort narrowly missed the target with Alex Smithies beaten.

Graham had an even better chance to open the scoring just before half-time and would have done if not for a last-ditch block from Cardiff captain Sean Morrison.

Former Rovers winger Junior Hoilett brought life to the Cardiff attack in the second half and almost made an immediate impact when put through by Robert Glatzel but Christian Walton saved well.

The visitors looked the most likely of the two to break the deadlock and had 13 attempts to Blackburn's nine, but both sides lacked that clinical edge needed to take all three points.

The result was a third successive clean sheet for Blackburn, who beat Hull City and Middlesbrough 1-0 in their previous two matches.

But for Cardiff it was a first clean sheet of the season, in a vastly improved defensive performance compared with last week's 3-0 defeat by Reading.

Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray:

"We're disappointed we didn't get three points. I think we had enough half opportunities to get it.

"Obviously Derrick's chance at the death off the post was a frustration for us. We have to accept it. Cardiff were in the Premier League last year and have a lot of big players.

"We accept that we didn't manage to score today, but the positive is a clean sheet and it's another point, and we keep moving on. If we'd said at the start of the week that we were going to get seven points this week, we'd have probably taken it."

Cardiff manager Neil Warnock:

​"We've had three games in six days so we had one or two tired legs. A few things have gone against us injury-wise but you have to give the lads credit, when we can play, we do.

"Today it was unusual for us to face so many long balls! I'd get slaughtered! But I thought we coped admirably.

"We've got four tough points from two games so I'm delighted. You look at Leeds and Fulham and you look at a few lads who might pull away and we just have to hang on to their coat-tails."