Birmingham City v Crystal Palace - Match Preview

Steve Bruce will also want to see his Birmingham side put one over the club he left almost three years ago. Bruce was put on 'gardening-leave' by Palace chairman Simon Jordan after offering his resignation so he could move to St Andrews. Luckily for blues the issue was quickly amended and Bruce steered the blues back into the big time within six months of leaving Selhurst Park.

This will surely motivate the Crystal Palace players none more so than a certain Andy Johnson. Johnson was a fresh faced teenager when he arrived on the scene at St Andrews. A talented youngster with bags of pace, enthusiasm and potential, Johnson was regarded as the best young talent to emerge through the blues academy set-up. But when Bruce arrived AJ was shown the door.

The youngster went to Crystal Palace in a swap deal which saw Clinton Morrison arrive in the Midlands. But while Morrison has never lived up to the £4.25m price tag and has managed just a handful of goals in his blues career, Johnson has gone from strength to strength. He was top scorer in the first division last season scoring over 30 goals for the eagles.

This season alone he has scored seven premiership goals. The same number as the entire blues squad. The return of AJ to St Andrews on Saturday morning gives the ex-bluenose the chance to stick two fingers up at Bruce.

``I hope Steve Bruce is surprised by what I'm doing now. When he swapped me for Clinton it was my aim to prove him wrong. That sort of thing sits in the back of your mind for years."

``I think he made a mistake getting rid of me but it spurred me on."

``Scoring at Birmingham would be sweeter than my goal at Aston Villa last month."

Another player with a point to prove is ex-blues loanee Michael Hughes. Hughes arrived at Blues towards the end of the promotion winning season of 2002 with the promise that if Blues went up, Bruce would sign him from Wimbledon. But the Northern Ireland midfielder picked up an injury and returned to London prematurely.

But when Blues were promoted on that famous day in Cardiff, Wimbledon said that blues had a legally binding contract to buy Hughes. Cue a complicated 12 month legal battle during which Hughes could not play any first team football. Eventually Hughes signed for Palace in 2003 after a lengthy lay off from football. So he will be another player looking at gaining some revenge on the club that left him in the footballing wilderness.

Hughes also comes face to face with Wales midfielder Robbie Savage for the first time since the infamous double red card incident at the Millenium Stadium a few months back. Hughes made a very late tackle on Savage who pulled the Northern Ireland mans shirt as he got up. Hughes threw a punch at Savage who received his marching orders from the referee resulting in Savage missing the England vs Wales game at Old Trafford.

Finally Julian Gray will play against his former club for the first time since leaving them in the Summer for St Andrews. Gray was a favourite amongst the Selhurst Park fans but destroyed his reputation when he moved to play under ex-manager Steve Bruce at Birmingham. Matthew Upson also spent a month on loan at Crystal Palace during his Arsenal days.

Blues will be looking to score there first goal in three games after a disappointing 0-1 loss against Fulham on Wednesday. Bruce will want more of the same attacking football tomorrow but will be hoping his strikers can put away a couple of chances.

Stephen Clemence, David Dunn, Stan Lazaridis, Muzzy Izzet, Robbie Savage and Stan Lazaridis are all expected to be fit with only Izzet maybe requiring another weeks training. So apart from Morrison and Forssell, blues have a full strength squad to pick from.

Neil Shipperley, Nicola Ventola, and Sandor Torghelle all miss out for Palace through injury and suspension but Darren Powell is expected to return to the squad after injury.

Blues should line up with an attacking 4-4-2 formation and Jesper Gronkjaer and Julian Gray are both expected to start after impressing against Fulham. It is rumoured that Gronkjaer or Gray may be asked to play as a second striker alongside Emile Heskey as Dwight Yorke could be feeling a bit jaded after playing 2 games in 5 days.

Expected line ups:

Blues:
Taylor, Melchiot, Cunningham, Upson, Clapham, Gronkjaer, Savage, Anderton, Dunn, Gray, Heskey.

Palace:
Kirally, Boyce, Hall, Popovic, Granville, Riihilahti, Routledge, Watson, Hughes, Kolkka, Johnson.

Interesting Stats:

• Blues have only lost one of the last seven in all competitions.
• Blues could drop into the bottom three if they lose.
• A blues win would see them reach 150 points under Steve Bruce.
• Blues haven't scored in 213 minutes of premiership football.
  

Latest Odds:

BNO Top Tip:

Blues have got to start scoring one day so why not Saturday? Bruce will surely have his team fired up for the match against his former club. If blues can stop AJ I can see us getting a 3-0 victory. At 12/1 its not great odds but 4-0 at 28/1 looks too much to ask from blues. As for goalscorer Julian Gray has been in the mix in recent weeks and his first goal for blues seems imminent. At 14/1 against his ex-club he is our tip.

Blues to win 3-0 and Julian Gray to score the 1st goal - 125/1 (Odds taken from Sportingodds.Com)