Birmingham City 1 v Huddersfield Town 2

Date: Saturday 15th February 2014.

Venue: St Andrews.

Kick off: 3.00 pm.

Brief History.

City were formed in 1875 and have operated from their current ground since 1905. It is rumoured that Gypsies put a curse on the club when they were evicted from the original site, and when you study their lack of any meaningful honours since, it's hard not to believe this curse is not affecting them.

City are known as the "Blues" for obvious reasons, whilst their fans are called "Bluenoses" and I believe their only fan of any fame is the comedian Jasper Carrott. Ex players of any note are Bob Latchford, Emile Heskey and Trevor Francis, who became the first £1 million player when "Cloughie" snapped him up for Forest.

However, if any of you lot are old enough (Jacko???) no doubt you will also agree that their ex goalkeeper Gil Merrick, was probably the pick of the bunch. He made 485 appearances for the Blues between 1939 - 1960 and also represented England 23 times between 1951 - 1954, and was between the sticks when the rampaging Hungarians hammered us 6-3 at Wembley and 7-1 in the return fixture, in Hungary the following year.

Head to Head.

There's nothing much to choose between either team, when we look at the overall league results going back to 1910. In the 102 matches played, Town have fared marginally better, having won 38, drawn 28 and lost 36, whilst scoring 137 goals and conceding 128.

More recently, since the 1990 - 91 campaign, we have visited St Andrews on 10 occasions in league action and have only recorded a solitary 1-0 (thanks wethers) success, with 3 draws and 6 defeats, so we can't claim it's been an happy hunting ground, particularly when you consider that we have also only scored a total of 5 goals and have in fact failed to score in 6 of these encounters.

However, if we have one reason to be optimistic, then it's the Blues current very poor home form, which has seen them win only a couple of their 15 home games. The remainder includes 7 draws and 6 defeats, giving them a return of only 13 points from the 45 contested.

Blues Today.

The Blues are currently up for sale and looking for a suitable buyer to take the club forward. Under their current Hong Kong based owner, Carson Yeoung, they failed to submit any accounts during 2012, which resulted in the Football league imposing a transfer embargo. Yeoung is also currently under investigation on five counts of money laundering, although he claims this will not affect the running, or future of the club.

Players.

Although money is very tight, the above problems have not prevented them from using the loan market and they have signed around half a dozen promising youngsters, all from Premiership clubs.

Manager Lee Clark has also had to cut the wage bill, which has involved off-loading some of his most experienced and highest paid players, such as Darren Ambrose, Haydn Mullins and Wade Elliott, who are all currently out on loan. However, one or two have stayed put, such as their 6'-8" tall Serbian striker Nikola Zigic, who is reputedly on around thirty grand/week. So we will have to be very wary of the many high balls I'm sure Brum will launch into our penalty area, otherwise it could be good night Vienna to our chances.

Their only other players of any note are ex. Newcastle striker/winger , Dane Peter Loverkrands, the vastly experienced 35 year old club captain, Paul Robinson, plus recent loan signing from Man Utd, Federico Macheda, who has found the net three times in his last three games. As we are all aware, they also have ex Town work horse Lee Novak in their ranks and no doubt, he will also be busting a gut to prove Town were wrong to let him go.

Apart from the above players, the remainder are all loanees, plus relatively unknown youngsters, who are all prepared to work their socks off for the full ninety minutes, which has been proven many times this season, when you consider how many times they have scored goals late on, to either win games or salvage a point.

Predictions.

On Saturday there is everything to play for, because both teams could do with all three points to eliminate any relegation worries. We are also well aware that Manager Lee Clark will also be very keen to put one over us again, particularly after their earlier 3-1 success at the John Smith stadium.

However, Brum's poor home form should give that extra bit of incentive to get stuck in to them and lets face it, Wor Lee has had his bit of glory already, so I am tipping Town to shade it 2-1, providing we can keep Zigic and Macheda quiet.

Now it's over to you lot and don't be too hard on our ex gaffer and his trusted helpers Faz, Mac & Wat, because I reckon they are making a decent fist of it, considering the circumstances they are operating under.