Eng. Championship
2012-08-21 - Sheffield Wednesday vs Birmingham City
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Championship
Tuesday 21 August 2012 - Kick Off 7:45pm
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday were promoted from League One last season and have been considered the side most well-equipped with performing in the Championship this season. They are still unbeaten under the guidance of Dave Jones as they get ready for their first game at Hillsborough this season.
The side have shown tremendous heart in their first two games this season to keep their unbeaten run under Jones alive. First they recovered from 2-0 down at Oldham in the Capital One Cup to win 2-4 and at the weekend they performed something similar as they came back from 2-0 down at Derby County to earn a 2-2 draw.
Their entire promotion push last season was based on a tremendous record at Hillsborough where they were 17-4-2, scoring 48 goals and only conceding 19. No team won more home games, while only 1 team scored more goals and Sheffield Wednesday were also one of 3 teams that conceded less than 20 League goals at home.
Rodri has been signed from Barcelona B on loan for the season and he is in the squad for this game.
Birmingham City
Birmingham City just missed out on promotion last season as they fell at the Semi Final stage of the Play Offs and they have since lost Chris Hughton as manager and replaced him with Lee Clark. It may be tough for them to match the efforts of last season, especially with the competitiveness of this Division.
They were fortunate to pick up a point against Charlton Athletic at the weekend at St Andrews as they fell behind with just eight minutes left on the clock. However, Nikola Zigic popped up with the equaliser deep into injury time with what was the last kick of the game to at least send the fans home with some positives.
Last season the Blues finished with a 7-7-9 record away from home, scoring 41 goals and conceding 37. That actually made them the top away scorers in the League, but the defence was a let down which meant the record was worse than it should have been.
Zigic will hope to start after scoring the equaliser at the weekend, while Stephen Carr could be back in the squad.
Head to Head
These two sides last met in the FA Cup a couple of seasons ago as Birmingham City beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 at St Andrews, although that was when the home side were a Premier League team and there were 2 tiers between them.
Sheffield Wednesday have failed to win any of their last 3 home games against Birmingham, although the last of those was 4 seasons ago.
Prediction
Sheffield Wednesday have already been involved in two high scoring games, but the real key is the character they have shown as they have had to fight back from 2 goals down in both of those games and preserved their unbeaten run under Dave Jones.
These two sides could be fairly close to one another at the end of the season as Wednesday are expected to be the best of the newly promoted sides, while Birmingham may just fall a little short of getting back into the Play Offs.
For a while, I did consider picking the home side to win their first League game of the season, but Birmingham's away record from a season ago cannot be under-estimated especially with Sheffield Wednesday conceding 2 goals in both of their games this season and falling into a 2 goal deficit in both.
Both sides have shown a little vulnerability in defence in their opening games and so the Over 2.5 goals at odds against does appeal to me here and that is what I will be picking.
Lee Clark will want his side to push on and so we could get a fairly open game in this one and the evening kick off should mean it's a little more comfortable for the players to play in rather than the hot weather we saw over the weekend.
The Pick :
Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 Birmingham City
FIXED ODDS BETTING TIP :
I'll back Over 2.5 Goals @ 2.00
