Bristol City vs Birmingham City. Sky Bet Championship.
Ashton GateAttendance22,065.
Watch live on Sky Sports Football from 7pm on Friday; kick-off is at 7.45pm.
Friday 7 February 2020 18:03, UK
Bristol City face Birmingham in the Sky Bet Championship on Friday night, live on Sky Sports Football.
Bristol City's new signings Markus Henriksen and Filip Benkovic could be included in the squad. Midfielder Henriksen and defender Benkovic both arrived on loan until the end of the season on transfer deadline day from Hull and Leicester respectively.
Another recent arrival, Nahki Wells, made his debut off the bench in last week's win at QPR and will be hoping for his first start. Forward Andreas Weimann is expected to shake off a dead leg, Jack Hunt (ankle) will be assessed and fellow defender Thomas Kalas is still out.
Birmingham will be without Josh McEachran and Jacques Maghoma, who both sustained long-term injuries in the midweek penalty shootout win against Coventry in their FA Cup replay. Midfielder McEachran suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury and will be out for up to nine months.
Winger Maghoma is expected to be sidelined for six weeks after sustaining a thigh injury. Midfield pair Dan Crowley and Kerim Mrabti (both hamstring) remain unavailable.
Bristol City are on an exceptional run of form at the minute. They have won their last four in a row in the Championship without conceding a goal.
Birmingham are also unbeaten in their last four games. Winning two and drawing two. Their last league game was a 2-1 win over high-flying Nottingham Forest, and they also secured their passage to the fifth round of the FA Cup with a penalty shoot-out win over Coventry in midweek.
Bristol City's Lee Johnson: "I do feel like the players are grounded. I can assure you myself and my staff will be on them if they're not but it's not a dictatorship and players have to be able to be free to make those mistakes and to be creative.
"There are still areas of the game we want to improve and work on but hopefully by that constant evolution of our performance we can be consistently a very good side."
Birmingham's Pep Clotet: "Bristol City are a very strong side, individually they have some of the best players in the league, they are chasing promotion, it will be a tough game.
"They are coming off the back of four wins in a row, we know our strengths and our resilience will be important tomorrow night. We want to be competitive, ambitious and hopefully we can get the right result."
Bristol City's recent form has seen them move into contention for the play-offs this season. But can they sustain it? We take a look at the race for the Premier League ahead of this weekend's Championship action
Bristol City have lost six of their last eight league matches against Birmingham at Ashton Gate (W1 D1), losing 2-1 last season.
Birmingham have only lost two of their last 18 league games against Bristol City (W12 D4 L2).
Bristol City have won each of their last four league matches without conceding a single goal.
Birmingham are looking to go five league games unbeaten for the very first time this season.
Bristol City have won the 15th most points of any side in the Championship in home matches this season (22), whereas including only away games they would rank 2nd (28 points).
Scott Hogan scored on his league debut for Birmingham last time out against Nottingham Forest; Hogan's last seven goals in the Championship have been spread across four different sides (Birmingham, Stoke, Sheffield United and Aston Villa).
Bristol City are on one of those winning runs at the minute they go on, and they have been defensively brilliant, too. Ashley Williams and Nathan Baker have struck up a real partnership at the back.
Birmingham are four unbeaten, too, and that has helped them moved away from the relegation zone. I think mid-table will be a good season for them, but this should be a home win.
David Prutton predicts: 2-1 (8/1 with Sky Bet)