Birmingham City v WatfordVenue: St. Andrews: 4th November 2014: KO 19.45 GMT The Birmingham Mail has a clock running showing how long it has been since the Blues had their last home win on 16th August. The dismal form was why Lee Clark lost his job and has been replaced by Gary Rowett. Birmingham City goalkeeper Darren Randolph suffered the ignominy of conceding eight goals a week last Saturday in a horror show against Bournemouth, yet surprisingly less than a week later he was playing at Molineux in the first game of Rowatt’s reign and this time kept a clean sheet. Rowett set the Blues out in a 4-1-2-3 formation with the intention of denying space that Wolves could profit from. Will we see a similar pattern against the free-scoring Hornets? Saturday was a special day at Vicarage Road, topped off by a gritty 3-1 win against Millwall. Two of the goals came from midfield players, showing that they do not just rely on the Deeney Vydra partnership. This victory propelled the Hornets to the top of the Championship table, but no team that has occupied this position has been able to take a firm grip on it and make it their own. Will Watford be able to do what others have failed to do, or will they be suffocated by the Blues midfield and defence and lose the top spot? Team News: Sebastian Bassong’s fitness will be evaluated ahead of Tuesday’s game. He has picked up a calf injury and is receiving treatment from the club’s medical team. Ikechi Anya missed Saturday’s game with Millwall but is now available for selection. Almen Abdi (shoulder) will miss the next two matches but the Hornets’ medical staff are hopeful of him returning after the international break. Slavisa Jokanovic says that Tommie Hoban will start. He said: “I decided not to make too many changes the last time we played three games in a week. This time I will probably change a little bit." Birmingham pair Lee Novak and Demarai Gray face late fitness tests ahead of boss Gary Rowett's first home game. Winger Gray trained on Monday as he returns from an ankle knock, while forward Novak missed Saturday's draw at Wolves with a hamstring injury. Championship Top Six 1 Watford 15 13 29 2 Bournem'th 15 15 27 3 M'boro 15 10 27 4 Wolves 15 6 27 5 Derby 15 11 26 6 Norwich 15 11 26 Championship Bottom Six 19 Leeds 15 -6 16 20 Fulham 15 -6 15 21 Brighton 15 -4 13 22 Birming 15 -16 12 23 Bolton 15 -12 11 24 Blackpool 15 -16 6 Mark Heywood will take charge of Tuesday's Championship game between Blues and Watford The West Yorkshire based official has refereed 11 matches so far this season, during which he has produced 38 yellow cards and one red. Mr Heywood will be assisted by David Benton and Daniel Meeson.
Hope is for the orns to consolidate with a couple of wins before the break and then kick on through Christmas and New Year hopefully reaching their potential and benefiting from the strength in depth across the squad to deal with the heavy fixture list. Centre backs remain a concern as we seem to keep getting injured there. Fingers crossed for 5 zip
A strong performance and win will do before a very tough run of games. EDIT: Bassong must be out as SJ says Hoban will start.
Cheers OFH, nice thread! The games come think and fast, don't they! Another win on the title march please!
In years gone by Watford playing any team far below them would struggle, and I see this as a return to that. On paper the Hornets should win easily, but I think it will be a home win by one to nil.
great thread M Frenchie, thank you . This will be a tough one but i think they'll be on a high from their mental victory at the weekend and will struggle in the first half. They will probably pull their socks up in the second, but it'll be too late by then, we will have trounced them . i see a 1-3 coming up!
Win tonight and we are on course for promotion @ 2 points per game = 92 points. We seem to have a cunning plan that has confused most other sides, namely that we can put out teams that play effectively in quite different styles, and also, to an extent, adapt during the game. These qualities reduce other teams chances to prepare for us, and , as at middlesboro, allow us to change it when it's going wrong. When we changes at Riverside, Boro didn't have any idea - we could/should/would have won with a few more minutes. We seem to have more resilience this year, although we still have defensive lapses, just less of them. In this league it's always the case that all teams can conjure a good move leading to a goal at any time. Having said all that, I will be very surprised if Brum score tonight. Even if they do, we should be good enough for 2 or 3. It would be good to see Anya against Robinson again.
Nice thread Frenchie!! On paper we are expected to win this one, but I envisage a tougher game the table might suggest - however, the draw at Wolves on Saturday will have taken a lot out of them, whereas we rarely got out of 2nd gear against Millwall, so we will be fresher (and have more strength in depth to rotate). 1-2 to Watford.
Great thread Frenchie. Fed up this match wasn't played last week during half term when I would have gone with Mini Bloother. A win and we will all be thinking maybe, just maybe it's our season.
Birmingham pair Lee Novak and Demarai Gray face late fitness tests ahead of boss Gary Rowett's first home game. Winger Gray trained on Monday as he returns from an ankle knock, while forward Novak missed Saturday's draw at Wolves with a hamstring injury.
On paper we ought to win, but maybe we shouldn't forget the defensive confusion, close to panic at times, which was still in evidence on Saturday. I'm glad if Hoban plays...can't understand why Ekstrand has been picked ahead of him recently. We may have to go for 3-2 or 4-3...mind you, it's probably two years since I last forecast a Watford score correctly!
