Match Preview: Birmingham v. West Brom

The boys travel to Birmingham for a lunchtime kickoff tomorrow.

Team News:

-Well, all seems to be fine on the injury front.  Always seems that somebody has to get injured before the day before any given match, and today is no different.  It appears Dozza is now a major doubt after picking up an ankle injury today.  Goes without saying how crushing of a loss this is for the squad.  In my humble opinion, he is our best player by a mile and losing him really hurts out chances.  Hope I’m wrong, but you can’t argue we are better off without him (just watch the West Ham games highlights, as painful as they are in the end).  In better news, it appears that Petey is now fully fit and should be in line to start.  He’s better than Fortune, so I hope he does.

-Not so much injury news but more thoughts on the squad.  Meite played well against Stoke, and since Birmingham will probably use Zigic in some way, I think he should be due for another start to combat that.  If he performs like last week, that’s a good thing.  As for the goalkeeping situation, Carson played last week as a counter to Stoke’s increased aerial threat, but Myhill is better, so I hope he comes back into the first team.  Thanks to his recent scoring streak (and his heightened ability to actually make the right runs-though Dozza missing out means they may not get noticed as much) I think, and pray, that Carlos starts and continues on his scoring streak.

-With all that being said, here is how I think we will line up:

Myhill

Reid-Olsson-Meite-Shorey

Brunty-Mulumbu-Scharner-Thomas

Vela-Odemwingie

Prediction:

-I think this is a pretty good time to take on Birmingham.  They just won the cup, and if they perform like most other teams then they will still be on a high (especially since it was their first in like 50 years) and prime for a loss.  Uncle Roy has gotten our defense into a better shape, and while it hasn’t been a joy to behold we did get a nice result against Stoke last week.  I think we continue our upward climb and beat them 1-0 in a scrappy encounter.  Goal by Petey, but the assist will come from my boy Carlos.

Category: Team News