Sunday, 20 September 2015

Preview: Aston Villa v Birmingham City

by Dek Hogan 

Who are we playing?
Birmingham City on Tuesday 22nd September 2015.

Where are we playing?
Villa Park, you know where it is.

Can I go?
Not gonna sell out, partially due to strict restrictions on ticket sales, partially because many of us consider Blues an irrelevance these days.

Easy to get to?
Doddle. Assuming you are on the right shift... Fair chance that your pub of choice in the city centre may decide to shut its doors early, due to past incidents with this particular fixture.

Can I watch it on telly?
Live on Sky Sports, which should ensure that many of the city's drinking establishments are "lively".


Big game?
Huge.

Well, it is now, because pressure is mounting on Tim Sherwood after a shaky start to the season, compounded by losing to fierce local rivals West Bromwich Albion.

Gary Rowett is doing a surprisingly decent job in very difficult circumstances at St. Andrews and going into the cauldron of this cup tie, ot's the blue side of the second city that carries the momentum.

Villa are badly missing Gana at the moment and while Tim has pledged to play his strongest available side, it could be argued that he's not sure what that actually is as yet.

Certainly, the mumblings that have started over Sherwood's competence will grow far louder if he suffers the indignity of getting knocked out of a tournament by a team whose supporters hate our guts.

Do Birmingham City have any famous fans?
Well there's some of ELO, David "homeland" Harewood and Tom Ross off of BRMB.

We've got fiddle playing scruffbox Nigel Kennedy off of Radio 3.

So we win.

Who's playing for us?
Injuries will play a part and although Tim has stated that he won't rotate, the lacklustre performance against the Albion and summer signings pushing for starting places may well mean he rings the changes anyway.

We see no reason not to play Bunn in goal.

Who's playing for them?
Some Blues players. You're not really interested.

Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:
  • Blues have beaten us 38 times while we have 52 wins. There have been 21 draws.
Prediction
Going for an all action 4-1 Villa win.

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