Birmingham City welcome Huddersfield Town to St Andrew’s Stadium in an untelevised Friday Night Football clash.
Victory would see Birmingham City climb to the summit of the Championship until Saturday afternoon, whilst Huddersfield can go top with a win by virtue of three goals or more.
Team News
Birmingham City have no fresh injury concerns to report from last weekend’s goalless draw at Luton Town, although Krystian Bielik remains absent with a knee injury picked up during the summer.
Huddersfield will be without David Kasumu (pictured) after the midfielder suffered a hamstring injury in his debut during last weekend’s home loss to Burnley.
Matty Pearson remains ruled out with a serious foot injury suffered in pre-season, which will keep the defender out “for a significant period.”
Stat Attack
- Birmingham City have won just one of their last six league meetings against Huddersfield (W1, D3, L2).
- Huddersfield have won three of their last five visits to Birmingham City (W3, L2), keeping clean sheets during all three wins.
- Birmingham have kept just one clean sheet in their last eight meetings against Huddersfield in all competitions – drawing 0-0 at St Andrew’s in October 2021.
- Victory would see Birmingham City climb to the summit of the Championship for the first time since October 2008.
- Anything less than a win would see Huddersfield go their first two matches of a season without victory for the fifth consecutive season.
Prediction
Having endured an inconsistent campaign last season, Birmingham City should be happy with a clean sheet at Luton in game where neither team simply lacked the clinical edge, even though it meant the Brummies’ winless competitive run extended to seven matches.
Lee Bowyer’s task now surely has to be endure that his team take the positives and play even better in front of their home crowd, which could again be crucial like it was last season because their stronger home displays certainly helped them stay up.
Huddersfield meanwhile now need to shake off the cob webs after enduring a difficult opening weekend defeat at home to Burnley, where they were simply outplayed from start to finish especially in midfield and deliver a stronger performance here.
Do that then a first win of the season for the Terriers should be on the cards given their quality but this Birmingham team already look difficult to break down.
Prediction: Birmingham City 1-1 Huddersfield Town
Result: Birmingham City 2-1 Huddersfield Town