Birmingham City and Sheffield United square off at St Andrew's on Friday evening with both clubs having gone three games without defeat in the Championship.
While the Blades have moved into 11th position in the standings through successive victories, the Blues have only progressed into 17th spot after two draws.
Match preview
© Reuters
When Sheffield United returned to action after just one game in five weeks, they looked completely undercooked, deservedly losing 3-0 and 2-0 respectively at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Derby County.
However, progress has been made over the past three games, a frustrating 2-2 draw at Preston North End being followed by wins over Luton Town and Peterborough United.
Welcome clean sheets were recorded in each of those fixtures, while Billy Sharp continued his fine campaign with his eighth league goal versus the latter.
Although Paul Heckingbottom's team are still six points adrift of the playoffs, they have at least two games in hand on all but one of the clubs above them.
Some potentially pivotal fixtures lie ahead, including against West Bromwich Albion and Huddersfield Town, but Heckingbottom will back his players to earn a result against the majority of the clubs in this division.
© Reuters
Birmingham are currently on their longest unbeaten run since the start of November, something which will not be lost on Lee Bowyer when he assesses his team's form.
Nevertheless, letting slip a two-goal advantage at Derby last weekend naturally frustrated the Blues manager, even though they now sit 13 points clear of the relegation zone.
Blues earned a point from the same situation against Peterborough in the previous game, possibly giving Bowyer a sense of taking the rough with the smooth, but that does not halter the perception that the West Midlands outfit should be occupying a higher spot in the table.
New arrivals Juninho Bacuna and Lyle Taylor made immediate impacts at Pride Park, and Bowyer will be hopeful that Birmingham will have no issues with avoiding a battle to avoid the drop.
- L
- D
- L
- W
- D
- D
- L
- D
- L
- W
- D
- D
- W
- W
- L
- D
- W
- W
- W
- L
- L
- D
- W
- W
Team News
© Reuters
Bowyer may be prepared to name the same Birmingham starting lineup from last weekend, retaining a frontline of Taylor and Scott Hogan.
Ivan Sunjic is a potential alternative to Ryan Woods in the centre of midfield, but Lukas Jutkiewicz will likely remain on the substitutes' bench.
Sheffield United will be forced into at least one change after Rhian Brewster sustained a hamstring injury last weekend.
Daniel Jebbison has been recalled from his loan spell at Burton Albion, but Oli McBurnie or David McGoldrick are favourites to come into the team.
Brentford loanee Charlie Goode is expected to be named among the replacements with the current back three having kept consecutive clean sheets, although fellow loanee Morgan Gibbs-White is still at least a week away from returning after a knee injury.
Birmingham City possible starting lineup:
Etheridge; Colin, Mengi, Roberts, Pedersen; Bacuna, Woods, Gardner; Hernandez; Taylor, Hogan
Sheffield United possible starting lineup:
Foderingham; Basham, Egan, Robinson; Bogle, Norwood, Hourihane, Norrington-Davies; Ndiaye; Brewster, Sharp
We say: Birmingham City 1-1 Sheffield United
As one of the form teams in the division, Sheffield United will expect to go to St Andrew's and collect maximum points. However, boosted by their new arrivals, we feel that Birmingham will do enough to earn a share of the spoils.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Sheffield United win with a probability of 45.05%. A draw had a probability of 27.5% and a win for Birmingham City had a probability of 27.46%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sheffield United win was 0-1 with a probability of 12.99%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (8.78%) and 1-2 (8.7%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.87%), while for a Birmingham City win it was 1-0 (9.53%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with an 8.7% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Sheffield United would win this match.
