This Week's Opposition: Birmingham City

Pompey's next SkyBet Championship opponent are put under the microscope by Express FM's Jake Smith.

Off the back of 2 straight defeats on home soil, the Blues are back on the road this weekend for matchday 13.

Birmingham City the opponents and hosts at St Andrew’s.

MANAGER

40-year-old former Wales youth international Chris Davies is in charge of Birmingham.

Davies signed a 4-year contract last June after the club’s Championship relegation was confirmed.

He was holding a coaching role at Tottenham Hotspur at the time and this managerial position serves as his first at senior level.

Davies was born in Watford and came through the Reading academy as a youngster, captaining The Royals’ youth side at the age of 16 under the management of Brendan Rogers.

Unfortunately, he had to retire from playing in 2004 at the age of 19 on account of an arthritic condition in his foot.

ONE TO WATCH

Japanese midfielder Tomoki Iwata, who wears the number 24 shirt, is our one to watch this weekend.

The former Celtic man is now 28-years-of age and has been capped 4 times for his country. He was also named in last season’s PFA League One Team of the Year.

So far this campaign, Iwata has registered 12 league appearances and has picked up 4 yellow cards, so is 1 caution away from a suspension.

TOP SCORER

With a return of 5 goals from 11 league matches, Jay Stansfield is the club’s leading scorer.

The 22-year-old striker, who wears the number 28 shirt, has blanked in his last 2 appearances, last scoring a brace in a 3-2 home defeat to Hull City on October 18th.

Jay is the son of Exeter City legend Adam Stansfield, who tragically passed away in 2010 after a short battle with colorectal cancer. In 2022, Jay returned to his boyhood club, Exeter, on loan from Fulham and was honoured with being given the squad number 9, which had previously been retired in memory of his father.

9 goals in 36 put Jay on the radar for several EFL clubs and the following season he went on loan to Birmingham, where he scored 12 goals in 43 appearances and was named the club’s Player of the Season.

After returning to parent club Fulham and seeing Birmingham relegated, Stansfield returned permanently on August 30th, 2024 for a fee reported to be in the region of £15million, rising to £20million with incentives - This smashed the transfer record for a player joining or leaving a League One club.

CURRENT FORM

Birmingham came into this Championship campaign off the back of a convincing League One title success last term, achieving the highest-ever points total in a single EFL season with 111 - 24 points clear of 3rd place Stockport County.

Right now, Chris Davies’ side occupy 15th place after picking up 15 points from their opening 12 fixtures. They have won just one of their 6 matches prior to this weekend’s meeting with Portsmouth.

Their previous match ended in a 1-0 defeat to Bristol City at Ashton Gate last Saturday.

The last time these 2 teams met for a league fixture was all the way back in March 2012, where at Fratton Park it was eventually-relegated Pompey who ran out 4-1 winners against a Brum side that finished in 4th, thanks to goals from Chris Maguire, David Norris, Kelvin Etuhu and Marko Futacs.

Can John Mousinho’s side pick up a much-needed 3 points on the road?

Join Jake Smith, David Howes, James Wilson and Danny Thompson for all of the unmissable action LIVE from St Andrew's this Saturday (November 1st) from 2pm - Pompey Live on Express FM will have you covered with all of the pre-match, half-time and post-match talk, as well as live commentary of the game in-between too.

Kick-off: 3pm!