The 2023/24 EFL Championship season has delivered a rollercoaster of emotions for Birmingham City supporters. At the start of the season, Blues fans were pleased to be led by Birmingham-born boss John Eustace, who steered City to an early position on the fringes of the top six after the opening couple of months of the campaign. In fact, hours before Eustace was fired, Birmingham had beaten near neighbours West Brom 3-1 to move into sixth place.
Fast forward to the present day and Birmingham’s league position has become significantly more fragile. Eustace’s high-profile replacement, Wayne Rooney, lasted a matter of weeks before the club pulled the plug. Experienced Championship campaigner Tony Mowbray now has the task of steadying the ship to calmer waters.
After their 1-0 win over Blackburn – ironically, now managed by Eustace – Blues have a six-point cushion between themselves and third-bottom QPR. Those with blue-tinted spectacles may even be looking up to the top six. If Mowbray’s men can win their game in-hand on Norwich, they go to within ten points of sixth, with 14 games to play. That kind of positivity is probably pie in the sky and the bookmakers tend to agree, with Coral pricing them at 100/1 to gatecrash the playoff pack. This bookie is rated 5/5 by oddschecker.com based on its popularity, loyalty bonuses and large choice of markets, including those in the EFL Championship.
Has the Blackburn victory papered over the cracks?
A little bit. In truth, there was very little between Blues and Blackburn on the night, with only some sloppy defensive work from Rovers and a cool finish from City loanee Andre Dozzell proving the difference.
The previous league fixture saw Birmingham slip to a dismal 2-0 away defeat to second-bottom Sheffield Wednesday. Ike Ugbo, a powerful forward signed on loan from French Ligue 1 side Troyes, scored both goals and proved a thorn in the Blues’ side all evening. Despite having 63% of possession and 25 shots (just four of which found the target), Birmingham were below par.
The fixture list hasn’t been kind to Blues in February and March
Things don’t get any easier for Blues in the coming weeks. They’ve got a home clash with playoff-chasing Sunderland – Mowbray’s former side – before a trip to East Anglia to face an Ipswich Town team still hanging onto the coat tails of the automatic promotion places. March isn’t looking much better either. Ipswich’s promotion rivals Southampton follow after their visit to Portman Road. Meanwhile, three of the four fixtures following Southampton are also against teams in and around the playoff mix in; Hull, Middlesbrough and Watford.
Mowbray will have his eyes firmly fixed on two away games happening in March. On March 9th, City travel to Millwall, who themselves are just four points above the drop zone after 31 games played. Meanwhile, Good Friday sees Blues make the trip to the capital to face Queens Park Rangers, who currently occupy the third and final relegation spot.
Looking even further ahead to the season run-in, there’s plenty of six-pointers on the horizon should Mowbray’s men need them. In fact, two of their final three games are away to Rotherham and Huddersfield. The former is almost certain to be already relegated by this stage, while Huddersfield are only two points above the drop zone after 31 games, and could be one of Birmingham’s biggest rivals for safety.
Mowbray will be hoping for more from his front men over the coming weeks. On-loan Fulham forward Jay Stansfield opted to remain with Blues for the rest of the season instead of moving to Ipswich Town, who were courting his services in the January transfer window. Stansfield is top scorer with nine league goals and three assists. However, he’s gone four games without a goal and will need to reassert himself if Birmingham are to stop looking over their shoulder anytime soon.
