With confirmation of a return to the Championship imminent, runaway leaders Birmingham City will welcome out-of-form Barnsley to St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park for a League One contest on Saturday afternoon.
Blues displayed the steeliness of champions to win at Bristol Rovers on Tuesday night, whilst the Tykes endured a sobering clash with Exeter City at Oakwell.
Match preview
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Returning from the international break with back-to-back league successes over League Two-bound Shrewsbury Town and strugglers Bristol Rovers, Birmingham City have now recorded a staggering 37 wins in all competitions this season, matching the club’s best-ever campaign by that metric.
Such an eye-catching statistic suggests that Blues are blowing teams away on a weekly basis, however Tuesday night’s trip to the Memorial Stadium proved that assumption could not be further from the truth, as a late Jay Stansfield penalty was required to squeeze past Bristol Rovers.
Although 65-strike Birmingham are nowhere near reaching the 100-goal mark – a milestone that many Bluenoses were targeting at the beginning of the season – Chris Davies‘s men have found another route to third-tier dominance in 2024-25, with Saturday’s hosts conceding just 26 goals across 38 league contests.
Victory in the West Country earlier in the week – coupled with Wrexham and Wycombe Wanderers dropping points to Cambridge United and Shrewsbury respectively – means that Blues are now 11 points ahead of second place in the League One standings, with an immediate Championship return just around the corner.
Whilst the Birmingham juggernaut has shown signs of weakness on the road this campaign, Davies’s troops are an unstoppable force at their St Andrew’s base, with this weekend’s hosts winning 17 and drawing three of their 20 League One home matches.
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One of the pre-season favourites to fight for promotion in the third tier, Barnsley have seen the wheels fall off their Championship push, with Saturday’s visitors opting for a change in the managerial hotseat following a shocking 3-0 defeat at home to Blackpool on March 8.
Former Aston Villa midfielder Conor Hourihane has been placed in charge of the struggling Tykes as the club work tirelessly to find a permanent head coach, with the ex-Villan plotting his maiden success as a senior manager at the base of league-leading Birmingham this weekend.
The Irishman has commenced his temporary reign at Oakwell with a worrying four-game winless streak, sharing the spoils against Cambridge United and Wigan Athletic in between 2-1 defeats at the hands of Mansfield Town and Exeter most recently on the first day of April.
It appeared as if Barnsley were on course for a point at Oakwell on Tuesday night when Stephen Humphrys cancelled out Ryan Trevitt‘s opener for the Grecians, however the visitors enjoyed the last laugh as a Josh Magennis effort secured maximum points late in the Yorkshire day.
The Tykes will be looking to avoid a repeat of their most recent trip to the blue half of the Second City in January 2022, when goals either side of the half-time whistle from Onel Hernandez and Scott Hogan sealed a 2-1 victory for Lee Bowyer‘s Birmingham.
Team News
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Birmingham have suffered an injury blow over the past week, with Emil Hansson picking up a knock in training, meaning that the Swede could miss his side’s trip to Wembley for the EFL Trophy final on April 13.
In better news, utility player Taylor Gardner-Hickman is nearing a return from a spell on the sidelines, with the Englishman set to be back on the grass soon.
Krystian Bielik has missed recent matches due to a niggle, and it is expected that Christoph Klarer and Ben Davies will remain as the centre-back pairing for Saturday afternoon.
After an Oakwell defeat earlier in the week, interim boss Hourihane could make some alterations to his side, with Jonathan Bland and Kelechi Nwakali candidates to make way.
Coming on for the second half against Exeter, Luca Connell and Max Watters should be targeting starting spots in midfield and attack respectively.
Birmingham City possible starting lineup:
Allsop; Laird, Klarer, Davies, Cochrane; Iwata, Paik, Dowell, Stansfield, Anderson; May
Barnsley possible starting lineup:
Flavell; De Gevingey, Roberts, McCarthy; Connell, Russell, Nwakali, O’Keeffe; Jalo, Keillor-Dunn, Humphrys
We say: Birmingham City 2-0 Barnsley
Unbeaten across 20 League One home matches, Birmingham should be extremely confident of putting Barnsley to the sword at St Andrew’s this weekend.
The Tykes are in the midst of a six-game winless spell and do not have a permanent boss, making it even harder to envisage an away victory in the Second City.
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