Birmingham City were held to a 0-0 draw in the FA Cup against fellow St Andrews tenants, Coventry City, in what was a slightly bizarre cup-tie as Birmingham were the ‘away’ side in the fixture.
Although it was a disappointing result for the usual occupants of St Andrews, it nevertheless extended Birmingham’s unbeaten run to 5 matches in all competitions, but this sequence includes just the one win in the Championship came in the shape of a 2-1 win away from home at Championship strugglers, Luton Town.
Following the win at Luton, Birmingham have been involved in back-to-back 1-1 draws with Cardiff City (at home) and Middlesbrough (away) respectively, so Saturday’s hosts may be feeling quietly confident that they can take something from this upcoming fixture against Nottingham Forest.
Results on home turf at St Andrews though have been less than impressive for The Blues as they’ve lost 5 of their last 7 matches in their own backyard, and a visit from an upbeat and confident Nottingham Forest could spell further trouble for Birmingham on Saturday.
Nottingham Forest moved up into 3rd place and just 2 points adrift of 2nd placed Leeds United and the second of the two automatic promotion spots in the Championship following their valuable midweek 1-0 win away from home against fellow play-off hopefuls, Brentford.
🤝 Pantilimon leaves on loan#NFFC can confirm that goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon has joined Cypriot side AC Omonia on loan for the remainder of the season. pic.twitter.com/KW7kINuslR— Nottingham Forest FC (@NFFC) January 30, 2020
🤝 Pantilimon leaves on loan#NFFC can confirm that goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon has joined Cypriot side AC Omonia on loan for the remainder of the season. pic.twitter.com/KW7kINuslR
That recent win over The Bees extended Nottingham Forest’s unbeaten run in the Championship to 7 matches overall, and perhaps even more importantly, became Forest’s fifth win in this impressive 7-match sequence.
After many false dawns and blowing promising situations in previous campaigns, Nottingham Forest finally look to be the ‘real deal’, and the visitors have also suffered just 1 defeat out of their last 8 matches on their travels as the Tricky Trees have picked up points on the road on a regular basis, which formerly was their achilles heel.
Forest have lost just twice on the road all season and with recent wins registered at QPR 4-0, Hull City 2-0 and the impressive result at Griffin Park against Brentford, the visitors look a real force to be reckoned with under manager, Sabri Lamouchi.
Interestingly, the last eight meetings between these two teams have resulted in the home team at least avoiding defeat, but this trend could come to an end with this impressive Nottingham Forest outfit outscoring Birmingham.