Birmingham City are set to host Wigan Athletic at St Andrews, on Saturday afternoon.
On Alex McLeish's watch, Birmingham have had successive good seasons. And barring an unexpected loss to West Brom, they have had a reasonable start to the current season under Roberto Di Matteo's helm.
Both teams are coming off mid-week wins in the Carling Cup. Birmingham had a 3-1 scoreline in their favour against MK Dons, while Wigan prevailed 2-1 over Preston.
But the mid-week matches could leave both teams jaded with Birmingham getting an additional day of rest.
Birmingham should view their Carling Cup win as some consolation for the West Brom loss, and should have bossted their morale ahead of their home match against the Latics.
Birmingham have had a 17-match unbeaten streak at St Andrews, including matches against the likes of Manchester united, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. They will be hoping to make it 18, on Saturday.
In their two home matches in the ongoing season, Birmingham came from behind to beat Blackburn, while Pepe Reina between the sticks ensured that the Blues had to remain content with a draw in the game against Liverpool.
In their away loss to West Brom, Birmingham were actually 1-0 up, before conceding the three goals that led to the final 3-1 score. In another Premier League away game, Birmingham visited the Reebok Stadium, and took a 2-0 lead over Bolton before frittering away the advantage; that game eneded in a draw.
Wigan's premiership campaign has been relatvely inconsistent. After losses in their first two games, Wigan steadied their ship with a 1-0 win against Tottenham followed by a 1-1 draw aaisnt Sunderland.
Last week, they were back to losing, this time against Man City. Curiously, Wigan have done well in their away match at White Hart Lane, and that should put Birmingham on their guard.
However, last season's match at St Andrews went the Birmingham way with the hosts prevailing 1-0. In fact, Wigan's away record was bad, and the Tottenham match was preceded by a six away-match losing streak.
Wigan beat Bolton and Everton in back to back matches in the 2006-07 season, and they have never had back to back wins since. That is another stat that should cheer Birmingham up ahead of the Latics game.
Wigan's real weakness is in defence, and they have conceded goals owing to poor defending and marking rather than any credit accruing to rivals' attacking skills.
Given these facts, I am inclined to giving the edge in this match, however slight, to Birmingham.
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