Birmingham Preview

Terry's a poser!

In the two pre-season games we have scored five goals and conceded none. However, Birmingham will prove a tougher proposition than Stenhousemuir and St Mirren. This is the first game where we are not expected to win and it will be interesting to see how the players react. Will we relax and play (even) better, or will the temptation to take it easy be overwhelming? Some of our recent contests against English Premier sides have been instantly forgettable – Aston Villa and Middlesborough walking all over us are prime examples – but hopefully this match will be played competitively. Birmingham lost a bruising encounter 2-1 to Livingston on Monday night with both teams being reduced to ten men. I can hear Leitch gnashing his teeth already…

Birmingham have few players that fans north of the border will recognise, but they do have Olivier Tebily in their squad. The ex-Celtic haddy is always good for a howling mistake and hopefully he’ll reign in his ‘enthusiasm’ while tackling Faddy. Robbie Savage will no doubt liven things up in the midfield and ‘Well fans might remember Stan Lazaridis from when he played at Fir Park with West Ham. Birmingham are obviously a big club but they have been out of the top English league since the middle of the eighties. They’ll probably be fighting off relegation for most of the coming season and it will be interesting to see how some of our ‘stars’ do against a relatively poor English side.

Warm up at Love St

McFadden and Pearson have been linked with moves south in the past and a good performance against Birmingham may have the scouts scribbling in their notepads again. The two youngsters have both made impressive starts to pre-season but will they be able to turn it on against real defenders? (Well, not Greg Denham and Jimmy Sandison anyway).

David Partridge was the only one of our three new signings who played against St Mirren and the debut of Daniel Sengewal will be delayed because of injury. Khaled Kemas could make his first appearance though and the prospect of him and Faddy playing together is mouth-watering.

Birmingham have already lost one game in Scotland and they’ll want to avoid a winless tour. However, we are on a roll and should be hopeful of holding them to a 1-1 draw.