Eng. Championship
2012-05-04 - Blackpool vs Birmingham City
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Championship Play Off First Leg
Friday 4 May 2012 - Kick Off 7:45pm
This game is live on TV
Blackpool
For a little while in the middle of the season, it looked like Blackpool were going to be the team that came up the rails and had a real say in the automatic promotion berths, but they were overtaken by Reading and eventually had to settle for a place in the Play Offs. Ian Holloway won't be too concerned though, as this was the method they used in 2010 to get through to the Premier League.
Blackpool finished 5th in the Championship table following a 2-2 draw with Millwall on the final day of the season that meant they had to host the first leg of this Play Off game with Birmingham City. They have a 13-7-3 record at Bloomfield Road this season, scoring 42 goals and conceding 21. Only Birmingham lost fewer home games, while only Southampton scored more home goals.
The team are unbeaten in their last 7 games coming into these crucial games with Birmingham and they did win 4 of those games. Blackpool are also unbeaten in their last 7 home games in the League, including winning 3 of their last 4 here.
Craig Cathcart is a major doubt having been diagnosed with a couple of issues with his heart.
Birmingham City
The Birmingham City players and management insist their main focus is still making sure the club gets back into the Premier League despite the fact that Chris Hughton is being heavily linked with the soon to be vacant job at West Brom. It has already been a long season for the team having competed in Europe as well as having a decent FA Cup run, but they need to keep it together for at least another 3 games if they are to achieve their goals.
The Blues finished 4th in the Championship table courtesy of a home win against Champions Reading on the final day of the season and that allowed them to avoid West Ham in this Semi Final stage as they wanted to. They have a 7-7-9 away record this season, scoring 41 goals but also conceding 37. Birmingham were actually the highest away scorers in the Championship this season.
Birmingham are unbeaten in their last 9 games, although the win against Reading stopped a run of 4 consecutive draws. The 2-0 over Reading was also the first clean sheet the side had kept in 10 League games. Birmingham are unbeaten in their last 5 away games, although they have drawn the last 3.
Colin Doyle will continue in goal now that Boaz Myhill has been ruled out for the rest of the season.
Head to Head
This will be the third time these teams have met this season and so far it is Birmingham City who have the edge.
Birmingham beat Blackpool 3-0 at home in December and have also earned a 2-2 draw at Bloomfield Road this season.
A late goal also allowed the Blues to beat Blackpool 1-2 here last season when both were Premier League sides.
Blackpool had won the 2 previous games they had hosted Birmingham before the last couple of games they have played here.
Prediction
This is a tough game to predict as both teams have been in decent nick of late and I have a feeling that neither manager will be too disappointed if they go in all square to the second leg at St Andrews next week.
Blackpool would like to gain an advantage considering Birmingham have lost just 1 home game all season, but they have full faith in their ability to score in any game and will be more concerned about going to the Midlands with a deficit to overturn.
Birmingham themselves have shown real character in their recent away games, earning draws at tough grounds like Brighton, West Ham and Ipswich.
Goals should be involved in this game considering their recent forms at home and away respectively, but I think we may see a stalemate in terms of results.
In saying that, rather than backing the draw at 3.40, I am going a step further and backing a 'score draw' at 7.50 being offered by Bet365.
The Pick :
Blackpool 1-1 Birmingham City
