Birmingham City V Blackburn Rovers Betting – Tuesday 15th December

Birmingham City V Blackburn Rovers

Tuesday 15^th December – 20:00 GMT

Birmingham City

League Position: 8th

Recent Form: DWWWW

Birmingham are riding on the crest of a form wave at present and boast the best form in the entire league, with Alex McLeish’s men unbeaten in their last seven games, a run that stretches back to the end of October. However, what’s more impressive, outstanding in fact, is that Birmingham have won their last four fixtures and haven’t dropped a single point since early November. Surely, with all this form and momentum behind them, Birmingham will only go from strength to strength starting with a home fixture with a poor travelling Blackburn Rovers.

Alex McLeish will be fully aware that the prospect of facing a homesick Blackburn side is a fantastic opportunity for his side to stretch their rich vein of form. In what will be a tough period for all teams, this really does look a glorious chance for Birmingham to carry on building up momentum, especially as they’ve face a trip to Goodison Park at the weekend. At St. Andrews this season, Birmingham have been decent but have shown signs of weakness and are far from unbeatable on home soil. Both Aston Villa (0-1) and even Bolton (1-2) have gotten the better of an inform Birmingham at home this season but that was before this impressive run of form. 

On Saturday, Birmingham were at their clinical best once again in what was a tightly contested fixture. West Ham did cause Birmingham a lot of problems at the back and the Hammers did have their fair share of chances but that Birmingham defence is so stubborn that it held firm throughout. However, it was a player you either love or hate in Lee Bowyer who scored City’s winner, his fifth goal of the season (Birmingham’s leading goalscorer), but it was the third time this season that Bowyer’s strike was the only goal of the game in a 1-0 victory. In this four match winning streak for the club, three of them have come by a 1-0 scoreline and Lee Bowyer scored the match winner in each.

It’s clear for all to see that the confidence within the Birmingham camp is at an all time high right now, but what brought about this rich vein of form was their hard fought draws with Liverpool (2-2) and Man City (0-0), two games not many would have thought Birmingham would have gotten anything from. They have since gone on two win every single fixture, four thus far, so it’s clear that the players are solely running on adrenaline at present and there’s no better source of energy than that.

They are unbeaten in four at home, although goals have been few and far between at St. Andrews this season. In eight home fixtures, just two have featured two goals or more. This is reflected in Birmingham poor home goal tally of 6-4, but when you’re winning 1-0, who cares, and it’s boosted by several clean sheets, five in eight at home this term, with Joe Hart boasting four of those and that will massively boost his England chances.

Blackburn Rovers

League Position: 12th

Recent Form: WLDDD

Blackburn, under the guidance of Sam Allardyce, could only manage a dull 0-0 draw at the weekend, what was their third draw in succession. However, although some clubs would see three draws on the spin as a negative, for a club like Blackburn who don’t have the most glamorous of squads, that’s a decent run as it does mean Rovers are unbeaten in three and, considering the euphoria currently surrounding Birmingham, a draw would actually be a fantastic result for Blackburn at St Andrews, but Blackburn have struggled on the road this season and they appear to have it all to do.

Blackburn Rovers are rapidly becoming the dullest side in the Premiership after only their third successive draw but also their third straight 0-0 draw, after playing out a boring 0-0 stalemate with Hull City, a team who are also famous for low key encounters. Nevertheless, like we said above, you can look at it as Rovers unbeaten in three games, which, when you take notice that two of those were against Stoke City and Liverpool, isn’t all that bad a run. Still, that win is starting to elude them and it’s now been four games without a win for ‘Big Sams’ side and could they be provide St. Andrews with a Scrooge of their own on Wednesday?

Well, if Blackburn’s away form this season is anything to go by then Birmingham should be home bankers, but as we found out at the weekend, there is no such thing as a banker in football. In eight away matches this season, Blackburn have fallen to defeat in six of them, with only Bolton (0-2) and Hull City (0-0) venues they got anything out of. This terrible away trend has come about through their weak forward line, one which has managed just five away goals all season, failing to score in five out of eight away outings. Also, when you consider that David Dunn, who is not only a midfielder but a player who spent most of last season on the injury table, just highlights how weak Blackburn are up top.

We feel a lot of things will need to go right for Blackburn were they to end Birmingham’s impressive run on Wednesday. Their defence would need to defend stoutly, which hasn’t been the case in most outings, while their attackers will need to pull their socks up and get stuck in a whole lot more, which has never happened this season. Jason Roberts, Santo and Diouf are massively under performing at the club and the threesome really do need to buck up their ideas before Sam eyes up a possible replacement in January.

Head-to-Head (Last 10):

Birmingham City W: 3 Blackburn Rovers W: 3 Draw: 2

It’s honours even in the h2h between the two but an interesting trend has been the amount of home wins for either side. In eight encounters between the two, the home team has prevailed on five occasions, with Birmingham claiming three of those. However, Blackburn are the only one of the two to record an away victory over the other but that was way back 2002 when they won 1-0 at St. Andrews. Blackburn have since lost three on the trot there.

Match Verdict: Birmingham City to WIN – 2.25 Expekt.com

Blackburn to did pull a rabbit out of the hat at the Reebok not so long ago in a game we thought they would struggle to get anything from, so perhaps Rovers are no forlorn hope. However, their form is terrible, especially on the road, whilst Birmingham are in scintillating form, both home and away, and are unbeaten at St. Andrews in five games. Birmingham have now won four on the spin and they have all the momentum heading into another very winnable fixture, one perhaps they are expected to win, which is unheard for Birmingham in the Premiership.

Match Odds:

Birmingham City – 2.25 Expekt.com

Draw – 3.50 SkyBet

Blackburn Rovers – 3.60 SkyBet

SoccerBetting Value Tip: Lee Bowyer FGS – 10/1 totesport