BIRMINGHAM v BRISTOL C – Pick: 1 AH-1 – 14 April 2012

Blues to make sure at St Andrews

Birmingham
Birmingham © GEPA pictures

Championship

Saturday 14th April 2012 – Kickoff:  1500hrs

Birmingham City will be looking to take the maximum three points when they play host to struggling Bristol City at St Andrews on Saturday.

Birmingham will be wanting to put behind them their recent disappointing result at West Ham which ended in a 3-3 draw. I say disappointment, before the match most Bluenoses would have taken a point at Upton Park any day of the week, but when your side is 3-1 up you kind of expect that the three points will be yours.

Not so, and it’s sometimes a familiar story when you support Birmingham but they have a great chance today to close the gap on The Hammers when Bristol City come to the midlands. Birmingham have lost just once in their last seven matches which was an eyebrow-raising 1-4 defeat at Fratton Park against Portsmouth. Aside from that though, they’ve beaten Middlesbrough, Doncaster Rovers, Burnley and Crystal Palace along with draws against Cardiff City and West Ham.

It’s their home form that has taken Blues into their current play-off position of fourth with a record of  12-8-1  33/12, and undoubtedly their success has stemmed from a solid defence which has conceded the least number of goals at home in the Championship. Indeed, they’ve kept eleven clean sheets which doesn’t bode well for a Bristol City side who have struggled to find the net on their travels so far this season.

I’m happy to say that the problems of last season’s goalscoring seem to have disappeared for Birmingham as they have produced goals from almost every position; strikers Marlon King (15 goals, 9 assists) and Nikola Zigic (10 goals) have had solid seasons, along with creative midfielder Chris Burke (12 goals, 15 assists) who has enjoyed his rejuvenated role at Blues. Even the defenders have chipped in with David Murphy and Curtis Davies scoring valuable goals.

Bristol City make their way to the midlands on the back of two straight league wins over Nottingham Forest and Coventry City, but with the greatest respect, a trip to fourth placed Birmingham should pose some serious problems for The Robins.

Bristol have improved slightly during the last few weeks with just one loss in their last six which was a 0-2 loss at home to Watford, but their away performances have produced just one win in their last eight matches while they’ve failed to score in eleven league matches.

Their away record overall reads  5-5-11  15/33 and I know I’ve said it before, but they’re really missing their former striker Nicky Maynard who left for West Ham, and still remains their leading scorer with 8 goals. However, they have former Birmingham loan striker Chris Wood and Brett Pitman up front along with Jonathan Stead and these three are very capable of causing problems in the box.

Birmingham let a two goal lead slip at West Ham on Easter Monday and I’m sure they’ll be champing at the bit to put this right in front of a passionate home crowd; I’ll go for a 3-1 home win here with Birmingham preserving their lead this time!

Main Pick:  Birmingham City AH-1 @ 1.85 Pinnacle