Birmingham City

Hull City's stuttering form continued last time out when they were beaten 2-1 at Sheffield United.

Despite no wins in their past three league games, the Tigers remain in the Championship play-off places in sixth, four points above seventh-placed Wrexham, but will want to further avoid looking over their shoulder in the home straight.

Birmingham go into this game on the back of a 2-0 win over Wrexham, a result that did their hosts on Saturday a huge favour.

That victory ended Blues' winless run of four games, avoiding a fourth straight defeat in the process.

• Hull have lost just one of their past 11 league games against Birmingham (W6 D4), going down 2-0 at home in October 2022.

• After seven consecutive away league defeats against Hull between 2011 and 2021, Birmingham are now unbeaten in their past two visits (W1 D1).

• Hull are winless in their past three Championship games (D2 L1) – if they fail to win here, it will be their longest run without a league victory under Sergej Jakirovic (4).

• Birmingham have won just 32% of their points in the Championship this season in away matches (18/56); the lowest percentage of any team in 2025-26.

• Oliver McBurnie has scored 14 goals in the Championship this season; the most by a Hull player in a second-tier campaign since Jarrod Bowen in 2019-20 (16).

Birmingham City head coach Chris Davies was full of praise for his Blues players after a convincing win against old rivals Wrexham at St Andrew's.

He told BBC Radio WM: "It was a big day for us. We wanted a big performance and we got that [and] a big result.

"I thought we were thoroughly dominant throughout the match. We looked like a proper team again and got what we deserved, which was a big win.

"I really enjoyed watching the team today, I thought we were excellent throughout.

"When the opposition doesn't have a shot on goal and we had so many chances, that says everything, I think.

"I just like the way we played forward more rather than recycling it."

Image source, Getty Images

The EFL has announced the fixtures for the 2026-27 season will be published at midday on Thursday, 25 June.

The first-round draws for the Carabao Cup and the Vertu Trophy will be made on the same day.

The new season will kick off on the weekend of August 7-9 with the first round of the Carabao Cup, and the opening fixtures in the Championship, League One and League Two will follow a week later on 14-16 August.

The first round of the Vertu Trophy will be played in the week commencing 21 September.

Wrexham will be hoping to return to the Championship play-off places when they visit Birmingham City on Sunday (12:00 BST).

Phil Parkinson's side have a chance to regain sixth place if rivals Southampton fail to win on Saturday.

Blues have proven to be a difficult side to beat for Wrexham in recent history but their fellow promoted club have not risen to the challenge of the Championship quite as they would have liked, losing their past three league games to fall to 16th.

• Since losing their first-ever league meeting with Wrexham in October 1979, Birmingham are now unbeaten in their past six against them (W3 D3).

• All three of Wrexham's league defeats against Birmingham have come in their three visits to St Andrew's, with the Red Dragons conceding 10 goals in the process.

• Birmingham City have picked up just four points in their past eight league games (W1 D1 L6), finding the net just four times in that run. At home, they have lost two of their past four (W1 D1), more than in their previous 41 combined (W29 D11 L1).

• Wrexham have won eight of their 20 away Championship games this season (D7 L5) and are only the third newly promoted side in the past eight seasons to achieve that total, along with Sunderland in the 2022-23 season (11) and Ipswich Town in the 2023-24 campaign (12).

• In the past two seasons, only Finn Azaz (41 - 23 goals, 18 assists) has been involved in more Championship goals than Josh Windass (35 - 25 goals, 10 assists), with the Wrexham man scoring 12 goals and assisting five this season.

Marc Webber
BBC Final Score reporter

Image source, Getty Images

The determined performance by Birmingham City against Ipswich was a mile away from previously poor performances.

Blues fans will, I'm sure, be happy with the grit and guile shown against the promotion-chasing opponents.

They dominated a second-half in a game where a draw should have happened - or even an away win could have happened.

Manager Chris Davies was quick to highlight how proud he was of his side's endeavour after the game.

He made seven changes at the start and it resulted in a different level from Birmingham City to that seen of late.

Ironically some of those who raised the bar in that second-half were the very people left out of the starting 11 after a flat defeat by Blackburn the game before.

As both the play-offs and relegation are equally unlikely for Blues now, all their fans demand is a repeat of the passion and effort shown at Ipswich in the remaining games, to give a ray of hope ahead of the new season.

Image source, Shutterstock

Birmingham City manager Chris Davies claimed the Blues were robbed of at least a point when they had a goal wrongly disallowed in their 2-1 Championship loss at Ipswich Town.

The officials ruled the ball crossed the by-line before Ibrahim Osman's cross went in off Dara O'Shea to leave Davies fuming.

He felt Birmingham deserved at least a draw for their efforts at Portman Road and they pushed Ipswich hard before succumbing to their sixth defeat in eight games.

Davies told BBC Radio WM: "I thought the least we deserved was a point from today's game.

