Birmingham City Preview

By Mark Heys
December 21 2007

Bolton Wanderers and Birmingham City begin their Christmas and New Year fixture programme tommorow afternoon when the two sides meet each other in a bottom of the table battle at the Reebok Stadium,

Bolton's defeat to Manchester City last weekend leaves them a point above the Premier League drop zone in 15th place whilst Birmingham lie just one place above after drawing with Reading.

This time of year will see the league table start to take shape and both sides will be hoping to be looking at a more healthy position come the middle of January.

Tommorow's battle sees two of the recently appointed top flight managers in Gary Megson and Alex McLeish go head to head and in the Wanderers case they will be looking to keep up their recent good home form.

Trotters chief Megson has received a boost prior to the game with the news that key defender Andy O'Brien has recovered from illness and will take a place in the squad.

Joey O'Brien and Heidar Helguson also returned to training this week after a long spell on the sidelines and skipper Kevin Nolan has shaken off a knock picked up in the City game.

Birmingham boss McLeish is without the suspended centre half Liam Ridgewell so former Wanderer Radhi Jaidi may get the chance to line up against his ex-collegues for the first time since leaving the Reebok.

Jaidi's international collegue Medhi Nafti returns to the side after serving a ban and on-loan Johan Djourou will return after suffering a recent injury to his pelvis.

The only absentee for the Midlanders other than Ridgewell will be Stuart Parnaby as the ex-Middlesbrough man is still suffering the effects of a nasty foot injury.

LAST TIME WE MET:

15/09/2007 BIRMINGHAM CITY 1 (Kapo) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

BOLTON: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Nicky Hunt, Andy O'Brien (Gerald Cid), Abdoulaye Meite, Jlloyd Samuel (Ricardo Gardner), El-Hadji Diouf, Kevin Nolan, Gary Speed, Gavin McCann, Mikel Alonso (Daniel Braaten), Nicolas Anelka

SUBS NOT USED: Kevin Davies, Ali Al-Habsi (GK)

CITY: Maik Taylor, Stephen Kelly, Johan Djourou, Liam Ridgewell, Franck Queudrue, Sebastien Larsson, Fabrice Muamba, Medhi Nafti, Gary McSheffrey (Rafael Schmitz), Olivier Kapo, Cameron Jerome (Garry O'Connor)

SUBS NOT USED: Mickael Forssell, Borja Oubina, Richard Kingston (GK)

PLAYED FOR BOTH:

Simon Charlton, Tony Evans, Paul Fitzpatrick, Bob Hatton, David Holdsworth, Radhi Jaidi, Allan Johnston, Andy Kennedy, Jim McDonagh, Trevor Morgan, Bruno N'Gotty, Jamie Pollock, Kevin Poole, Isaiah Rankin, John Sheridan, Bryan Small, Stuart Storer, Gordon Taylor, Neil Whatmore, Frank Worthington

DID YOU KNOW:

Current Birmingham manager Alex McLeish and his predassessor Steve Bruce where considered for the Bolton manager's job prior to the appointment of Gary Megson.

The Premiership record between these two sides at the Reebok is mixed with Bolton winning two, drawing one and losing one in the four meetings played in the top division.

Jay-Jay Okocha scored his first Bolton goal in the first Premier League meeting between these two sides in November 2002.