Sports Mole previews Saturday’s Championship clash between Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham City, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham City will both be looking to pick up three points for the first time this season when they lock horns in Saturday’s clash at Ewood Park.
The hosts fell to a narrow defeat in their Championship opener against West Bromwich Albion, while the newly-promoted visitors played out a 1-1 draw with Ipswich Town.
Match preview
Blackburn Rovers will be hoping to mount another playoff push after falling just two points short of the top six last term.
Valerien Ismael oversaw four wins in the final five league games of the 2024-25 campaign, but his side have failed to carry that form into the opening stages of the new season.
Rovers began the campaign with a disappointing 1-0 away defeat against Ismael’s former club, West Bromwich Albion, before his team were knocked out of the EFL Cup by Bradford City in midweek.
Blackburn conceded two goals inside the opening four minutes of the first-round tie, and while Dion De Neve pulled a goal back before the break, Rovers failed in their quest to find a second-half equaliser.
They will now turn their focus back to Championship action, with Saturday’s hosts looking to win their first home league game for a sixth consecutive season.
Blackburn boast an impressive home record against Birmingham, having won 25, drawn 11 and lost just two of their previous 38 head-to-head home league games.
Birmingham are back competing in the Championship after returning to the second tier at the first time of asking in Chris Davies‘s first season charge.
Davies’s side racked up 111 points in 46 matches to win the League One title at a canter last season, raising expectations that they should be competing towards the top end of the table this term, especially as they have been busy in the summer transfer window.
Rather than a new addition, it was Jay Stansfield who scored the first goal of the Championship season in last Friday’s home clash with recently relegated Ipswich, only for George Hirst to net a 95th-minute penalty to deny Birmingham all three points.
However, Stansfield managed to net the winner in Wednesday’s EFL Cup clash against Sheffield United, scoring the decisive goal in the 87th minute after Kyogo Furuhashi had seen his opener cancelled out by Gustavo Hamer‘s stunning effort from the halfway line.
Birmingham will now be fully focused on Saturday’s trip to Ewood Park, where they will attempt to claim their first away victory over Blackburn since December 2013.
The visitors may draw inspiration from the fact that they have avoided defeat in their opening away league games in each of the past six seasons.
Blackburn Rovers Championship form:
L
Blackburn Rovers form (all competitions):
L L
Birmingham City Championship form:
D
Birmingham City form (all competitions):
D W
Team News
Blackburn remain without the services of defender Hayden Carter and midfielder Adam Forshaw due to hamstring injuries.
Club captain Lewis Travis is unlikely to feature, having informed Rovers of his desire to reunite with former Blackburn boss John Eustace at Derby County.
Todd Cantwell will provide a useful option off the bench after returning from injury to feature as a substitute in midweek.
Birmingham are unable to call upon two of their summer additions, with Kanya Fujimoto and Marvin Ducksch working their way back to fitness.
After making changes in midweek, Davies could decide to go back to the lineup that started the opening league game against Ipswich.
Stansfield will be looking to continue his promising start to the season after netting in Birmingham’s opening two competitive matches.
Blackburn Rovers possible starting lineup:
Toth; Alebiosu, Hyam, McLoughlin, Ribeiro; Tavares, Tronstad; Hedges, Henriksson, De Neves; Ohashi
Birmingham City possible starting lineup:
Allsop; Osayi-Samuel, Neumann, Klarer, Cochrane; Iwata, Paik; Gray, Stansfield, Anderson; Furuhashi
We say: Blackburn Rovers 0-2 Birmingham City
The two teams have experienced contrasting starts to the new season, and while Birmingham have struggled in recent away meetings with Blackburn, we think they will have the extra quality required to claim three points at Ewood Park on Saturday.
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