Birmingham City face Doncaster Rovers today in a crunch clash that could see the loser well and truly dragged into the relegation mix. Blues go into the game knowing a win will take them above Rovers while defeat could reduce the gap between them and the bottom three to just two points.

Doncaster Rovers

Rovers lie two places above Blues in 18th, three points better off but with a far inferior goal difference record. Doncaster go into the game in decent form, having won four of their last six games and being unbeaten in eight league games at home – although they did lose 3-2 to Stevenage in that run.

James Coppinger could make his 400th appearance for Donny today, whilst keeper Sam Johnstone is expected to play his last game as his loan spell comes to an end. Ritchie Wellens should recover from a foot injury to play.

Blues

Lee Clark welcomes back Tom Adeyemi, Emyr Huws and Tom Thorpe to the squad and all could be recalled to the team. There may be a reshuffle to the formation with Clark talking of a need for “battlers” within the team and that could mean Chris Burke dropped after a below par performance against Bournemouth; Nikola Zigic may start up front with Federico Macheda.

I think this is a big game in our season; a win will see Blues drag another team into the mix and pressure the teams below to come up with similar results; defeat could see Blues pulled further into the mire. What is important for me is that Blues don’t give away an early goal – according to stats produced by the BCFCarchive twitter feed Blues have won just eight points in the twenty-five games they have gone behind in.

Tags: Chris Burke, Doncaster Rovers, Emyr Huws, Federico Macheda, Nikola Zigic, Tom Adeyemi, Tom Thorpe