The end of another frenetic week in the Sky Bet Championship begins on Friday night when two midlands clubs go at it at St Andrews when Birmingham City welcome West Bromwich Albion to the second city.
Both teams have made better starts to the campaign than they were expected to and can enhance their position in the table should they come away with the three points from this contest. That should make for a competitive clash.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Football channel with the build-up beginning at 7.30pm ahead of an 8pm kick off.
Birmingham City
The Blues have had a couple of indifferent campaigns but with a takeover came optimism and excitement and the start to the season has reflected that. They came out of the international break with three defeats in four which had people suggesting that not much had changed but an emphatic 4-1 win in midweek will have got the confidence back and now they will look to take that momentum into this game with them.
Birmingham will begin this match unbeaten on home soil this term which will give them some further confidence. You could argue that they haven’t really played too much at home but every time they go away without losing there the confidence will grow. If there is room for improvement it might well come in front of goal. They only have 12 goals in 10 games and four of those came in midweek so it will be interesting to see what develops there.
West Bromwich Albion
West Bromwich Albion went into the season off the back of a really disappointing campaign last term. There is no way a squad with their talent should have been watching on as the play-offs were played out but that was the case. That might have added fuel to their fire for this term but they will know that it will be unacceptable for them to miss out on the top six once again. Therefore, it is to their credit that they have got themselves into the top six at the minute.
They will know that there are eight clubs within two points of them in the table though so you would have to think that were the Baggies to lose this match they would not end the weekend in the top six so this feels like a key game in their season regardless of the locality of the two sides. West Brom have only lost one of their last nine though so there is no doubt they are going in the right direction even if their better results tend to come at home.
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account and bet £10 to get up to £20 in free bets! Perfect offer for the Sky Bet Championship! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Team News
John Eustace seemed to suggest at the beginning of the week that he would have the same squad available for all of these games so it could be that we see an unchanged squad from the midweek win. That would mean Oliver Burke starts on the bench against his former club.
West Bromwich Albion will be without on loan Brighton winger Jeremy Sarmiento for up to a month with an injury he picked up last weekend. He joins Daryl Dike and Josh Maja away from the first-team picture. Grady Diangana could return.
Betting
I would imagine the majority of this match will be quite tight and keenly fought given the local rivalries which surround the game with these two the only west-midlands sides in the competition. Whenever we have a tight game on the horizon I look at two things. The first would be the intimidation factor and with all the changes and issues with St Andrews I don’t think it is the most intimidating ground doing the rounds in the Championship.
The other thing I look at is who has the more reliable goal options and I think that lies with West Bromwich Albion. An extra thing in this match given that it is the third time in six days that these two will have featured, is squad depth and right now that definitely sits on the side of West Brom. They can bring a fresh Jayson Molumby and Grady Diangana into the ranks and that could prove the difference. I do expect this to be tight and I certainly wouldn’t want the draw against me but I would side with the visitors if there is to be a winner.
Tips
Back West Bromwich Albion (0AH) to beat Birmingham City for a 3/10 stake at 1.90 with Bet365
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2023
