Birmingham City v Newcastle United match preview

February 15th, 2011 | 18 Comments |

The Blues are only two points and four places behind us, with a match in hand, so a home win could see them jump above us in the table. It’s one of those games the pundits would probably call a ‘six pointer’ but I’m not a pundit so I won’t call it that.

On the injury list we still have Ameobi, Ben Arfa, Gosling, Ireland, S Taylor, Smith and R Taylor, although Dan Gosling and Stephen Ireland are reportedly nearing full fitness.

I’m guessing that Alan Pardew will stick with roughly the same team as he used on Saturday, although he may reassess our striking options with both Ranger and Kuqi as possible alternatives to Best and Lovenkrands in the starting line up.

Birmingham have Dann, McFadden and Valles out with injury but otherwise McLeish has a fully fit squad to choose from. One of Birmingham’s main threats is club joint top scorer Nikola Zogic about who McLeish recently said:

“Ziggy has become a fixture in the team as he’s become more aggressive. We know he’s capable of finishing. If we get that type of delivery to him in the box, there’s not a lot of defenders who can live with a guy that size.” (more…)