Match Preview: Birmingham City v Bolton Wanderers

It’s safe to say that Bolton Wanderers find themselves in somewhat of a pickle heading into tonight’s Championship clash at Birmingham City. Yet another defeat - and domination that the 2-1 scoreline doesn’t come near to doing justice to - at home to Preston North End on Saturday leaves The Whites four points off safety.

However, we did manage to score a goal against Preston and Clayton Donaldson ended a 33-game streak without scoring a league goal. So every cloud...

But that’s enough positivity for now. Bolton remain without a league win in 2019, have lost all of their last six away matches, and haven’t won away from home since the third game of the season at Reading. In fact, they’ve only recorded 4 points from 13 away league games since.

A strange, but equally concerning, stat is that Bolton have failed to win a Championship away game on a Tuesday night in 20 matches, going back to April 2014.

If you’re on the lookout for goals, then St Andrew’s is unlikely to be the place for you tonight. There have only been six goals in the last seven matches between these two sides, since a 2-2 draw at Bolton saved The Blues from relegation to League One back in 2014.

And that doesn’t bode well for a Bolton side that have failed to score more than one goal in a league game in more than two months - and 10 matches - since the 3-2 defeat at Norwich on 8 December.

However, one man who could buck that trend is former Bolton loanee Lukas Jutkiewicz. The striker has been involved in 15 goals in his last 18 home league games - with 9 goals and 6 assists.

Even more of a threat is his strike partner Che Adams, whose tally of 19 league goals is one less than Bolton’s entire team have managed this season. He scored a hat-trick at Queens Park Rangers on Saturday - a game in which Blues went 4-0 up in the first half then conceded 3 second half goals. And, if he scores again tonight, he’ll equal a club record for scoring in eight consecutive matches, currently held by Trevor Francis.

Wanderers team news-wise, there could be returns from injury for Mark Beevers and Andrew Taylor, which would be welcome news given the alternative is Marc Wilson and Jonathan Grounds staying in the team. Donaldson is highly likely to start up front against his former club - can he continue his prolific run to make it two in two?

You can follow all the action from St Andrew’s on our Live Feed from around 7.30pm tonight, and via our Twitter feed.

Match Odds:

Birmingham City: 1/2

Draw: 16/5

Bolton Wanderers: 38/5