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Saturday, October 04, 2008

Today's Teams - Birmingham vs QPR - Couple of changes

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Today's Teams:

QPR: Cerny, Delaney, Stewart, Mahon, Hall, Leigertwood, Blackstock, Agyemang, Rowlands, Ramage, Cook. - Subs: Camp, Parejo, Buzsaky, Connolly, Ledesma.

Birmingham: Taylor, Murphy, Ridgewell, Larsson, O'Connor, Phillips, Agustien, Jaidi, Owusu-Abeyie, Carsley. - Subs: Doyle, Taylor, Jerome, Nafti, McFadden.


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Also: Birmingham Preview -- Birmingham Official Site
"....FORM GUIDE
Blues have collected five wins and two draws from their opening nine League fixtures. Alex McLeish's side are just two points behind Championship pace setters Wolves, who occupy top spot. Blues have lost just once at home since March. That 1-0 defeat came at the hands of Blackpool last month.
QPR
The R's are without a League win in their last three outings and they have scored just three times in their last five matches. Their most recent game was earlier this week when they were held to a 1-1 draw at Loftus Road by Blackpool.

MANAGERS' COMMENTS
ALEX McLEISH

At home the onus is on you to go and attack and entertain your own fans but we have to try and get the right formula to keep the door shut at the back and to give the fans what they want.
There have been signs of a better system over the last couple of games albeit they were away games.
Against Blackpool I pointed out to the players the difference between tempo and kicking the ball up field all the time.
We've tried to work on playing to our strengths in recent weeks.
This is a test of our character and guile that we try and do it at home.
Ian Dowie has done a good job and he knows all about the game and he's a pretty shrewd guy.
But it's not about Ian and I it's about what the players do when they cross the line. We can only prepare them.

IAN DOWIE
We're a win away from fourth spot and that's where we want to be.
With the exception of the Sheffield United match, we've really risen to the challenge so far this season on our travels.
If we get it right again on Saturday, it will be a very interesting match. I'm looking forward to it and I've seen enough heart and desire from my players to know we'll go there and give a good account of ourselves.
We've gone to Norwich and played for over an hour with ten men and won - and we got a great point against Bristol City with ten men too.
We've gone to Coventry and totally dominated the game, only to get done with a dubious penalty, so there are lots of positives to take from our recent away form.

PREVIOUS ENCOUNTERS
Blues have a good league record against today's visitors having lost just nine of the 42 meetings. In contrast, Rangers hold something of a voodoo sign over the blue side of Birmingham in cup competitions with five straight wins in the only knockout games played between the clubs. That sequence included defeats in both legs of the 1967 League Cup semi-final when remarkably the London club went on to win the trophy with victory over West Brom at Wembley despite then playing in the third tier of English football. However, Blues are undefeated in their last 13 games against Rangers and have lost just once in 21 home matches overall....

BETTING
Blues are strong favourites with bet365 to win tomorrow's game at St. Andrew's at 5/6. The draw is available at 5/2 and for a QPR victory you can get 7/2
A 2-0 win to Blues is on offer at 7/1 and the same scoreline with James McFadden scoring the opener is available at 35/1
Birmingham

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