Stoke City missed the chance to move out of the relegation zone in the Sky Bet Championship at the weekend, as they were held to a goalless draw by Reading.

It was a disappointing game at the Bet365 Stadium and a frustrating afternoon for both sets of fans, as both teams failed to register a single shot on target.

Stoke huffed and puffed, but for all their effort and endeavour, they never really tested the Reading goalkeeper. Tom Ince was the player who came closest to scoring - he had a first-half goal ruled out for offside and also missed a couple of chances.

A win for Stoke would have seen them climb out of the bottom three on goal difference, but instead they remain 22nd in the Championship table - five points behind Reading.

Here are three things we clearly learnt about Stoke after their 0-0 draw with Reading...

They need to start games quicker

Stoke never really looked like losing the game on Saturday, but at the same time, they rarely looked like winning it. They got off to a bit of a slow start and struggled to create many chances.

They've got some experienced and quality players in their squad that can hurt teams, but the reality of the situation is that they need to start games better - especially when they're at home.

The tempo was far too slow and the players were happy to pass the ball sideways or backwards far too often. Ultimately, this could be down to a lack of confidence within the team, but it's something that the players need to address sooner rather than later.

The need to be braver - they've clearly got the ability, but they need to have more belief to try things and be less scared of losing the ball.

Jordan Cousins could have an important role to play this season

Jordan Cousins started for the second game in a row for Stoke for the first time this season on Saturday and put in another good performance in the anchoring midfield role.

The industrious 25-year-old fully justified his manager's decision to keep him in the side and did a brilliant job of protecting the back four.

It was a game that lacked quality, but Cousins was one of the standout players for Stoke and thoroughly deserved to be named as the man of the match.

It's fair to say that he struggled to make much of an impact when he first arrived at the club in the summer, but he's shown over the last two matches that he could have a very important role to play for the Potters this season.

Can you get 15 out of 15 on this Stoke City quiz? Have a go now!

They are slowly starting to make progress

It wasn't the best performance from Stoke at the weekend, but there are still some positives for fans at the Bet365 Stadium to take away from the result - perhaps the biggest positive, is that the team kept another clean sheet.

Before their 3-0 win over Luton Town last week, Stoke had kept just two clean sheets all season, so to keep two more in the space of five days shows that the team are starting to make progress - albeit slowly.

Results have proved significantly since Michael O'Neill took charge of the club and while there's still an awful lot of room for improvement, particularly going forward, back-to-back clean sheets is real positive and it should give the team a platform to build on.