Birmingham City Preview

By Mark Heys
May 5 2006

A place in the Intertoto Cup is what is at stake when Bolton Wanderers take on the already relegated Birmingham City at the Reebok Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The Wanderers know that a win would boost thier chances of taking part in this summers newly formatted competition which could lead to a UEFA Cup placing in the later stages but all will depend on whether Champions Chelsea can get a positive result against fellow Intertoto chasers Newcastle United.

The Toon Army are just three points ahead of Bolton in the Premiership and have an inferior goal difference so the Wanderers destiny lies very much in their own hands when they take to the field against the Blues of Birmingham.

Steve Bruce side have already claimed victory against the Wanderers this season as a Jiri Jarosik goal made all the difference nearly five weeks ago, so they will be hoping to give a good account of themselves as they play out their last Premiership game for the immediate future.

Ricardo Gardner, Khalilou Fadiga and El-Hadji Diouf are the Bolton absentees for this game through injury so the likes of Henrik Pedersen are once again expected to make the starting eleven.

Birmingham will be without their highly rated defender Matthew Upson and the former Blackburn Rovers favourite David Dunn. Upson is out of action until the autumn with a serious achillies injury whilst the luckless Dunn is also missing until next season with a calf problem.

PREMIERSHIP RECORD

02/11/2002 BIRMINGHAM CITY 3 (Purse, Savage, Horsfield) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Okocha)

01/02/2003 BOLTON WANDERERS 4 (Cunningham (OG), Pedersen, Djorkaeff, Facey) BIRMINGHAM CITY 2 (Savage, Morrison)

25/10/2003 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 BIRMINGHAM CITY 1 (Forssell)

06/03/2004 BIRMINGHAM CITY 2 (Forssell, Hughes) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

25/09/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Jaidi) BIRMINGHAM CITY 1 (Izzet)

04/01/2005 BIRMINGHAM CITY 1 (Upson) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Diouf, Nolan)

04/04/2005 BIRMINGHAM CITY 1 (Jarosik) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 7

Won: 2

Drawn: 1

Lost: 4

CONNECTIONS

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

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED THE BLUES

Jay-Jay Okocha and Delroy Facey both netted their first ever goals for Bolton in the games against Birmingham during the 2002-2003 season.