Birmingham City v Charlton AthleticWednesday 15 July | Kick-Off: 18.00pmPrevious Result: Charlton Athletic 0-1 Birmingham CityReferee: David Webb (Lancashire) - Previously officiated: Preston (H), West Brom in FA Cup (H)IntroductionThree defeats on the spin for us Addicks have started to cause nervous wrecks and squeaky bottoms as at the time of writing this, we sit one point and one place outside the relegation zone with only 3 games remaining. As Bowyer has quite rightly pointed out though, our fate remains in our hands. However, by the time kick-off arrives on Wednesday evening, a win is a must if we are to keep our fate in our own hands. A trip into the Midlands against a club who have had problems of their own is next, Birmingham City.
OppositionManager: Caretaker's Steve Spooner & Craig Gardner |
Stadium: St. Andrews
League Position: 18th |
Nickname(s): The Blues
Remaining Fixtures: Charlton (H), Preston (A), Derby (H)
Fun Facts:- By the order of the Peaky Blinders! Birmingham City was first formed in 1875 at a Holy Trinity Church, and was originally called Small Heath Alliance. The same location where the Peaky Blinders were situated. Birmingham City later changed their name and moved grounds to St. Andrews, still in Small Heath, and just around the corner from The Garrison Tavern, where the Peaky Blinders spent much of their time. It's no wonder Birmingham are frequently known as the Millwall of the Midlands...
- Birmingham City have only won two major trophies in their 145 year history. Football League Cup winners in 1963 and 2011. Lee Bowyer played the full 90 minutes in the 2011 final alongside current Birmingham midfielder and joint caretaker manager, Craig Gardner.
The Blues played Stoke City away last time out, losing 2-0, their line up was:
Camp
Roberts | Dean | Gordon
Colin | Bellingham | Sunjic | Gardner | Harding
Jutkiewicz | Hogan
Four defeats in a row have put Birmingham back in the mix of the relegation battle after probably thinking they were safe heading into the month of July. However, winless in 11 and conceding 3 goals in each of their last 5 home games says otherwise for a club who sacked the already confirmed to be departing manager, Pep Clotet, last week. A club with the worst home defence and the joint worst home record in the league, Birmingham can count themselves lucky not to be already right in the thick of the smelly brown stuff... Yet, they might be come the end of the season!
In terms of personnel, Birmingham have a few interesting players that we must take notice of if we want to remain relatively solid and come away with the all important 3 points. Teenage wonderkid, Jude Bellingham, has had a fantastic breakthrough season. The 17 year-old looks set to get a move to the Bundesliga with Borussia Dortmund the favourites for the youngsters signature. It was his goal back in September that separated the two sides, so we are going to have to be careful of him again. At the top end of the pitch, Jutkiewicz is a strong striker who has scored double figures in each of the last 2 seasons, whilst his strike partner, Hogan, has 7 goals since his January move from local rivals Aston Villa. Finally, in goal, Birmingham have an extremely experienced Championship goalkeeper. Lee Camp has played 532 out of his 541 league games in the Championship. I don't even think we could put out a starting 11 which has that many between them!
Birmingham usually play quite a direct style of football. They're not afraid to go long up to Jutkiewicz to hold and bring others into the game. They have that weapon to relieve pressure if needed. But it would be wrong to say that's all they do. Bellingham is a technical midfielder who can play out on the left wing if Birmingham play in a flat 4-4-2 formation. Cutting in onto his right foot creating the extra body in midfield allows them to get close to the front two and have players in the box when they get the ball out wide. Birmingham, though, look demotivated and appear to have a lack of interest; presenting all the signs of a team who think they're safe and are on the beach when they could suddenly get sucked into the relegation battle, and before they know it, they're in the bottom 3 with no more games to play. We must ensure this is a possibility come 8pm on Wednesday. A win for us takes us above them in the table.
Charlton Team NewsAfter being robbed by horrific officiating at the weekend against Reading, Bowyer must be scratching his head trying to work out how we have failed to pick up a single point in any of our last three fixtures. A wrongly disallowed goal and a stonewall penalty not given, along with some more finishing that lacked quality, we go into this midweek game knowing anything but a win could be extremely dangerous for us.
