Huddersfield Town must defeat Birmingham City to maintain their hopes of avoiding relegation to League One.
Huddersfield Town Seek Relegation Safety Against Birmingham City
Match Preview: Birmingham City v Huddersfield Town
Neither side have tasted victory since the Championship‘s resumption two weeks ago.
The Terriers are on a worse run having lost both of their matches after the re-start; City, meanwhile, have a marginally better record having drawn both of their outings.
It does, however, mean a victory for both sides could be vital to their league standings.
Danny Cowley’s Huddersfield Town travel to St Andrew’s in the relegation zone, but a victory could see them climb as high as 19th.
Three points for Birmingham City could provide them with much-needed breathing space between them and the relegation spots.
Team News
Blues head coach Pep Clotet confirmed that Ivan Sunjic and Marc Roberts have recovered from injuries to feature.
The duo both missed the last two Championship fixtures with thigh injuries but are fit enough to feature tonight.
Nico Gordon picked up a knock against Hull City on Saturday and will be unavailable; Odin Bailey, Charlie Lakin and Josh Dacres-Cogley are all expected to be unavailable too.
Josh McEachran (ACL) remains the only long-term Blues absentee.
Jon Gorenc-Stankovic will remain available for Huddersfield Town after a move to Austrian side SK Sturm Graz was confirmed.
Town boss Danny Cowley is confident both Steve Mounie and Fraizer Campbell could feature at St Andrew’s.
Defender Tommy Elphick remains sidelined with a knee injury; Juninho Bacuna will serve the first of his three-match suspension following his red card against Nottingham Forest.
From the Bosses
After being held to a 3-3 draw in their last outing, Pep Clotet suggested the Blues could have taken all three points.
He said: “It was absolutely a game of two halves. I thought we started very slowly and we weren’t like ourselves in the first-half.
“We made mistakes and they were two goals in front of us and we were struggling tactically, and we made it very difficult for ourselves. But after half-time, I saw a huge determination in the squad, a huge belief in themselves and a huge clarification of what we needed to correct to try and cause Hull more problems.
“We knew that Hull, because of the situation they are in, that they would fight a lot to get a result here, so we knew it was going to be very difficult. But I think in the second half we saw the Birmingham that we all like.
“We made another mistake that led to the third goal, but otherwise I was watching a Birmingham team that could have taken the three points.”
Huddersfield boss Cowley has, meanwhile, called for “resilience and a robustness” against the Blues.
He said: “I think we’ve had two good days. It’s been a good opportunity for us to learn from the performance on Sunday, for us to re-group and now the boys are in good spirits going into what is a very important game tomorrow at Birmingham.
“I have trust in the players as both footballers and human beings. What we have to show is a resilience and a robustness.
“With the run of games, we have ahead of ourselves, we also have to stay laser-focused and concentrate what we can control.
“We have to put a real energy into our performance, and for us it’s about affecting what we can affect, and we’re determined to do that.”
Prediction
Huddersfield Town offered very little in their defeat to Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
The Terriers looked dangerous in the first half-hour but never looked strong or clinical enough to get anything from the tie.
Should they be able to show some of the defensive stubbornness performed against Forest in the early moments, they could starve Blues of any real chances and increase their own possibilities of taking some points
Birmingham City 1-1 Huddersfield Town
Main Photo
