Not many sides in the Premier League have little left to play for this season but Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham City are two of them and the pair meet at Ewood Park on Wednesday.
Blackburn’s battling 1-1 draw against Chelsea on Sunday dented Carlo Ancelotti’s title ambitions but it was another very decent home performance from Sam Allardyce’s men and I think they can secure top flight status with three more points in front of their own fans.
Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City are the only teams so far this season to leave Ewood Park with the maximum and it has certainly been Rovers’ home form that sees them currently 11 points clear of the relegation zone.
In fact, Allardyce will be eyeing a strong finish to the campaign in Blackburn’s attempt to overhaul Fulham and claim a top half finish and that would be some achievement.
No other side in the bottom 10 has a better defensive record on home soil than Wednesday’s hosts, Blackburn have conceded just 13 goals so far this term at Ewood Park, and they’ll fancy their chances against a Birmingham side that just might be looking forward to their summer holidays already.
Blues manager Alex McLeish cannot be praised enough for turning Birmingham into a force to be reckoned with this season and their form at St Andrews has been particularly strong.
However, eight away defeats already suggests Birmingham are there for the taking on the road and a 3-1 thumping at Sunderland last time out will offer their opponents plenty of encouragement.
The Blues consolation goal that day in a 3-1 defeat came from Cameron Jerome and he is just one of several Birmingham stars to have flourished under McLeish. Jerome has nine Premier League goals to his name so far, a decent return, but the visitor’s relatively small squad could well be feeling the strain of a long season and I’m happy to take the 2.05 on offer about a home win.
These sorts of fixtures can prove tricky from a punting point of view with little riding on the outcome but with Allardyce and McLeish in charge of the respective sides we should be in for a competitive night’s action and it could be relatively entertaining.
Blackburn performed with credit when beaten at Anfield and White Hart Lane in defeat but are much happier back in Lancashire and are tipped to land the spoils.
Bolton and Hull were both dispatched at Ewood Park with the minimum of fuss prior to those losses and a similar outcome would do nicely.
2pts Back Blackburn (vs. Birmingham) @ 2.05 (various)