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

Wrexham play host to Birmingham City in the Championship on Friday evening as Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney welcome Tom Brady and Tom Wagner to the Racecourse Ground.

With two of the division's biggest-spenders sitting down in 15th and 12th place in the table respectively, the stakes are high ahead of their final fixture before the international break.

Match preview

Despite their exploits in League One last season and the subsequently signings that have been made, both Wrexham and Birmingham City have found acclimatising to life in this season's Championship more difficult than they would have envisaged.

Phil Parkinson may have earned three successive promotions with Wrexham, but a slow start to the season where they collected just four points from their opening five matches led to suggestions that the long-serving manager's future was being considered.

Fast-forward two weeks and Wrexham are now on a run of just one defeat in seven in all competitions, a run that has included five points being accumulated from recent league fixtures against Norwich City, Derby County and Leicester City.

Tuesday's 1-1 draw at the King Power Stadium, earned through club-record signing Nathan Broadhead's first Championship goal for the club, felt like a considerable step in the right direction.

Nevertheless, this is a Wrexham side that have failed to win in four Championship home fixtures, conceding nine goals in the process and only shipping fewer than one goal on one occasion.

Wrexham only collected one point from last season's two fixtures in League One, yet they will be believe that they have the momentum heading into this encounter given Birmingham's recent struggles.

With 11 points from eight games, whether 'struggle' is the correct word is open to debate, but Blues required a 98th-minute equaliser from Demarai Gray to avoid losing to beleaguered Sheffield Wednesday at St Andrews on Tuesday night.

That would have been a fourth defeat in five second-tier fixtures for Chris Davies and his squad who are struggling to justify their pre-season tag of title candidates despite the heavy investment.

Prior to the Sheffield Wednesday game, Birmingham had scored just twice during six games in all competitions and were coming off the back of a 3-0 defeat at promotion rivals Coventry City.

However, Birmingham remain in a position where victory on Friday could move them into the top four ahead of the weekend's fixtures, emphasising that any talk of sacking Davies should be viewed as premature.

That said, Blues travel to North Wales having lost three Championship away games in succession, failing to score at Leicester City, Stoke City and Coventry respectively.

Wrexham Championship form:

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Wrexham form (all competitions):

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Birmingham City Championship form:

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Birmingham City form (all competitions):

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Team News

Broadhead will hope that his goal against Leicester will see him recalled to the Wrexham XI, realistically ahead of Josh Windass.

Ryan Barnett and James McClean are both options at wing-back if Parkinson wishes to freshen up his side, but Issa Kabore and Ryan Longman are favourites to retain their places.

The Wrexham treatment room remains well-populated with Danny Ward, Liberato Cacare and Oliver Rathbone among those sidelined.

Having served a one-match ban, Jack Robinson should return to the Birmingham defence as a replacement for Eiran Cashin.

Paik Seung-Ho, Lewis Koumas and Lyndon Dykes are all in contention to be recalled given the quick turnaround, Tommy Doyle and Patrick Roberts most at risk of dropping down to the substitutes' bench after being withdrawn before the hour mark against Sheffield Wednesday.

Wrexham possible starting lineup:

Okonkwo; Cleworth, Hyam, Brunt; Kabore, Dobson, Sheaf, Longman; Broadhead, O'Brien; Moore

Birmingham City possible starting lineup:

Allsop; Osayi-Samuel, Klarer, Robinson, Cochrane; Iwata, Paik; Koumas, Stansfield, Gray; Furuhashi

We say: Wrexham 1-1 Birmingham City

With neither side securing the points that they would have hoped for at this stage, this feels like a high-stakes battle as both teams attempt to catapult themselves into the top half of the standings. However, we are backing a competitive draw to play out in the highest-profile fixture of the season so far, a result that would not entirely satisfy either team.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.