Albion look for third successive win at St Andrew’s

Birmingham City v West Bromwich Albion; St Andrew’s, Friday 6th October 2023, 8pm

Albion head across the second city on Friday night looking for a third successive victory for the first time since they beat Bristol City, Preston North End and Reading just after Christmas last year. That was in the midst of a run of nine wins in ten Championship matches as Carlos Corberán turned the club’s on-field fortunes around and pushed them towards the top half of the table.

The win at Preston last weekend was also a dramatic turnaround in performance, albeit it was not maintained in the narrow win over Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday evening. What was retained, however, was the defensive stability that was the cornerstone of Corberán’s transformation in autumn last year, and with four clean sheets in the last five games, there are signs that it is returning.

The concession of poor goals had been a recurring theme in the early games of this campaign as the team struggled to get to grips with a new style of play. It now seems that a balance between playing out and a more direct approach is being employed and the defenders seem much more comfortable. The first of those four clean sheets at Bristol City was achieved with the regular back three of Pieters, Kipré and Ajayi, but Kyle Bartley has replaced the Nigerian for the last three games, initially because of injury, but the former Swansea man has played very well in those matches and his organisational skills and experience so seem to be having a positive impact.

The last three games have also seen Alex Mowatt playing an influential role in the middle of the park. Having not started a game for Albion under Corberan before the game with Millwall, Mowatt has impressed and was man-of-the-match for most at Preston, and probably ran John Swift a close second on Tuesday.

One positive side effect of Mowatt’s inclusion in the middle has been an improved performance from Yokuşlu who has shared the midfield with the former Barnsley man in the last two matches. Alongside the more functional Molumby, I feel that the Turk may feel more responsibility to be the one to move the ball through midfield and, perhaps, can be tempted to force it too frequently. With Mowatt in there, however, there is another man who can pick a pass meaning that Okay can take an easier option more often.

Further forward, the last two games would suggest that the strongest trio is Swift, Wallace and Diangana, assuming all three are fit to go again. None of the three has started all of the last three games – Wallace has played the whole of the last two while Swift played 90 minutes on Tuesday and 78 minutes at Preston. Diangana, on the other hand, started against Millwall and Preston, although played only 66 minutes in the latter, and got just four minutes against Wednesday on Tuesday. Corberán has been anxious to protect him as he comes back from injury, and will be even more desperate to keep him fit after the injury to Sarmiento. His call up by DR Congo will be another concern.

If it was me, I would start with those three on Friday. BTA has been a superb find and has already more than paid back his £300,000 transfer fee, but he is far from the finished article and he offers less than the other three available forwards at present. For me he is an instinctive player and the less time he has to think about something, the more successful he is. He has improved in his hold up play but I felt he struggled against the Owls’ big defenders on Tuesday. The unfortunate injury to Josh Maja means that he will continue to get lots of game time, but providing there are no alarm bells on Swift, Wallace or Grady, those three should start on Friday.

Friday’s opponents started the season superbly winning four games on the trot in all competitions after an opening day draw at Swansea and found themselves in third place with ten points from a possible twelve at the end of August. Defeat at home to Cardiff City in the Carabao Cup started something of a slump and they picked up just two points from the next five league games, a run that was only ended with Tuesday’s 4-1 thumping of Darren Moore’s Huddersfield Town.

The stand out player from that game was summer signing, Siriki Dembélé, who scored twice on his first start since mid-August. The Ivorian, who moved from Bournemouth in the summer having made his name at Peterborough United, had missed several weeks through injury. He was one of eight permanent summer signings for John Eustace’s team, with others including Japanese international, Koji Miyoshi, who joined from Royal Antwerp, Polish centre-back, Krystian Bielik, who made the move from Derby County, Keshi Anderson who moved on a free from Blackpool and former Baggies striker, Tyler Roberts, who moved from Leeds United.

