Another weekend in the Sky Bet Championship begins on Friday night when two of the midlands teams battle it out looking to enhance their position in the table ahead of everyone playing over the course of Saturday as Birmingham City host West Bromwich Albion.
These two teams come into the match in opposite ends of the Championship table. After a win last week Birmingham go into the game ranked 18 in the table while West Brom will begin the night in the top six and will go fifth if they avoid defeat.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football channels with the build-up at St Andrews beginning at 7.30pm and kick off coming at 8pm.
Birmingham City
Birmingham City have had a bit of a weird season. If you split the 29 matches they have played so far up into quarters they had a poor first quarter, a wonderful second one, an ok third one and they have just finished a terrible fourth one. The good thing is that last time out the Blues arrested a five-match losing run with a thrilling 4-3 win at Swansea, one which eased any nerves around being sucked into a relegation battle. Technically with a win here, Birmingham will join the coattails of the teams chasing a play-off berth, although that looks a pipedream overall to be fair.
Birmingham have an issue to solve on the pitch and they have a possible one off of it as well. There is a planned protest inside the stadium during the contest. They had one of these when I was at St Andrews last year and it involved tennis balls being thrown onto the pitch so the threat of that could distract their players but a bigger concern is the fact they have shipped 16 goals in their last six matches. They have goals in them themselves but you can’t be conceding nearly three a match and expect to win at this level.
West Bromwich Albion
It has been a season of two halves for West Brom so far. They went absolutely nowhere under Steve Bruce but they have hardly been able to stop winning since Carlos Corberan took over and a season in which staying in the division looked the order of the day at one stage could now be all about escaping it at the other end, such is the resurgence they have shown recently. West Brom have won 10 of their last 12 Championship outings.
The two matches they lost in that time were both on the road so that might focus the minds of the Baggies players. The visitors will be boosted by the news that Corberan has signed an extended contract in the week committing himself to the club for the long-term. West Brom are very efficient offensively under Corberan but where they have improved is defensively and they are entitled to be very tough to beat in this match.
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Team News
John Eustace will be without Jobe Bellingham and Marc Roberts for this contest but he could be able to call on the services of Troy Deeney, George Hall and Harlee Dean, each of whom have returned to training ahead of the game.
West Brom boss Carlos Corberan will be without goalkeeper Alex Palmer for this match as he faces an extended spell on the sidelines. Matt Phillips has been ruled out for the season so Marc Albrighton is expected to keep his place in the team. Nathaniel Chalobah will be hoping for a first start.
Betting
I would imagine the Birmingham City players will be fired up for this one. They have a win last week to build from, it is a derby of sorts and with the unrest in the stands this could turn toxic if the home fans don’t see their side getting stuck in and having a real good go here. West Brom rarely need an invitation to get involved in the physical elements of the game and so I am looking towards the bookings in this contest.
You can get a more than acceptable price on the Asian cards which has a line of four. There were four when these two met at The Hawthorns earlier in the year but that was when Steve Bruce was in charge of a timid West Brom side and Hannibal Mejbri, a serial card collector, only saw the last 15 minutes of the game. Referee for this one is James Linnington who averages four cards per match this season. He has refereed West Brom twice giving out five cards in one and two in the other. He has taken charge of one Birmingham match and dished out five cards in that. These two teams are physical in defence and in the centre of the park and the heated atmosphere could lead to plenty of cards in this one.
Tips
Back Over 4 Asian Cards for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with Bet365
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