Birmingham vs Watford prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2024-03-15 15:00.
[p]Winless in five (D1, L4), Birmingham have been sucked into the relegation battle and following their midweek defeat to Middlesbrough at St Andrewâs, they come into this round just one place and a single point above the drop zone. Not helping Cityâs survival bid is a newfound inability to come out on top in tight games, with their last three defeats all being by a one-goal margin.[/p]
[p]While thatâs disappointing, the Blues will at least take some hope from the fact they have been beaten in just one of their nine Saturday-held Championship home games this season (W4, D4), picking up over double the amount of points at St Andrewâs (27) to date than they have on the road (12). Yet after back-to-back home league defeats, Birmingham stand on the brink of losing three such games in a row for the first time since January 2023. [/p]
[p]Opponents Watford are now managerless once again following the sacking of ValĂ©rien IsmaĂ«l, and the man tasked with getting a ânew manager bounceâ is interim boss Tom Cleverley, who won both of his games against Birmingham as a player. The Hornets themselves have a positive recent H2H record, winning nine of the last 11 league meetings (D1, L1), with a clean sheet in every one of those victories.[/p]
[p]More notable however is the run of form which saw IsmaĂ«l lose his job, with only bottom club Rotherham picking up fewer Championship points over the last ten games than Watford (W1, D3, L6), whose sole victory in that time came against the Millers last month. On a more positive note, each of the Hornetsâ five most recent victories have come away from home.[/p]
[p]Players to watch: Birmingham make the second-most fouls per game of any team in the division, with Ivan Sunjic responsible for his fair share of those, with nine yellow cards to his name. Defender Ryan Porteous has scored in back-to-back league appearances, netting the same number of goals as he managed across his first 44 Championship outings for Watford.[/p]
[p]Hot stat: A league-high 12 of Watfordâs away league games this term have stood level at half-time.[/p]