1 Point Between Them: Birmingham Square Off Against Everton at Home
Birmingham meet Everton at home, in St. Andrew’s Stadium, this Saturday in a fixture that will see them battle to replace Everton at 8th place. With just 1 point between them this looks to be a fierce contest.
Their last 10 fixtures represent the nature of the game between these two teams with Everton dominating the score sheet, defeating the West Midlands side on a total of 4 separate occasions.
The last meeting however ended in McLeish’s side walking away with a 2-1 victory over the Everton squad.
Alex McLeish will not be sitting comfortably at this stage with a mixed performance from his side over recent fixtures. The side have only managed a total of 2 successes; Derby (2-1) and Wigan (1-0) and 3 defeats, at the hands of Fulham, West Ham and Portsmouth in their last 5 games.
Carsley, McFadden and Tainio will all miss the game due to injury but Alex McLeish’s attitude seems stern and unshaken as he comments, “What is there left to play for, the motivation, the target? You have still got to show the pride and the commitment”.
David Moyes will be attempting to fend off the Birmingham squad’s siege in an effort to prevent them replacing his squad’s 8th position in the tables.
However, the substantial Everton injury list could prove a problem with Senderos, Saha, Hibbert and Fellaini all missing the game due to injury. Cahill is still enduring an increasing amount of time off of the pitch and faces an uncertain status for the coming fixtures.
Moyes exerts a positive and ambitious attitude however as he shares his comments on the future of the Everton side, “We got to the final and we need to get to the final again, because that will give us a chance of winning it. You can only do that one step at a time. We've got past Carlisle and now we want to beat Birmingham."
Everton’s recent crushing of Hull City (5-1) will almost definitely give the squad much needed confidence for this Saturday’s game. The side’s recent performance has been satisfactory, achieving a total of 3 victories in the past 5 games, one of these successes including a 3-1 defeat of Man Utd.
The odds stand, in favour of Birmingham, at 15/8 with Bet365.
All odds correct at time of writing and are subject to change
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