It's not hard to tell why Peterborough and Brentford are perilously close to the second division drop zone after they hardly managed to create a clear-cut scoring opportunity between them.
No one was more frustrated than Posh boss Barry Fry, who said: "We had plenty of the play, got into some good positions but our final ball was often useless and we never put enough pressure on the Brentford goal.
"The level of play was disappointing all round and, while we never looked like losing, this was a game we needed to win." Putting the emphasis on defence, Brentford were quite happy to back off when David Farrell was in possession and on the few occasions the wing man got in telling crosses there was little to trouble Bees keeper Paul Smith, who easily denied Clive Platt and Curtis Woodhouse.
Brentford's determination not to concede made the going tough for their strike force of Ben May and Tommy Wright, on loan from Millwall and Leicester City, and they saw even less of the ball after Brentford were reduced to ten men for the second successive game.
Last week, Stephen Evans walked and this time it was Robbie Bull who saw red after bringing down Platt.
Posh claimed a penalty but the referee awarded a free-kick on the edge of the area which, in his hurry to take quickly, Tom Williams wasted, firing well wide of Smith's upright.
Earlier appeals were also brushed aside by the officials, Woodhouse and Andy Clarke getting nothing after finishing on the floor in the same move while Brentford's Senegalese defender Ibrahim Sonko got the benefit of the doubt as Posh screamed for handball.
Bees skipper Stephen Hunt was surprised by the dismissal, commenting: "It looked as if Bull had got across the forward but the referee then ran from 50 yards away to show a red card. It didn't look like the right decision to me."