Livingston and Motherwell fought out a no-score bore at the Tony Macaroni Arena as both sides kicked off their Premiership campaign with a share of the spoils.
The two teams had won their Betfred Cup groups in impressive fashion and swept through to the last 16 of the competition.
The hosts were seeking a fourth straight win, while the Steelmen had won all four of their group encounters.
It was a tousy affair in the opening 20 minutes with Motherwell's Christian Ilic picking a booking for barging into Keaghan Jacobs.
Jacobs fired narrowly wide on 32 minutes and Well's Jake Carroll spurned the best opportunity of the first half when he smashed the ball off the gloves of Ross Stewart from inside the six-yard box on the left-hand side.
French-born Tunisian Aymen Souda then produced a wonderful overhead kick on 39 minutes that brought the best out of the home side's goalkeeper Mark Gillespie, who dived to his left to turn it behind for a corner.
Just before the break Scott Pittman was then denied the opener by Gillespie who snuffed out his initial dinked effort after he had sprinted out of his goal to block.
The midfielder's lofted follow-up effort was headed off the line by former Lions teammate Declan Gallagher and it remained goalless at the interval.
Lyndon Dykes was booked on 51 minutes as fans at the Tony Macaroni Arena awaited the vital breakthrough.
Alan Lithgow lashed a long range drive straight at Gillespie before Richard Tait was wasteful when he shot tamely at Stewart when he ought to have scored on 66 minutes.
Liam Donnelly was then yellow carded on 79 minutes but it was Nicky Devlin who blew a golden opportunity to win all three points for the hosts on 84 minutes when he found himself clean through on goal, but Gillespie again managed to beat away his ferocious effort.
Gallagher also smashed a header just over the top as Motherwell pressed for a late winner but it was not to be as the contest ended honours even.
3 talking points
Gallagher returns to Livi
It was a strange sight to see Gallagher in a Motherwell shirt but the central defender didn't disappoint on his return to West Lothian and even headed a Scott Pittman effort off his own line for good measure and smashed a late header over the top which could have won it.
Turnbull on crutches and emotional Well display
Motherwell midfielder David Turnbull complete with crutches took his place among the visiting supporters and happily posed for pictures. It was a refreshing sight to see after the trauma of Turnbull seeing a summer switch to Celtic collapse due to a knee injury. It was also wonderful to see the Steelmen fans pay a banner tribute to former player Paul McGrillen who sadly passed away a decade ago.
Souda a standout
Livi's Aymen Souda impressed and really caught the eye. The French-born Tunisian almost opened the scoring in spectacular fashion with a superb overhead kick that saw Motherwell goalkeeper Mark Gilllespie pull off a fine diving save.