Sarr, Doughty, Field, Forster-Caskey, Williams, and Hemed all started on the bench on Saturday and will all be pushing hard for a start this time round. The disappearing act of Oztumer was put on hold as we saw the diminutive playmaker return to the squad. Could Birmingham away be the fixture we see the wizard of Oz start? An attacking starting line up is needed to show our intent early and put the pressure on a defence that, at home, are leakier than a sieve. Aneke played a full 90 minutes for the first time as a Charlton player, so with his record, it's very unlikely we are to see him start again on Wednesday meaning Bonne and Hemed are to be the front two. Williams played more minutes on Saturday than was planned as Morgan was withdrawn at half-time due to not following the run which lead to Reading's early penalty, but with an extra days rest, Williams could have enough in him to start on Wednesday. It will however, mean he won't start next weekend at home to Wigan.
Subs: Amos, Oshilaja, Purrington, Pratley, Forster-Caskey, Morgan, McGeady, Oztumer, Aneke
Prediction
Only a win really is likely to be good enough going forward. The positive thing is our players know the job that is asked of them, they're going to be up for it, and Birmingham have been in a rut for a while. I really feel Bowyer is going to have the players ready and fired up for this. It's going to be the first time since we beat Luton at home way back in February that we score more than one goal in a game. Let's have plenty of shots, get at them, play a blinder in Small Heath, and come away with the 3 points.
Birmingham City 0-2 Charlton Athletic
Bonne
Hemed
Comments
Can we for once not give a losing team its first win?
Only thing I hope is that Bowyer doesnt go for Forster-Caskey ahead of Williams in that Midfield, whilst I feel that Jake has done enough to earn a start, it doesnt need to be at the expense of the three forward players that you mention
Really does baffle me though how Birmingham find themselves in this situation. With Jutkiewicz and Hogan they have two players who really know where the back of the net is, the latter I wanted us to sign in January and think he'd have been an ideal option for us (for obvious reasons that was never going to happen) - Whilst I still dont feel that we're at the desperation stage I certainly think we could be back in trouble come kick-off due to nearly everyone playing the day before...
Based on how Birmingham played today I'd be confident of a win but there is always that nagging feeling that the right Birmingham will show up against an off day Charlton
Dont think that a defeat on Wednesday will define our season either, we'll just be putting unnecessary extreme pressure on ourselves ahead of the Wigan game
Cant remember who said it but I'd be happy with us scoring one goal in each of the next three games and keeping a clean sheet
As we saw Saturday, it is oh so imperative that we dont concede first
Am sure Lee or someone will be on here at some point
Completely agree. In a game like this we don’t need Cullen, Field, and Forster-Caskey. I’d actually like to see Forster-Caskey play instead of Field, but that won’t happen as we wouldn’t have both Field and Pratley on the bench.
Hogan is a good player, and the exact reason alongside Jutkiewicz as to why I think we will play a back 3.
Include it in your job application 😏
Totally agree with your team selection in an absolutely must win game.
It's not going to be pretty but we simply must grind out a win.
2.1 Charlton
Birmingham 2 Charlton 1
yeah but if we beat Wigan blah blah blah
I can't get past the feeling that 55 minutes into the Brentford game, up a goal to nil, taking off Williams and Field for Pratley and Lapslie will be the defining moment of our season. I don't think we have enough creative quality in midfield, not just in attack. And Bowyer currently isn't getting enough out of the creative players he has. Teaching Albie a lesson on Saturday doesn't really help us stay in the division.
I can't see a way we win this. Think 0-0 is the best we can hope for. And I think Wednesday will be the day we drop into the bottom three.
This team has plenty of spirit but sadly lacks Championship quality, especially up front so cannot see us staying up unfortunately.
So how can we win.
I'm quietly confident about this, as Birmingham have been terrible since the restart, and yesterday was surely the game where they'd turn it around, and they didn't. An extra day's rest for us when compared to them either, so no excuse for our players not having more energy than theirs, as they don't have a big squad to rotate players.
But we've got to be positive, we can't fill the side with grafters and defensive players as we need to create chances and score. Yes we don't have good finishers, but we need to create more chances and have more shots on goal. This is a must win game, 3 points on Wednesday and we can afford to be more cautious against Wigan
Birmingham's last 4 results are
0-3
0-1
1-3
0-2
Our last 4 results are
0-0
0-1
1-2
0-1
Two teams who struggle to score, but whereas we've let in 4 goals, they've let in 9