Football – England – Championship
Saturday 13th September 2014 – Kickoff: 1215hrs
The Championship returns after the international break and my first pick features a bottom half clash between two sides who have tasted glory in previous years but who are both currently struggling at the wrong end of the division.
Let’s look at Birmingham City first, and as predicted, The Blues once again find themselves in the bottom quarter of the Championship under the strain of financial constraints which has resulted in manager Lee Clark having to delve and dig around the lower leagues to try and unearth a footballing gem – rather like a real-life version of the game ‘Football Manager’.
Anyhow, Clark’s rag-tag outfit have made reasonable start to the season on their home turf at St. Andrews, once a fortress under the likes of Steve Bruce and then Chris Hughton, with a win over Brighton 1-0 and a 2-2 draw with Ipswich Town. Their home form will be crucial to their chances of survival this term, and already we’ve seen Birmingham City crumble away from home with defeats at Middlesbrough 0-2 and at Wigan Athletic, losing 0-4.
It was interesting to see Clark line up with a 4-4-2 formation away at Wigan, and despite losing the match, I like the approach here and if the likes of forwards Clayton Donaldson, Lee Novak and Wes Thomas can start firing, then The Blues have a real chance of retaining their Championship status – and none more so than against today’s opponents.
Onto the visitors Leeds United then, and Italian owner Massimo Cellino seems intent on single-handedly destroying the famous West Yorkshire outfit. Former managers Brian McDermott and Dave Hockaday have already left during the italian’s reign – the latter lasted just six weeks, and new manager Neil Redfearn has taken over the revolving door, erm, hot-seat at Elland Road.
Redfearn has inherited a depleted squad in terms of quality as the likes of McCormack and Becchio have since departed. Former Leeds legend Johnny Giles joked that Cellino should pick the team himself, and with a raft of Italian imports being predictably drafted in, this certainly seems the case!
Similar to Birmingham though, Leeds’ chances of survival seem pinned on their performances at Elland Road and to be fair they’ve lost just once in their last four and have won two of their last three on home turf with wins over Middlesbrough and Bolton Wanderers, both by 1-0 margins.
Away from home is where the problems lie right now though, as Leeds have lost both of their opening away fixtures at Millwall 0-2 and Watford 1-4 taking an early poor away record of 0-0-2 1/6 into today’s clash.
To sum up, Birmingham seem the more settled of the two sides at the moment, and with home advantage, I’ll back the hosts not to lose this one taking the round ball here. It could end up a narrow 1-0 for Birmingham or even a draw.
Pick: Birmingham City AH0 @ 1.60 10bet