"We scored a legitimate goal and I've never been as frustrated with a refereeing decision in my entire career in football, because of how hard we worked at a place like this to get into that position.

"For a linesman 60 yards away to guess, when actually we now see the ball isn't out of play, is very frustrating because the least we deserved was a point from this game.

"You can see from the reaction of the players that it was in play and it's one person guessing in this whole stadium.

"I asked the linesman straight after the game 'why did you do that?' and he said 'I can assure you the ball was out of play, I wouldn't have given it otherwise'.

"But it wasn't. We've seen that and that is as hard to take as anything because of what we gave in the game and what we deserved."

Birmingham City manager Chris Davies admits his team have lost their confidence after Saturday's 1-0 home defeat to relegation strugglers Blackburn Rovers.

It was a fifth defeat in seven matches, leaving the Blues 11 points adrift of the top six.

"A very disappointing result for us obviously," Davies told BBC WM: "We can't say we did enough to win it. You can see the confidence isn't there.

"Everything that I want from our play - the intensity, the tempo - we don't have enough of that attacking players really firing right now, where they have been earlier in the season.

"What I will say is I don't think its for want of trying. The players are running and working, and giving everything they can which is fundamental, but we're lacking that fundamental confidence.

"After being in such good form after Christmas, we've really hit a period where we're suffering right now, and its up to me to find the answers for it."

Image source, Getty Images

Championship clubs spent just over £69.5m on agents fees over the past 12 months according to figures released by the Football Association,, external an increase of £6m on the previous year.

The figures cover the period from February 2025 with Ipswich Town the top spenders, paying £11.7m having spent the first three months of the accounting period in the Premier League.

Southampton (£8.3m) and Leicester (£5.8m), who were relegated alongside Ipswich are the second and third-highest payers on the list.

Troubled Sheffield Wednesday were the most frugal when dealing with agents, spending £534,559.

Wrexham come in sixth on the list with an outlay of £3.6m while current Championship leaders Coventry spent just short of £1.5m.

Championship agents' fee spending, external

• Ipswich - £11,738,920

• Southampton - £8,381,358

• Leicester City - £5,866,587

• Sheffield United - £5,005,498

• Norwich - £4,020,206

• Wrexham - £3,660,584

• Swansea - £3,088,645

• Middlesbrough - £2,900,314

• Bristol City - £2,774,990

• Hull City - £2,450,431

• Stoke City - £2,088,886

• Birmingham City - £1,996,502

• Millwall - £1,982,348

• Preston North End - £1,831,233

• QPR - £1,829,036

• Watford - £1,612,833

• Coventry - £1,497,990

• Derby - £1,409,507

• West Brom - £1,346,030

• Oxford - £1,235,536

• Charlton - £904,698

• Portsmouth - £831,818

• Blackburn - £676,980

• Sheffield Wednesday - £534,559

Image source, Getty Images

Birmingham City boss Chris Davies has accepted the Championship play-offs are out of their grasp but believes they are progressing as a club.

Blues are 11th in the table, 10 points short of the play-off places with seven games remaining but Davies is keen they do not coast to the end of the season.

"We're trying to make sure we finish the season strongly," he told BBC Radio WM.

"There was a hope you can go and get in the Premier League at the first time of asking for us which it would be coming up from League One.

"What's clear is I do think we've made progress this year. We've been competitive but not as consistent as I'd like us to be."

Birmingham won the League One title last season with a record haul of 111 points, losing only three games and Davies now thinks they can learn from this season to mount a challenge for promotion.

"Where we position ourselves now is a club, a team and me as a manager very confident I'll be more successful here and get this club to the Premier League and stay there," he added.

"What we've seen in recent years is teams who do go from League One and straight up, they don't last long normally in the Premier League.

"Teams like Brentford, Brighton and teams who get there and stay there, they grow and build their team and infrastructure where they can actually be proper Premier League teams and I believe that's what we'll do here with me as manager."

Blackburn Rovers will aim to gain further ground on the bottom three when they make the trip to St Andrew's on Friday (15:00 BST).

Rovers are currently four points clear of 22nd placed Leicester City but have had limited time with boss Michael O'Neill during the international break, who was fulfilling his duties as Northern Ireland boss.

Meanwhile Blues are hoping to keep their faint hopes of the play-offs going by remaining imperious on home soil.

• Birmingham have won three of their last four league games against Blackburn (L1), as many as they had in their previous 20. They're looking to complete their first league double over Rovers since 1950-51.

• Blackburn have lost 1-0 in their last two away league games against Birmingham, last going three visits without a goal between 1987 and 2000.

• Birmingham have lost four of their last six league games (W1 D1), having been unbeaten in their previous eight before this (W5 D3).

• Blackburn have won 56% of their points away from home this season (24/43). Ignoring point deductions, only Sheffield Wednesday (58%) have earned a higher share on the road in the Championship this term.

• Blackburn Rovers have underperformed their expected goals more than any other side in the Championship this season (-12.1), netting just 36 goals from an xG of 48.1