Premiership: Bolton Wanderers v Birmingham City

Bolton will be looking to extend their superiority over the visitors Birmingham City at the Reebok Stadium in Sunday’s early afternoon fixture.

The Trotters did the double over Birmingham last season, winning both corresponding home & away fixtures 2-1 and they’ll be keen to press home advantage again here – indeed, they could go top depending on other results. But it’s interesting to note that their last 2-1 win over Birmingham back in May was when the Blues defensive partnership of Dann & Johnson was missing due to an injury to Scott Dann. Also, Ivan Klasnic scored that day and he may be missing this time around.

Bolton have started well in their two matches so far; they drew 0-0 with Mark Hughes’ Fulham on the opening day, then travelled to West Ham and got all three points with a 3-1 win over The Hammers.

As mentioned, striker Ivan Klasnic will face a late fitness test after being substituted at Southampton midweek with a thigh injury. Sean Davis will be missing due to a knee injury. The dangermen for Bolton in my opinion are midfielder Martin Petrov who will be the creative source behind most of their attacks, and striker Johan Elmander who has scored 2 goals so far.

Birmingham City travel to The Reebok on the back of a great result over Blackburn Rovers last weekend,  winning 2-1.

I didn’t get to see the match so I can’t really make informed comments about individual performances, but Craig Gardner’s brace earned them all three points and he’ll more than likely start in Sunday’s line-up.

Blues have made a decent start to this season’s premiership campaign and seem to have the confidence and belief which was evident in last season’s record 9^th place finish. A hard-fought 2-2 draw with Sunderland on the opening day (the actual performance was dreadful, but the fighting spirit got the point),was followed up with a 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers, with Rovers boss Sam Allardyce bemoaning the need for a striker – luckily, Benjani signed for them after they played us!

Manager McLeish has bought in giant striker Nikola Zigic and forward Matt Derbyshire (who scored in their midweek League cup victory over Rochdale), and both will be pressing for starts against Bolton.

With regards to team news, there are concerns over James McFadden, while striker Kevin Phillips and right-back Stuart Parnaby are both out through injury. The first team regulars will be drafted back in after the league cup win, but will be interesting if Derbyshire will get the nod.

The verdict: Birmingham have shown in both matches so far that they have tremendous fighting spirit and teamwork, especially when they go a goal down, and this bodes well in this fixture I feel. Bolton will miss Klasnic if he’s not fit, while Birmingham possess one of the best central defensive partnerships in the Premiership – I just hope we don’t miss little Kevin Phillips scoring a late winner/equaliser off the bench too much this season. I think Blues are good for a point at The Reebok.

Pick: Birmingham City +0.5 @ 1.75 with bet365 (Additional Asian handicap), or if you want a bit more value, I’d go for a Draw @ 3.41 with Pinnacle Sports