The Championship returns from the international break on Friday evening with a match between two sides who play at the same ground when Coventry City host their landlords Birmingham City in a match with a weird dynamic attached to it.
Birmingham City have played at St Andrews throughout their existence but here they will be consigned to the visiting dressing room with the Sky Blues occupying the home one which is basically the properties of their opponents here.
Where to watch
The match is bring shown live and in full on the Sky Football channel with the build up to the game beginning at 7pm and the clash itself kicking off at 7.45pm.
Coventry City
The Sky Blues have struggled with their start to life back in the Championship. That isn’t a surprise. That is something we see quite often from the promoted sides and their record of scoring a few goals but leaking an awful lot more is another trend from those teams who attempt to bridge what is a widening gap between this division and the one below. Promoted sides need to pick their battles wisely and this is one that Coventry will feel they can win.
The one good thing you would say about the start to the season that Coventry have made is that they are scoring goals. If they can find a way to defend better without taking that scoring potential away from them then they could get a little run going and pull away from the danger zone. Coventry showed a couple of weeks ago when beating the leaders Reading that they can compete in this league. They just need to find some consistency with it.
Birmingham City
It hasn’t been a fantastic start to the season for Birmingham City either but when you think of the messy way last term ended I’m sure Blues fans will just about settle for solid if not spectacular over what they had to put up with after Lockdown 1. The international break looked to come at a good time for the away side here as they had lost two matches on the bounce and were showing signs that the ridiculous schedule was getting the better of them.
Birmingham haven’t conceded many goals this season. They have actually conceded a goal fewer than the leaders Reading but only the bottom three have scored less than they have and that is something that needs to improve in this crazy run of games that is on the horizon if they are going to move up the table and get themselves into a position where they won’t have to keep looking over their shoulder for any period of time.
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Team News
Coventry remain without star striker Matt Godden who hasn’t yet recovered from the injury he sustained prior to the international break. Jordan Shipley has completed his self-isolation period though and he is available. Fankaty Dabo is a doubt.
George Friend and Kristian Pedersen return to tighten up the Birmingham defence after it was taken apart by Bournemouth last time out. Jake Clarke-Salter is another who is back from injury and he could make a first appearance of the new campaign.
Betting
This feels like a minefield of a match to bet on. Everything I thought might be a goer here has things against it which isn’t ideal. If I was picking a winner I’d always go with the best defence which is Birmingham City but then you look down their ledger and there is a defeat to Wycombe Wanderers on it which doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. Coventry concede too many goals for me to back them to come out on top in this one.
The other bet I considered is for both teams to score but the absence of Matt Godden from the Coventry attack doesn’t make that as attractive an option as it might have otherwise been either. The one thing about the Championship is this is the first of nine rounds of matches in the next four and a bit weeks so we don’t need to push the boat out on bets we don’t fancy. I’m not going to do that. I’ll sit this one out.
Tips
No Bet
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