Hull City V Birmingham City – Saturday 19th September

Hull City V Birmingham City

Kick-Off: Saturday 19^th September – 15:00 GMT

Venue: The KC Stadium

Hull City

League Position: 17th

Recent Form: LLWDL

Hull were attracting a lot of market support at the start of the season but for all the wrong reasons. After ending the latter part of last season in dreadful form, many had Hull City down as relegation bankers and their early displays won’t have deterred any of their loyal relegation backers. After losing at the weekend to Sunderland, in a resounding manner, Hull have now lost three of their opening five fixtures, adding just four points to their relegation cause.

Phil Brown watched on the sidelines as his Hull side were on the wrong end of a 4-1 mauling at Sunderland, a result which now leaves Hull flirting with the relegation. The Tigers are currently one point above the red and a defeat at home to Birmingham, a team on the same amount of points as them, would almost certainly see them fall into the bottom three. However, they do have a very winnable fixture in the form of a home game with Birmingham City, another side who are expected to be thereabouts come the very end of the season, so you could say this is a potential six pointer between two sides desperate to get their hands on any points that may come their way.

Hull City’s one and only league victory did come at this very same venue, the KC stadium, the home of Hull. They did just enough to grind out a narrow 1-0 victory against Bolton, however, they were smashed off the park by Tottenham Hotspur in their only other game at home, losing 5-1.

On their day, Hull can be a very good side although they do have occasions, more often than not, when the players simply fail to show up. If you do have any intentions of backing Hull in this game then you’re basically dicing with death in terms of predicting whether Hull actually want to win this game.

Birmingham City

League Position: 15th

Recent Form: LWDLL

Birmingham City may have just four points to their name after five games but we haven’t lost faith in their bid to avoid the drop this season. We’ve seen more than enough to assure us that Birmingham will put up a real fight for their Premiership status and, although they did eventually go down at home to Villa at the weekend, their performance against Aston Villa, mainly in defence, should give manager Alex McLeish a lot of positive thoughts to ponder.

Right, now down to the negatives… scoring goals. Birmingham have found the opposing net just twice in five outings. A terrible statistic which can only get better, you would hope. The biggest concern is that their fixtures haven’t been all that hard in terms of games they could of found the goal in. They were never fancied to put up much resistance away at Man Utd & Tottenham, losing 1-0 and 2-1 respectively, but their games with Portsmouth, Stoke City & Aston Villa were all matches were Birmingham should have asserted themselves a whole lot more in the final third, scoring just once in those three encounters.

Birmingham’s pathetic goal tally does have everyone at the club a tad concerned but their defence has made up for their goalscoring woes. In their five league outings so far Birmingham have conceded just four goals, also managing to keep two clean sheets against Portsmouth and Stoke City, both at home though.

Birmingham won’t get many easier opportunities to brace the opponents net then a game with Hull City, a team which conceded four last weekend. Christian Benitez looks a big talent but he’s yet to settle in at the forefront of Birmingham’s attack while James McFadden & Gary O’Connor have been well below par. McFadden should come good for Alex McLeish soon enough but we, amongst many Brummie fans, are holding out high hopes of Benitez coming into his own before long and regaining his goalscoring touch.

Head-to-Head:

These two sides have never met in a competitive affair since the Premiership was formed. Both will be eager to get the head-to-head record ball rolling and secure a vital victory over one another.

Match Verdict: Draw – 12/5 totesport

This fixture does represent a glorious opportunity for both sides to register some vital points and bolster their mediocre point tallies. However, neither have been in glistening form of late and this could be a massive disappointment. Both have been struggling to find the opposing the net and although both sets of players will be doing their utmost to win the game, the draw looks the most logical outcome as a point wouldn’t be a too bad result for either side.

Match Odds:

Hull City – 7/5 Bet365

Birmingham City – 12/5 SkyBet

Draw – 12/5 totesport

SoccerBetting Tip: 1-1 Correct Score – 11/2 Skybet