Leeds’ full back Cody Drameh, who was linked with Albion in the summer, joined on loan as did another former Baggie, Oliver Burke, from Werder Bremen. Burke came on for Bremen in their 4-0 defeat to Bayern in August, and Tuesday’s game is the first win he has been involved with for any club this season, although he only came on for the last 14 minutes. He started each of Blues three league defeats this campaign.

Like Albion, City have a number of injury problems – Tyler Roberts hasn’t featured since limping off during the opening day draw with Swansea while George Hall, Keshi Anderson, Ethan Laird and Lee Buchanan are all likely to miss out.

Although they have had a poor run of results before Tuesday’s win, Blues fans will be optimistic for the future having secured new ownership over the summer, including NFL star Tom Brady. Baggies fans will hopefully find themselves in a similar situation very soon.

Like most Championship matches, this will be a hard-fought encounter and it could go either way. If Albion can keep up their defensive stability, there’s every chance they could go into the international break on the back of three successive wins.

History

After a nine-match unbeaten run against Birmingham City between March 2007 and October 2021, Albion have suffered in this fixture recently, losing the last three meetings. After losing what was one of the worst professional football matches I have had the misfortune of witnessing in April 2022 (1-0, Lyle Taylor penalty) in the post-Ismaël period when Steve Bruce was failing to spark a recovery, Blues then took the points at the Hawthorns last September as Bruce’s tenure was drawing to an inglorious end, before a dreadful error from David Button sparked a 2-0 defeat at St Andrew’s in February.

Over the years, however, the Baggies have held sway in this fixture registering 60 victories to Birmingham’s 38 in their 137 previous meetings. Albion have even have the edge on City’s own soil with 28 wins to 22 from 68 matches. The first five of those matches were against the then-named Small Heath at their Muntz Street ground, the first coming in the FA Cup first round in February 1889. Albion won that 3-2 and maintained a 100% record against their near-ish neighbours until Small Heath earned a 2-2 draw in a Division One fixture at Muntz Street in December 1895.

In 1905, Small Heath became Birmingham FC, the “City” not being added until 1943, and they moved to St Andrew’s a short time later. Albion’s first visit to their new stadium was in an FA Cup first round replay in January 1908. The Throstles were victorious once again with goals from Willie Jordan and Harry Wilcox securing a 2-1 result.

The Baggies, of course, recorded a record victory in their last away match at Deepdale, but they will have to go some way to match their best ever result at St Andrew’s. In September 1958, Vic Buckingham’s team battered Blues 6-0 with goals from Jimmy Campbell (2), David Burnside (2), Derek Kevan and Ronnie Allen, but that was bettered on their next visit. By April 1860, Buckingham had departed for Ajax and Gordon Clark was in charge at the Hawthorns. Johnny Gordon actually gave the hosts the lead in the fourth minute, but a double from Ronnie Allen and another from Alec Jackson gave Albion a 3-1 half time lead. After the break, Derek Kevan sprung to life and smashed in a hat trick before Allen completed his own with a late penalty to make the final score 7-1.

Albion also won 5-3 at St Andrew’s on Boxing Day 1957 making the aggregate score in those three successive visits 18-4! Derek Kevan scored six goals in those three games while Ronnie Allen bagged five.

City’s biggest win in this fixture is 4-0, a scoreline they have registered on three separate occasions, most recently in December 2004 just before Bryan Robson’s team embarked on their Great Escape.

Stat Attack

Current Form

All competitions; most recent game on the right

Last matches

Last meeting

10 Feb 2023 – League Championship
Birmingham City 2 (Hannibal, Bielik)
West Bromwich Albion 0

Last win

15 Oct 2021 – League Championship
West Bromwich Albion 1 (Grant)
Birmingham City 0

Last win at Birmingham City

14 Dec 2019 – League Championship
Birmingham City 2 (Jutkiewicz, Dean)
West Bromwich Albion 3 (Diangana, Austin (2))

Albion’s Record against Birmingham City