Reading Travel To Out Of Form Birmingham

By Hob Nob Anyone?

Alongside all the news and rumours on transfer deadline day, the Royals travel to Birmingham City tonight in the Championship as they look to build on a run of two league wins over Fulham and Cardiff City. Those two wins allowed Jaap Stam and his team to put behind them in a blip in form that saw them temporarily drop from third place. The Royals now find themselves back in third and eight points clear of seventh place and, with 28 games of the season played, now have to be recognised as serious play-off contenders.

New signing winger Adrian Popa, who arrived this week from Steaua Bucharest, is unlikely to be able to play as he waits for his international clearance to be confirmed. With Tiago Ilori out injured, the Royals look set to bring in Reece Oxford on loan from West Ham United to fill the gap in the centre of defence. However Oxford will also have to wait before making his debut. Liam Moore will be playing in the centre of defence but Stam has limited other options. McShane is likely to feature despite injury and Tyler Blackett will replace Joey van den Berg who failed to complete the first half against Cardiff City on Saturday.

Birmingham City are down in 12th place and in terrible form, without a win in 9 games in all competitions. Their last seven league games have returned just three points as they slipped from in the hunt for a play-off spot to midtable. Birmingham manager Gianfranco Zola finds himself under pressure to conjure up a win from somewhere and would perhaps be wishing for an easier game this evening: "In Reading, we're playing a side that plays good football and will create problems for us. So, we will have to be stronger and compact while at the same time not just go forward. It will have to be a complete performance."

Recent Meetings With Birmingham City

DATE	COMPETITION	OPPOSITION	SCORE	REPORT
13 September 2016	Championship	Birmingham (HOME)	D: 0-0	Read report...
09 April 2016	Championship	Birmingham (HOME)	L: 0-2	Read report...
08 August 2015	Championship	Birmingham (Away)	L: 1-2	Read report...
22 April 2015	Championship	Birmingham (HOME)	L: 0-1	Read report...
13 December 2014	Championship	Birmingham (Away)	L: 1-6	Read report...
22 March 2014	Championship	Birmingham (Away)	W: 2-1	Read report...
28 September 2013	Championship	Birmingham (HOME)	W: 2-0	Read report...
28 April 2012	Championship	Birmingham (Away)	L: 0-2	Read report...
06 November 2011	Championship	Birmingham (HOME)	W: 1-0	Read report...
03 May 2009	Championship	Birmingham (HOME)	L: 1-2	Read report...
20 December 2008	Championship	Birmingham (Away)	W: 3-1	Read report...
22 March 2008	Premiership	Birmingham (HOME)	W: 2-1	Read report...
15 December 2007	Premiership	Birmingham (Away)	D: 1-1	Read report...
27 January 2007	FA Cup	Birmingham (Away)	W: 3-2	Read report...
07 February 2006	FA Cup	Birmingham (Away)	L: 1-2	Read report...
28 January 2006	FA Cup	Birmingham (HOME)	D: 1-1	Read report...

From the Discussion

SU Sutekh 30 Jan 2017 · 12:50pm

http://green4solutions.com/media/1113/Birmingham-City-FC-logo.png https://kit.genesissports.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1024px-Reading_FC.svg_-300x300.png Off to St Andrews then in an attempt to avoid the usual misery that tends to follow games with our midland friends. Even more so with Birmingham on a run of nine games without a win as we all know what tends to happen when playing sides with those sorts of records e.g. Villa no away wins for a year, Fulham one home win all season, Derby no league goals in god knows how long etc. This is the sort of demanding game we're going to have aplenty over the next few weeks. Something…
CO CountryRoyal 30 Jan 2017 · 4:39pm

1-0. 450 Away fans.
TM tidus_mi2 30 Jan 2017 · 8:04pm

Birmingham have been sliding down the league since sacking Rowett and Zola is still to record a win. So congrats on the 3 points tomorrow Brummies. Seriously though, we'll win 2-0.
RW royalp-we 30 Jan 2017 · 11:31pm

I can only see us keeping Jutkiewicz quiet if both McShane & Moore are fit. I also hope Jaap puts Evans in for Swift to firm up the middle a bit and give an outlet (I think we would miss Williams / Kelly's energy) 1-2
CO CountryRoyal 31 Jan 2017 · 12:21am

I can only see us keeping Jutkiewicz quiet if both McShane & Moore are fit. I also hope Jaap puts Evans in for Swift to firm up the middle a bit and give an outlet (I think we would miss Williams / Kelly's energy) 1-2 +1 Despite scoring the goal Swift hasn't been great of late. Keep on the bench and bring him on and let him prove something. Williams is Williams but Kelly is the only one currently undropable. Controls everything.
GE genome 31 Jan 2017 · 6:40pm

Al-Habsi, Gunter, Moore, Blackett, Obita, Evans, Williams, Swift, Kelly, Beerens, McCleary Popa on the bench.
SU Sutekh 31 Jan 2017 · 6:45pm

Al-Habsi, Gunter, Moore, Blackett, Obita, Evans, Williams, Swift, Kelly, Beerens, McCleary Popa on the bench. Ok, what injury has McShane got now, any clues anywhere? And I presume Yann is on the bench? Think we're going to struggle....
RG Royal Ginger 31 Jan 2017 · 6:47pm

Both Kermorgant and McShane were struggling at the end of the Cardiff game. Digging deep tonight. Obita and Blackett both supposedly carrying knocks too. Could potentially end up with Evans and Weiser at the back by the end of the night.

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