[themaclad]

FORM GUIDE

BRUM 3 PNE 5

LAST TIME OUT



The Blues payed in the cup against Forest Green won 2-1 but needed keeper Neil Ethridge to do this



In The Dressing Room

Manager Ryan Lowe is hoping there could be a few players returning from injury in Saturday's game.

Ben Whiteman, Ched Evans and Brad Potts will all play some part in training on Thursday, and their progress will be monitored ahead of the visit to Birmingham.

Sean Maguire is back in full training and should be available for selection, with Emil Riis and Lewis Leigh now the only two longer-term absentees.

A Look At Our Hosts

Birmingham City, sat 18th in the Championship, head into the weekend following four successive defeats in the league, however they did come out on top on Tuesday night in their FA Cup third round replay against Forest Green Rovers.

Head coach John Eustace – in his first season at St. Andrew’s – opted to make five changes for the 2-1 victory, but it was only after a switch to a back four in the second half that their success came.

He admitted after the match that he may look at that formation moving forward, having played a 3-5-2 for the majority of the Championship campaign so far.

Going Head To Head


Games played: 102
PNE wins: 40
Draws: 25
Birmingham City wins: 37
Last victory: Birmingham City 0-1 PNE, 20th January 2021

One To Watch

Birmingham City’s main source of goals this season has been forward Scott Hogan, who has netted nine in his 22 league matches.

The experienced Championship forward, who has 12 caps for Republic of Ireland, is on track to have his best campaign since 2016/17, when he scored 14 times in just 25 games for Brentford.

Hogan has recently been missing with a hamstring injury and Blues’ form dipped in his absence, but he made his return to action last weekend and will be hoping for a clear run now until the end of the season.

Match Officials

Rebecca Welch will make history this weekend, becoming the first female referee to take charge of a Championship fixture.

Welch, who was the main official for an EFL fixture for the first time in July 2021, boasts vast experience in the women’s game, having officiated at the Euros, in the Champions League and in World Cup qualifiers.

So far this season, Welch has refereed 11 matches, showing 32 yellow cards, and there has tended to be plenty of goals in those games too, with a combined total of 37 being scored.

https://www.bcfc.com/

https://wewilljourneyon.proboards.com/

MACS VIEWS

A week on from that shocker last Saturday, off to St Andrew's on that wonderful M6, what delays will we get this time, surely we cannot play as badly as we did last week, hopefully Lowe will get the formation right.
Been a few times to St Andrew's last seasons 0-0 was a shocker, we seem to have had a few of those since the Covid restart, occasionally have seen them win there.
Like us they are going through a tough time, off the pitch, appear to be rudderless and are struggling a bit on it, won't be easy never is there but we need 100% improvement on last weeks gash

[themaclad]

Birmingham City 1 Jutkeiwicz Preston North End 2 Ledson, Browne

Birmingham City line-up: Ruddy; Colin (Graham, 88), Sanderson, Long (Friend, 62), Trusty; Chong (Jutkiewicz, 62), Hannibal (Bacuna, 62), Bielik, Khadra; Deeney, Hogan. Subs not used: Etheridge, James, Chang.

PNE line-up: Woodman; Storey, Lindsay, Hughes; Browne, Ledson, McCann, Woodburn (Johnson, 88), Brady; Cannon (Parrott, 81), Delap (Evans, 69). Subs not used: Cornell, Fernández, Cunningham, Diaby.

Attendance: 16,608.

Referee: Rebecca Welch.

The roller coaster season watching the Whites continued yesterday with a decent in he end hard fought win over City, add into the mix a board protest in the second half(not us), a pitch invasion and a female referee making history by taking charge of her first Championship match, it was a bit of a fun afternoon.
The M6 was in friendly mood yesterday, no delays although went through some foggy areas, getting to St Andrew's wasas always slow going. Had the change to wander round the area, it's a bit run down in that part of town maybe it's time for a bit of help from local MP Tommy Shelby.
There is also a bit of work needed on the ground the home area lower seating still locked off for the second season running, on the pitch City are struggling as wel.

Home side started the better Khadra causing early problems, from a corner Woodman should have done better but by 15 minutes we are two up. First City defending like we did for most of last Saturday, failed to deal with a ball into the box, had many opportunities to clear it didn't and Ledson scored with a left foot effortb into an empty net.
Could have been two Delap beat a couple of players before his effort was deflected for a corner, not to worry though Browne headed home Brady's corner two up, another effort then took a wicked deflection Ruddy wrong footed went inches wide, if that had gone in would have been dreamland.

City battled back and had nmore of the ball although didn't do a lot with it, a couple of minor flashpoints which Ms Welch dealt with although Trusty dilocating his little finger did make her seem to turn white.

Half time arrived the home side booed off at half time, second half they were better, in truth we never really got to grip with them in the second half and they pinned us back,, three substitution after ten minuted of the second period helped them, they went more direct Jutliewicz proving a handful, the crowd were behind them for probably the first time in the game, then came the board protest, two lads decided to invade the ground a delay, however didn't stop their momentum, a ball into the back post big Luke nodded home, game on.

One effort sliced wide by Graham late on was their only effort. Delap and Cannon linked well and going back to a back three made us look far more secure and there was not a sign of that short goal kick nonsense and Ms Welch she did OK although some of the home side thought otherwise.

Next up Harry Kane

Birmingham City head coach John Eustace told BBC WM 95.6:

"The manner in which we conceded the goals was disappointing. It was too soft. It's something that we've been doing a lot of of late and we need to get back to basics.

"We've had four or five defeats in a row and I tried to freshen things up. I tried to play the players who were in a bit of form.

"The most important thing is that I need these fans to stay connected with the team. Whatever goes on off the field, I need them behind the boys at the moment. Yes, we need to perform better to do that but we showed in the first half of the season that we are together.

"Whatever's going on off the field, that's got nothing to do with myself or the players, we stick together. The fans were good and got us through the second half and we had a good few opportunities to equalise.

"Please stick with the team, the only way we'll get through this period is if we stick together."

Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"We had two lads up front who are runners and caused them havoc. They changed shape and went to a 4-4-2 which we were aware of because they did that at Forest Green and won.

"We went back to basics, defended and attacked well and we needed to score goals, which we did.

"They're well coached and going through a tough time at the moment. You can see that with the protests at the end.

"It's a tough division and a tough job but they've got some good players. We felt they were a wounded animal and they could have hurt us."


Edit

Having just seen the highlights Ledson's goal is a cracking effort and it was Woodburn with the deflected effort

[themaclad]