Sports Blog 12/10/2017: Championship Preview – Birmingham vs Cardiff, Friday 13th October 2017

Can Steve Cotterill lead Birmingham out of the relegation zone, however briefly, with a win over Cardiff at 7.45pm on Friday night?

It’s safe to say the Blues have not had a good start to the season. In 11 Championship games they’ve picked up 2 wins, 2 draws and 7 losses, the most recent defeat being an utterly humiliating 6-1 hammering in Hull. That game, and the 2 before it, saw Lee Carsley in charge as caretaker manager after Harry Redknapp – who had presided over just 13 games across 2 seasons – was given the boot following a 3-1 home defeat to Preston.



Now it’s Steve Cotterill’s turn to take over at St Andrew’s, his appointment marking Birmingham’s 4th full-time manager in 10 months. The one-time Bournemouth forward joined the Blues for the final 3 games of last season as a first-team coach under Redknapp, only to leave over the summer. Now he’s back, with the club hoping for the man who led Bristol City from League One to the Championship, not the manager who floundered when they got there.

Cardiff, meanwhile, are gunning for a return to the Premier League, with the Welsh club sitting in 1st place in the Championship, one point above Wolves. The team have gradually improved under Neil Warnock’s watch. The mouthy manager took over this time last year, when Cardiff were in 23rd place with just 2 wins in their first 11 games, eventually leading them to 12th (admittedly closer in points to relegation than the play-offs).

They’ve really built on that momentum this season, winning their first 5 openings games in a row. Their form cooled slightly in September, with 2 wins, 3 draws and an away loss to Preston, but they still managed to climb back to the top of the table by the end of the month.

With 5 goals in all competitions Nathaniel Mendez-Laing has been the Bluebirds’ most consistent presence going forwards, and sits at a Super Mega PGM of 16-20. Last season’s top scorer Kenneth Zohore trumps that with a 19-23 spread, despite only scoring 3 times so far this season. As for Birmingham, their best bet is Lukas Jutikiewicz, who has a Super Mega PGM of 19-23.

Despite being under new management, it might be too soon for the Blues to have turned things around, with Spreadex offering a Cardiff/Birmingham (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 0.1-0.3 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.4-2.6.