Another top of the table clash

Birmingham were relegated at the end of last season after four years in the Premiership, and throughout that relegation battle the board of directors said they would stand by Bruce even if they went down. They did and they have continued to do, and since that defeat they have remained unbeaten in the league and are just two points behind the top two Cardiff and Preston.

They ended last season four points from safety to bring their time in the Premiership to an end and that meant a number of changes had to be made to the squad. A number of players left with Jermaine Pennant and Emile Heskey moving to Liverpool and Wigan respectively. Those two deals brought in over £12.5 million whilst they also parted company with the likes of Jamie Clapham, Mario Melchiot, Stan Lazaridis and Kenny Cunningham.

Bruce has made significant additions to his squad, including two forwards who cost no less than £7 million in transfer fees. Cameron Jerome (£3m) signed from Cardiff and Gary McSheffrey (£4m) from Coventry respectively and they also paid £500,000 for Colchester midfielder Neil Danns and £750,000 for defender Stephen Kelly from Spurs.

To add to that they brought in both Bruno N'Gotty and Radhi Jaidi on Bosmans from Bolton whilst also adding three Arsenal youngsters on loan. They are midfielders Fabrice Muamba and Sebastian Larsson and Danish forward Nicklas Bendtner.

The start to the season has now been forgotten. Five successive wins followed that defeat against Norwich before the winning run came to an end last week with a late Wolves equaliser.

Click HERE to see all Birmingham's results this season.

Burnley will be looking to get back to winning ways and also to record a first home win against Birmingham for some time. The last time we took maximum points from them at Turf Moor was over thirty years ago when a Ray Hankin goal gave is a 1-0 win in April 1976.

Manager Steve Bruce is full of confidence ahead of the game. “Burnley have had a great start to the season, but we are confident we can go and play against anybody in the division,” he said. “I sense a sign of resilience and determination but we will definitely be tested tomorrow at a cold, wet and stormy Burnley.”

Matt Upson is added to the squad but Bruce will still be without the injured ex-Blackburn duo David Dunn and Damian Johnson who was injured in an ugly incident with West Brom left back Paul Robinson. Johnson could still be a month away from playing again after suffering a fractured jaw. Striker Mikael Forssell is also ruled out.

That should mean that Bruce will name the same team that drew with Wolves with Upson added to the list available for the subs bench. The expected Birmingham team is: Maik Taylor, Stephen Kelly, Radhi Jaidi, Martin Taylor, Matthew Sadler, Sebastian Larsson, Fabrice Muamba, Stephen Clemence, Gary McSheffrey, Cameron Jerome, Nicklas Bendtner. Subs from: Colin Doyle, Matt Upson, DJ Campbell, Neil Danns, Mehdi Nafti, Neil Kilkenny.

Click HERE to see the full Birmingham squad.

It looked as though we were going to have to make changes in both full back positions with Frank Sinclair suspended and Jon Harley injured, but there was good news yesterday when it was revealed that Harley had not suffered a break and could be fit to play.

I expect him to be fit and to line up against Birmingham so that will mean just one enforced change with Sinclair ruled out following his two red cards last week. The choices are somewhat limited and both Wade Elliott and John Spicer have played there before.

The other option is to play Stephen Foster who came on at Crystal Palace and played the second half there, or we could even play him alongside Wayne Thomas in the centre with Michael Duff reverting to the full back position.

Steve Cotterill I would think would be loath to move Duff given his current form and I think Foster is probably the most likely option. Other than that it should be an unchanged team with Chris McCann expected to continue in midfield after being singled out by the manager last week.

If so we will line up: Brian Jensen, Stephen Foster, Wayne Thomas, Michael Duff, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O'Connor, Chris McCann, Steve Jones, Gifton Noel-Williams, Andy Gray. Subs from: Danny Coyne, Garreth O'Connor, John Spicer, Micah Hyde, Alan Mahon, Kyle Lafferty.

The last time Birmingham came to the Turf we were in fifth place, one place lower than we are now whilst they were seven points behind us in ninth place. We'd just twelve games left but we were in poor form and had picked up just two points from the previous four home games as we dropped from the top of the league.

“We are going nowhere if this form continues,” I wrote after Birmingham came and beat us 1-0 on a miserable, wet Turf Moor night when the game was in doubt until shortly before kick off as we had the usual pantomime with the covers.

The performance was a poor one, we hardly troubled a distinctly average Birmingham, and things seemed to go from bad to worse once Tommy Mooney gave Birmingham the lead with a goal that loan goalkeeper Marlon Beresford should have done better with.

Stan almost immediately replaced Paul Cook to change the formation, having opted to play with one striker and by half time he'd made a second substitution after Graham Branch had suffered something of a nightmare first half out of position at left back. That second change so the introduction of Steve Davis, his first game in months following injury, and he struggled to get into the game.

The only player to come out of the game with any credit was Kevin Ball who played at the back in the first half and in midfield following a half time shuffle involving any number of players. Overall it was as bad a performance we'd seen in a season and a half since promotion.

The teams were;

Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Dean West, Ian Cox, Kevin Ball, Graham Branch (Steve Davis 45), Glen Little, Paul Weller, Lee Briscoe, Paul Cook (Ian Moore 31), Alan Moore (Robbie Blake 69), Gareth Taylor. Subs not used: Mark McGregor, Brad Maylett.

Birmingham City: Ian Bennett, Jeff Kenna, Darren Purse, Michael Johnson, Martin Grainger, Paul Devlin (Nicky Eaden 78), Bryan Hughes, Darren Carter, Curtis Woodhouse (Stan Lazaridis 52), Stern John, Tommy Mooney. Subs not used: Nico Vaesen, Geoff Horsfield, Graham Hyde.

Previous 20 Seasons
Season	Div	Ven	Result	Att	Scorers
2000/01	1	a	2-3	19,641	Cox Weller
.	.	h	0-0	17,057	.
2001/02	1	a	3-2	18,426	Little(2) I Moore
.	.	h	0-1	13,504	.

Click HERE to see all our results against Birmingham, which starts with an FA Cup win in 1893 when they were called Small Heath.