Birmingham City vs Blackburn Rovers. Sky Bet Championship.
St. Andrew's StadiumAttendance18,561.
Watch live on Sky Sports Football Red Button and the Sky Sports app from 7.40pm on Tuesday; kick-off 7.45pm
Monday 21 October 2019 18:22, UK
Birmingham face Blackburn in the Sky Bet Championship on Tuesday. Coverage gets under way live on Sky Sports Football Red Button at 7.40pm; kick-off 7.45pm.
Birmingham will be without suspended midfielder Ivan Sunjic for their Sky Bet Championship clash with Blackburn. The Croatian midfielder was shown his fifth yellow card of the season in the defeat to Leeds at the weekend and serves a one-match ban.
Winger Jefferson Montero could feature, with the Ecuador winger overcoming a thigh injury sustained on his full debut against Stoke at the end of August. Former Chelsea and Brentford midfielder Josh McEachran, who joined Blues as a free agent at the end of last month, is still working on his match fitness, and Dutch midfielder Maikel Kieftenbeld (knee) remains a long-term absentee.
Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray must decide whether to start former Germany forward Lewis Holtby for the second time in four days. The ex-Tottenham player scored one and assisted another in the 2-2 draw against Huddersfield on his first Rovers start, but came off with 20 minutes remaining and Mowbray admits the 29-year-old is still not ready to play 90 minutes.
Defender Joe Grayson is unavailable with a hamstring tear, with Sam Hart (patella) also sidelined. Dominic Samuel faces a fitness test on his groin strain but Greg Cunningham is likely to be out for the remainder of the season with a knee injury and Darragh Lenihan is sidelined for a couple of months.
Despite a bright start to the campaign under Pep Clotet, Birmingham's form has dipped in the last month and they are on a run of four defeats in five games. Having lost 1-0 to Preston on October 21, they followed that up with a 3-2 loss to Derby and a 1-0 loss at Wigan. Before the international break, they beat Middlesbrough 2-1, but slipped against Leeds on Saturday, in a 1-0 defeat at Elland Road.
Rovers' results don't look great either, despite some encouraging recent displays. During the 2-2 draw with Huddersfield at the weekend, there were spells of attacking brilliance, while a resilient second-half showing in the 4-2 defeat at QPR reduced the embarrassment. A 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest and a 2-1 loss at home to Luton preceded that.
Despite spells with Tottenham and Fulham between 2013 and 2015, it's fair to say Lewis Holtby didn't set the Premier League alight with the form that saw the German-born midfielder linked with an England call-up during his time in the Bundesliga with Schalke. But when the 29-year-old returned to his homeland with Hamburg, he got his career back up and running in five successful years with Die Rothosen.
Petitions were started by fans when he was released in the summer but they, ultimately, fell on deaf ears. And so Holtby was left without a club until September 19, when he returned to England to sign for Blackburn. Tony Mowbray eased him into Championship action over the next month and handed Holtby his full debut against Huddersfield last weekend, with his patience being rewarded when Holtby equalised after 20 minutes.
He then laid on an assist for Bradley Dack, who said after full-time: "It's easier to play with good footballers. You can see that with his technical ability and he seems to find the right pass more times than not so hopefully we can continue to work on that and it gets better."
Five of the last seven league meetings between Birmingham and Blackburn have ended as draws (one win apiece in the other two games).
Blackburn Rovers have won one of their last 11 league visits to Birmingham (W1 D4 L6), a 4-2 win in April 2014.
Since losing consecutive home league games in March, Birmingham have lost just one of their last nine Championship games at St. Andrew's (W4 D4 L1).
Blackburn striker Danny Graham has scored in five of his six league matches against Birmingham, scoring five goals in total.
Birmingham striker Lukas Jutkiewicz has been involved in six goals in seven league starts against Blackburn (4 goals, 2 assists).
Blackburn manager Tony Mowbray has never won an away league match against Birmingham (W0 D1 L3), facing a different manager in each winless game (Bruce, Hughton, Clark, Monk).
David Prutton predicts: 1-1 (5/1)
