Goals galore in the West Midlands derby

Birmingham’s slim play-off hopes are over having been deducted nine points but they will be looking to disrupt their West Midlands rivals when they travel to the Hawthorns on Friday.

All to play for

That nine point penalty has left the Blues sitting only five points above the relegation zone after being within touching distance of the top six. Garry Monk will need to quickly get his side in the right mental mind-set for a relegation battle if Birmingham are not to be put in serious jeopardy.

West Brom are fighting for a different goal with automatic promotion openly stated as their target. They dismissed previous manager Darren Moore in, what seemed, a ruthless attempt to close the gap on those in the automatic places.

The Baggies are currently seven points behind second place Leeds after beating Brentford at Griffin Park in the last game but will have to ensure they don’t drop anymore points in the final eight matches if their slim hopes of returning to the Premier League, without having to go through the play-offs, are going to come to pass.

Scoreless run to end?

Garry Monk’s side have lost the last four league games in a row – the worst run of Monk’s managerial career with a single club. The off the field issue could be partly to blame but now the points deduction has been handed down that weight will have been lifted and the Blues can play knowing what their targets are.

One thing that will need to change is their lack of goals. In fact, since scoring against Bristol City in February, Birmingham have had 59 shots in the Championship without finding the net.

In Che Adams, however, the Blues have a very talented forward. He has a good turn of pace and is very difficult for opposition defences to deal with. He has 21 goals in all competitions this season and will be one to watch for the away side here.

West Brom have no such issues finding the net, only Norwich have scored more goals in the second tier than the Baggies. The distribution of those goals is also interesting with their last eight Championship strikes all scored by different players.

Betting tip

With both sides having something to play for it will, hopefully, be an open game. With that in mind backing there to be over 3.5 goals at odds of 5/2 could be a nice earner for those looking for a football thrill.

Bet Over 3.5 goals on RedZoneSports