Preview: Birmingham City vs. Burnley

Burnley will look to strengthen their position in the Championship's automatic promotion places when they travel to Birmingham City on Wednesday night.

The Clarets moved eight points clear of third-placed Derby County by coming from behind to beat East Lancashire rivals Blackburn Rovers for the first time in 35 years on Sunday.

It was the eighth game that Sean Dyche had started the same XI and he is likely to stick with the winning formula as Burnley look to continue their unbeaten run in 2014.

Hosts Birmingham welcome a second promotion rival to St Andrew's just four days after Queens Park Rangers came and won 2-0 thanks to an eye-catching brace from former loanee Ravel Morrison.

With most teams near the bottom winning on Saturday, the Blues are far from safe and just seven points clear of the bottom three with 12 games of the season left.

Lee Novak and Federico Macheda both started on the bench against QPR and are likely to return to the starting lineup against Burnley.

When these two last met back in September, Burnley eased to a 3-0 win at Turf Moor.

Recent form

Birmingham: LLWLLW

Burnley: WWWDWW

Possible starting lineups

Birmingham: Randolph; Spector, Packwood, Robinson, Caddis, Huws, Adeyemi, Ferguson, Burke, Macheda, Ibe

Burnley: Heaton; Trippier, Duff, Shackell, Mee, Kightly, Marney, Jones, Arfield, Ings, Vokes

Sports Mole says: 1-3