Bristol City and Birmingham City will square off at Ashton Gate on Saturday afternoon with just three points separating the clubs in the Championship standings.
Despite these two teams sitting in 17th and 20th position respectively, neither club are in any danger of relegation with 11 matches remaining.
Match preview
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While Bristol City have been the epitome of inconsistency this season, Nigel Pearson could at least hang onto the fact that his team were on a 14-match scoring streak in Championship fixtures ahead of the trip to Nottingham Forest.
However, a 2-0 reverse at the City Ground has put a different spin on things, the Robins having now lost four of their last six games in the second tier.
Remaining 17 points above the bottom three, Bristol City will not be relegated this season, but Pearson has plenty of work ahead of him if he is to convince the powers-that-be about his long-term credentials.
In the short term, Pearson needs to focus on collecting three points at the weekend having recently guided his team to 12 points from a possible 15 on familiar territory.
Andreas Weimann's streak of contributing a goal or assist when he completes the 90 minutes came to an end at seven matches last week.
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On the back of making some shrewd additions during the January transfer window, Birmingham City have benefitted from a new-signing bounce in recent weeks.
Nevertheless, despite a couple of eye-catching results, Blues have lost four of their last six matches, heaping the pressure on manager Lee Bowyer.
The 2-1 defeat at Reading may prove to be a turning point in the wrong direction, and Birmingham only remain in 20th position because of the struggles of the teams below them.
Blues have a set of more favourable fixtures ahead of them, but they make the trip to Ashton Gate having failed to record an away victory since the end of October, a period spanning 10 games.
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Team News
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Having made his comeback from injury last weekend, Matty James may be handed an opportunity in the Bristol City starting lineup.
Tomas Kalas has been passed fit despite sustaining a knock against Forest, while Rob Atkinson could be an option in defence after returning to training.
Bowyer has revealed that he hopes to have Birmingham defender Marc Roberts available again after injury.
With Maxime Colin carrying a thigh strain, he would act as a direct replacement in the centre of defence if passed fit.
Tahith Chong, Lyle Taylor and Scott Hogan may only be named on the substitutes' bench after varying injury issues.
Bristol City possible starting lineup:
Bentley; Dasilva, Kalas, Klose, Pring; Scott, James, Massengo; Weimann; Semenyo, Martin
Birmingham City possible starting lineup:
Etheridge; Graham, Roberts, Pedersen, Bela; Bacuna, Gardner, Woods, James; Jutkiewicz, Hernandez
We say: Bristol City 1-1 Birmingham City
Both managers will likely feel that they have the freedom to push for all three points in this match. However, another defeat could be damaging to their hopes of remaining in their respective positions, leading us to predict a low-scoring draw.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Bristol City win with a probability of 37.29%. A win for Birmingham City had a probability of 35.83% and a draw had a probability of 26.9%.
The most likely scoreline for a Bristol City win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.25%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.15%) and 2-0 (6.54%). The likeliest Birmingham City win was 0-1 (10.01%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.77%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with a 7.9% likelihood.
