Looking to continue their canter towards the Championship, Birmingham City will welcome Rotherham United to St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park for a League One clash on Saturday afternoon.
Blues are back in the Second City following a pair of tricky away matches, whilst the Millers are on their travels after a much-needed success in Yorkshire last time out.
Match preview
© Imago
Since their most recent match at home - a 1-0 victory over Exeter City in front of a bumper crowd for third-tier standards - Birmingham have taken two major steps towards an immediate return to the Championship, earning four points across a pair of matches against promotion rivals Wrexham and Huddersfield Town.
Three of those all-important points arrived at the John Smith's Stadium on Tuesday night, when a game devoid of quality for the most part was decided by a moment of attacking magic in the second half, with winger Keshi Anderson netting an outrageous long-range volley past Jacob Chapman.
With promotion contenders Wrexham dropping points on the same night, Birmingham are now eight points clear of third place despite having played two games fewer, meaning that Chris Davies's side are in an extremely commanding position at the summit of the League One table.
Also owing to the Red Dragons' slip-up against Stevenage last time out, Blues are now the only side in the third tier who still possess an unbeaten record at home, with the Second City outfit winning nine and drawing three of their 12 league contests at St Andrew's so far.
Conceding just 18 goals across 26 League One battles, big-spending Birmingham are building their formidable title charge on a solid defensive base, with the likes of Ben Davies, captain Krystian Bielik and Christoph Klarer showcasing their ability to operate at higher levels of football.
![Rotherham United manager Steve Evans during the EFL Sky Bet League 1 match between Wycombe Wanderers and Rotherham United at Adams Park, High Wycombe, England, on 24 August 2024. [on August 25, 2024]](https://sm.imgix.net/24/34/steve-evans.jpg?w=640&h=480&auto=compress,format&fit=clip "Rotherham United manager Steve Evans during the EFL Sky Bet League 1 match between Wycombe Wanderers and Rotherham United at Adams Park, High Wycombe, England, on 24 August 2024. [on August 25, 2024]")
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Despite a helpless display in the 2023-24 Championship campaign, Rotherham United were expected by the vast majority of pundits to seriously contend for automatic promotion against Birmingham this term, but Saturday's visitors are way off the top-two pace after 27 matches.
The Millers are currently occupying a lowly 14th spot in the League One rankings, seven points behind Leyton Orient who are guarding entry to the playoffs, meaning that the Yorkshire-based club have plenty of work to do in order to reach the top six by the start of May.
That being said, Steve Evans's troops have improved over recent times since a disastrous opening to the season, with Rotherham losing just one of their last seven third-tier clashes, although that defeat arrived during their most recent away match at relegation candidates Burton Albion last Saturday.
Following a damning loss at the base of the Brewers, the Millers enjoyed some home comforts earlier this week to round off a productive January, with second-half strikes from leading goalscorer Mallik Wilks and centre-back Hakeem Odoffin completing a turnaround at the expense of Cambridge United.
Rotherham are winless across their last five trips to the blue half of the Second City, with their latest victory at St Andrew's coming all the way back in September 2015, when former Birmingham striker Matt Derbyshire found the net for the visitors during a 2-0 Championship success.
Team News
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Taking a nasty-looking stomp to the ankle on Tuesday night at Huddersfield, Birmingham's Tomoki Iwata is a doubt to feature this weekend in the Second City.
With Paik Seung-ho still on the sidelines, Taylor Gardner-Hickman would likely join Marc Leonard at the base of the Blues midfield in the eventuality that former Celtic star Iwata is unavailable.
The hosts remain without the services of Willum Willumsson, meaning that Rangers loanee Kieran Dowell could earn his full debut behind Jay Stansfield in attack.
Rotherham are supposedly set to wave goodbye to the talents of former Blues defender Cohen Bramall, who is linked with a switch to Championship side Portsmouth.
Replaced after just 39 minutes last time out, Alex MacDonald is unlikely to play a part this weekend, meaning that Liam Kelly could enter the midfield.
Birmingham City possible starting lineup:
Allsop; Laird, Klarer, Davies, Cochrane; Gardner-Hickman, Leonard; Wright, Dowell, Anderson; Stansfield
Rotherham United possible starting lineup:
Phillips; Rafferty, Odoffin, Jules, James; Kelly, Humphreys, Powell, Sibley; Wilks, Green
We say: Birmingham City 1-0 Rotherham United
Keeping a clean sheet in each of their last five home matches in League One, Birmingham should be supremely confident of repeating the trick against a Rotherham outfit who are poor travellers.
The Millers squeezed past the attentions of strugglers Cambridge earlier in the week, although we believe that they will have no such fortune against the title favourites.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Carter White
