Midlands Derby
Friday Night Football
Date: Friday 6th October, 8pm GMT
Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion face off on Friday evening with both clubs having the opportunity to strengthen their promotion bid.
Each of the West Midlands clubs have moved themselves into the top half of the Championship table in recent weeks, collecting 15 and 16 points from their 10 matches this far.
For Birmingham a five-game winless streak has undone their early results in the second tier during 2023-24.
Losing at Norwich City on Saturday represented a third defeat in four match, but Blues responded with an emphatic 4-1 triumph over Huddersfield Town on Tuesday night.
At a time when Birmingham have seen matters off the pitch resolved, West Brom find themselves at the opposite end of the spectrum, hoping that a new owner is found as soon as possible.
Nevertheless, despite the uncertainty, Carlos Corberan has steadied the ship and seen his team catapult themselves into promotion contention with a five-match unbeaten run.
Even though 7 places part them in the league, its only one point so a win for either team tomorrow is more significant then 10 games into the season suggests.
Our Picks:
Birmingham to Win @13/8
Over 2.5 goals @13/10
Both picks carry great value and can be doubled to make even more.
Although Birmingham have been far more inconsistent than West Brom of late, the manner of their victory on Tuesday even things up. With that in mind, were taking the home team in a close contest at St Andrews.
Team News:
Eustace acknowledged at the start of the week that he expects to be working with the same Birmingham squad for the Huddersfield and West Brom matches, his injured players on the sidelines until after the international break.
That could see the same starting lineup selected for this match, Eustace having the luxury of resting players during the final 15 minutes against the Terriers.
Using Siriki Dembele down the centre of the attack paid off and he can expect to retain his place, as can Juninho Bacuna who was preferred on the flank to Oliver Burke.
West Brom will be without Brighton & Hove Albion Jeremy Sarmiento for around a month with a muscle injury sustained at the weekend.
Changes are expected to be few and far between for this tie, Conor Townsend most likely to return to the team at left wing-back ahead of Matt Phillips.
Birmingham City predicted starting 11:
Ruddy; Drameh, Sanderson, Long, Longelo; Sunjic, Bielik; Miyoshi, Stansfield, Bacuna; Dembele
West Bromwich Albion predicted starting 11:
Palmer; Kipre, Bartley, Pieters; Furlong, Yokuslu, Mowatt, Phillips; Thomas-Asante, Swift; Wallace
Last time they met at St Andrews:
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