Nottingham Forest take their unbeaten away form to Birmingham in this FA Cup 3rd round replay. Both teams are in great form of late with Forest unbeaten in 18 games and sitting in 2nd place in the Championship while Birmingham are on their own 13 match unbeaten run and sit comfortably in 8th place in the Premiership, level on points with Liverpool.
Vital Quotes:
Many people around Forest may think this game is an inconvenience, but it’s another chance for us to test ourselves against a team we wish to emulate.
Birmingham City Team News:
Birmingham rested quite a few players in the previous tie, but may well play a much stronger team this time in the hope of getting the game won without the need for extra time.
Player to watch: Cameron Jerome
The powerful front man now has 5 goals in 15 Premiership games
Nottingham Forest Team News:
Other than Julian Bennett, Forest seem to be back to full strength now. Rob Earnshaw limped out of the warm up for the West Brom game but little seems to have been made of that since so there is no reason to suspect it was anything more than a precaution.
Player to watch: Dexter Blackstock
His 7 goals in 20 Championship games is only the start of things for Dexter, he’s also weighed in with 4 assists and has proven himself to be a quality leader up front.
Match Facts & Stats
These two teams have now met 8 times in the FA Cup with half of those games being drawn along with two wins each. Forest average a goal per game in those eight fixtures while Birmingham have just 5 goals.
In league competition these two teams have met 86 more times, forest lead the way there with 33 wins, Birmingham 29 & 24 draws. Forest though haven’t registered a competitive win over Birmingham since January 2001
Ref Watch:
Kevin Friend will be taking charge of this game, some of you may remember him from his time playing for Oldham in a 5 – 0 win against the reds
Match Prediction:
Statistically there aren’t many goals in games featuring these two teams but although Birmingham are playing at the higher level, they don’t score too many while Forest are scoring for fun in the Championship. That, along with Forest’s great away run leaves me going for a Forest 1 – 2 away win, it may take 120 minutes to get it though.
Next Fixtures:
Saturday, 16 January 15:00
The Football League Championship
Nottm Forest v Reading
Tuesday, 26 January 19:45
The Football League Championship
Nottm Forest v QPR
