Burton Albion v Birmingham City Betting Tips

This weekend’s Friday night Championship fixture is a bit of a Midlands derby as newly-promoted Burton Albion take on Birmingham City. This will be the first time that former Burton Albion manager Gary Rowett faces his former team.

Burton have had a stunning rise through the divisions in the last few years and now find themselves in the second tier of English football (a club record) after successive promotions.

Despite having one of the lowest budgets in the league, Nigel Clough’s team have so far made a fairly decent start and currently sit 19th – two points clear of the drop zone with just a -2 goal difference. Whilst many clubs in the division would be worried if they were in this position, we must put it into the context of Burton Albion for whom survival would be their best ever league finish.

Consistency is required if a team is to do well in the Championship but unfortunately the Brewers cannot seem to put a run of wins together. Whilst they may be scalping a few creditable draws, the failure to turn those into wins could cost them dear come the end of the season.

Teams who have stayed up in any division usually have a decent home record and luckily for Burton, they seem to do well at the Pirelli Stadium – a ground that has a capacity of just 6,000. They have only lost at home once all season and even that was against likely promotion contenders Brighton and Hove Albion. In fact, they achieved probably their most important result of the season so far at the Pirelli when they won against relegation-threatened Cardiff City just before the international break.

Furthermore, the last time the Brewers played at home on a Friday, they won against fellow Midlanders and usually promotion hopefuls Derby County.

Birmingham City play on a Friday for the second sucessive week which can either be a help or hindarance. Before last Friday’s match against Nottingham Forest, Blues manager Gary Rowett said he enjoyed playing before the weekend as it allows you to put pressure on the other teams.

After losing 3-1 at the City Ground, Rowett may have changed his views on that.

The Blues won against bottom of the table Rotherham United at home on Tuesday night (leading to the sacking of Millers’ manager Alan Stubbs) by a 4-2 scoreline. This was not the kind of result you associate with Birmingham as their matches usually involve very few goals due to their excellent defence and counter-attacking style.

However, manager Gary Rowett opted to go with an open-looking 4-4-2 formation against Rotherham and they certainly looked good going forward. On the other hand, they looked incredibly open defensively and looked very nervous when Rotherham came within just one goal of taking a point back to the North. A David Cotterill penalty put the final nail in Alan Stubbs’ coffin but Rowett was still unhappy with his side’s performance.

Despite being fifth in the table, Birmingham are still usually considered the underdogs for most games – a tag which suits their style of play. However, although the bookies give the same odds on both a Burton and Birmingham win (generally around the 7/4 mark), I think Birmingham are still considered the favourites here.

This will undoubtedly be a special occassion for Gary Rowett and some would say he may struggle with the emotion. I actually think the opposite. Despite it still being early days in his managerial career, Rowett oozes calmness and professionalism and he will certainly not let the occassion get to him.

Birmingham’s players seem to really enjoy playing for their manager and will be determined to help him get one over his former club.

I expect Rowett to revert back to his more conservative formation which has done him wonders in the past and also think his side will come out on top. The Blues have really good strength in depth for the first time in about five years and this stronger squad should be able to see off the challenge of Nigel Clough’s Brewers.

Furthermore, with the Pirelli having such a low capacity and the away support end sold out for Friday’s fixture, expect the Blues’ fans to have a big influence and cheer their team along to three points.

The odds 19/10 on a Birmingham win are hard to resist here and I would certainly look at backing the visitors to walk away with the spoils.

See more tips here.