BIRMINGHAM CITY VS WATFORD FC ST ANDREWS KO 15:00 vs Its Birmingham vs Watford, The Blues vs The Hornets, Lee Clark vs Gianfranco Zola, 16 th vs 3 rd History Recent financial troubles have meant that Birmingham have had to sell their top talent Jack Butland. Watford fans know all about having to sell players to make ends meet. They have seemed to struggle this season so far, reaching their highest position of 11 th in week 6. Whereas the Hornets have been on a steady climb since back in week 6 and are looking to keep the play-off push going. Birmingham have got the better of Watford in 5 of the last 10 matches, with Watford winning 3 and the other two being drawn. Previous meeting Back in August, Almen Abdi and Matej Vydra were both on target in an impressive win which took the Hornets into 6th place and kept City in the relegation zone after 3 games. Last time out Birmingham come into this game on the back of a draw away at Charlton, thanks to Elliotâs 90 th minute equaliser. It would seem that Jack Butland, along with some poor finishing from Charlton, were the key to this game. Lee Clark on goalkeeper Jack Butland, who has returned on loan after signing for Stoke: Watford also drew their last match, at home to Crystal Palace. However, they did let a two goal lead slip in the second half. Gianfranco Zola
The latest from the Watford treatment room. http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/sport/10229968.Hoban_a_doubt_for_Birmingham_clash/
Nice one Dan 5*'s from me. Looking forward to this game - going with another 3 nil Watford away in...
great one Dan, thanks Going to be a great atmosphere, only 200/300 on the gate to sell, they should sell out...feel sorry for those making the trip, only to find there's no tickets..hope the club can do something about it! I'm sure we can win this one, so i'm going for a 3-1 ...bet you're shocked, right? Need Vydra to play...and to score! Would love to win my bet! lol
Cheers Dan, We'll lose this one and go on a bit of a dodgy run until I think Wolves. I hope I am wrong but I can't see it workiing out for the next few games, teams are wising up against us now. Come on Watford prove me wrong. Also, their spooner has been put in the cutlery drawer, http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21472201 .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21472201 Looks like this is a team low on morale and with King missing through injury and now Zigic dropped we have an even better chance of coming away with the 3 points. Hull beat us mainly because they are so solid under Bruce and we struggled against Palace because of their intensity and the threat of Zaha and the substitutes. I dont see any similar threat from Birmingham apart from perhaps their wingers Chris Burke and the lad, who was linked to us and seems a prospect, Nathan Redmond. Nevertheless I see this as a big opportunity to get things back on track and am going for a 3-1 win (sound familiar?)
As well as some team news from Brum, there are some totally factual comments about Watford in the second part of this article. http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/birmingham-city-v-watford-team-1320444?
Nice to read an article from an opposition paper that is balanced and not Hollowayising .. well done Brum!
can someone explain how this sentence makes sense?! "Watford named seven loan players in their squad for the Crystal Palace game last Friday night, a dozen of whom came from their sister club."
Under the current rules Birmingham are likely to field five times as many loanees as us. Bloody immoral that.
Off to work so have to catch up with all the scores later - hope we win later - but like I mentioned above I have a bad feeling about this one.
Hope you're wrong Mex, but I was thinking the same thing. If you drop a striker for not trying, then win or lose you look pretty stupid if his replacement doesn't put the mileage in. And in this division workhorses often get their reward.
Watford team to play Birmingham: Almunia; Cassetti, Doyley, Nosworthy; Anya, Abdi, Battocchio, Chalobah, Pudil; Deeney, Vydra.
Today's team Almunia; Cassetti, Nosworthy, Doyley; Anya, Abdi, Battocchio, Chalobah, Pudil; Deeney, Vydra subs: Bond (GK), Yeates, Hogg, Murray, Thompson, Geijo, Forestieri.
