Preview: Southampton vs Birmingham City - prediction, team news, lineups

Both looking to make Christmas climbs towards the automatic promotion places, Southampton and Birmingham City lock horns at St Mary's Stadium on Saturday afternoon in the Championship.

The Saints suffered a final-minute defeat at Millwall last time out, whilst Blues continued their impeccable home form with a narrow success over Watford in the Second City.

Match preview

After collecting just 12 points across a miserable 38-game Premier League campaign last season, Southampton have already doubled that tally in the Championship this time around, but the South Coast club are still massively behind their pre-season targets.

The Saints stumbled under the leadership of Will Still at the beginning of the term before a recent revival with interim boss Tonda Eckert at the helm, with the 32-year-old winning four of his opening five matches in charge.

However, the ex-Genoa assistant experienced his maiden defeat in senior management last Saturday afternoon, when second-half strikes from Adam Armstrong and Finn Azaz were not enough to avoid a 3-2 loss at the intimidating base of Millwall.

Following Still's failure to win any of his last five home matches at the club, interim leader Eckert has enjoyed back-to-back Championship triumphs at St Mary's, beating Sheffield Wednesday and Leicester City by an aggregate scoreline of 6-1.

Key to Southampton's hopes of competing with the likes of Middlesbrough, Stoke and potentially Birmingham for a top-two finish, Armstrong is reaching his best form once again after a tricky loan spell at West Bromwich Albion last season, with the second-tier veteran netting three strikes across his last four appearances.

Since the Championship returned from the final international break of the calendar year, the narrative around Birmingham City's season has strengthened, with a pair of impressive home victories sandwiching a lacklustre away performance.

Both bringing their tallies up to four goals for the campaign, Paik Seung-ho and Demarai Gray fired Blues into a two-goal lead by half time versus Watford on Monday night, when Chris Davies's men were able to hold on to secure a fourth straight St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park win.

Losing just one of their last six second-tier battles, Birmingham have flown up to eighth spot in the Championship rankings ahead of Saturday's daunting trip to the South Coast, just a single point behind sixth-placed Bristol City in the lowest of the playoff spots.

As alluded to earlier, Blues' form on the road is preventing them from seriously competing with the likes of Coventry and Middlesbrough at the very top of the division, with the Second City club ranking 21st in terms of away form, whilst only trailing the Sky Blues in the home charts.

Scoring away at The Hawthorns versus West Brom at the end of November, former Germany international Marvin Ducksch has proved a brilliant partner for leading goalscorer Jay Stansfield in attack, with the pair restricting Lyndon Dykes and Kyogo Furuhashi to substitute roles at the moment.

Southampton Championship form:

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Birmingham City Championship form:

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Team News

Missing the Millwall defeat due to illness, Southampton attacker Leo Scienza is hoping to make his return to Championship action on Saturday.

On the contrary, fellow forward Ross Stewart is certainly sidelined for this weekend, with the ex-Sunderland man recovering from a hamstring injury.

Also on the comeback route from hamstring woes, Birmingham defender Ethan Laird is targeting first-team training in February.

After sitting out of the Watford win due to an accumulation of yellow cards, Tomoki Iwata will return at right-back, with Bright Osayi-Samuel dropping to the bench.

A stalwart for Blues during their record-breaking League One campaign, Willum Willumsson (muscle) has not featured since late August for the visitors.

Southampton possible starting lineup:

Bazunu; Harwood-Bellis, Wood, Stephens; Fellows, Bragg, Jander, Manning; Azaz, Aribo, Armstrong

Birmingham City possible starting lineup:

Beadle; Iwata, Neumann, Klarer, Cochrane; Paik, Doyle; Roberts, Stansfield, Gray; Ducksch

We say: Southampton 2-2 Birmingham City

Both on the up after disappointing starts to the campaign, Southampton and Birmingham are likely to trade goalscoring blows at St Mary's this weekend.

The Saints are unbeaten in four matches against Blues, who would happily take a point on the South Coast.

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