Birmingham City v Burnley: Clarets seek a Blues double
There’s not a lot riding on this game; Birmingham are safe and Burnley are down, but the visitors will want to bow out of the Premier League with a double under their belt. The Clarets beat the Blues 2-1 back in October thanks to strikes from Steven Fletcher and Andre Bikey and they could beat City twice in the same season for the first time since 1962. However, I’m sure Alex McLeish will have something to say about that!
Birmingham City, who let’s not forget were promoted at the same time as Burnley, have been one of the surprise packages of the season and that’s down largely to the defensive nous of Big Eck. The former Scotland and Aberdeen defender has a glittering haul of medals at home following his success with the Dons in the 80s and knows what it takes to come out on top against the opposition’s attack. The Blues have conceded just 12 goals at St Andrews this season – a record only matched by the current champions Manchester United – but unfortunately they haven’t picked up a win bonus in their past eight outings.
Burnley were formally relegated last weekend with a 4-0 defeat by Liverpool and leave the top flight after just one season, despite an impressive start to the campaign. Their main downfall though has been their inability to pick up points away from home. They managed only their first away win of the season recently against fellow strugglers Hull City but nobody really sees them repeating that performance at St Andrews here today.
Birmingham haven’t beaten Burnley since Nicklas Bendtner and DJ Campbell scored in a 2-1 win at Turf Moor back in November 2006 but this could well be the day they break that duck.
Birmingham City v Burnley; Kick Off 12:45pm 01 May 2010
