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Birmingham City is set to host Wigand Athletic at St Andrews, on Saturday afternoon.
On Alex McLeish’s watch, Birmingham has had successive good seasons. And barring an unexpected loss to West Broom, they have had a reasonable start to the current season under Roberto Di Mateo’s helm.
Both teams are coming off mid-week wins in the Carling Cup. Birmingham had a 3-1 shoreline in their favor against MK Dons, while Wigand prevailed 2-1 over Preston.
But the mid-week matches could leave both teams jaded with Birmingham getting an additional day of rest.
Birmingham should view their Carling Cup win as some consolation for the West Broom loss, and should have boosted their morale ahead of their home match against the Lattices.
Birmingham have had a 17-match unbeaten streak at St Andrews, including matches against the likes of Manchester united, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. They will be hoping to make it 18, on Saturday.
In their two home matches in the ongoing season, Birmingham came from behind to beat Blackburn, while Peep Reina between the sticks ensured that the Blues had to remain content with a draw in the game against Liverpool.
In their away loss to West Broom, Birmingham was actually 1-0 up, before conceding the three goals that led to the final 3-1 score. In another Premier League away game, Birmingham visited the Reebok Stadium, and took a 2-0 lead over Bolton before frittering away the advantage; that game needed in a draw.
Wigand’s premiership campaign has been relatively inconsistent. After losses in their first two games, Wigand steadied their ship with a 1-0 win against Tottenham followed by a 1-1 draw against Sunderland.
