|
Arthur Gnohere is available again and the easy thing to do would be to bring Arthur back in and move Bally back into midfield. Another option would be to play Graham Branch at left back and move Lee Briscoe into midfield.
Which one will he go for? After the Forest game Stan expressed some dissatisfaction with the pairing of Coxy and Arthur at the back and given that Bally was outstanding there on Saturday he could continue with the Ball and Cox pairing (no jokes here thankyou). Stan has also made comment about the stick that Branchy has been getting from the crowd and I wonder whether that is to clear a way for him to return. With those things in mind I think the Clarets will start the game with the same 4-5-1 formation that we employed in the last two games and will be:
Marlon Beresford, Dean West, Ian Cox, Kevin Ball, Graham Branch, Glen Little, Paul Weller, Lee Briscoe, Paul Cook, Alan Moore, Gareth Taylor. I expect the subs will then be Arthur Gnohere, Mark McGregor, Brad Maylett, Ian Moore and Robbie Blake.
For Birmingham there are a couple of doubts. Steve Vickers missed the game on Saturday with a knee injury although this is not serious and he could return tonight. They do though have Curtis Woodhouse available again after serving a three match suspension.
Geoff Horsfield missed Saturday's win against Watford suffering from flu and the first team coach Mark Bowen and striker Andy Johnson have now both gone down with it. Whether Horsfield or Johnson or both are available for tonight will be decided at the last minute.
We can though confirm that Steve Bruce is still manager of Birmingham City.
For more on Birmingham see our Match Preview