Birmingham City return to Championship action on Sunday when they welcome Queens Park Rangers to the St Andrew's Trillion Trophy Stadium.
The hosts have seen their last two matches postponed over the festive period, whilst the visitors played as recently as Thursday evening when they snatched a late winner at Bristol City.
Match preview
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With matches against Fulham and Peterborough United not going ahead due to COVID-19 outbreaks over the past week, Birmingham's last action was at Blackburn Rovers back on December 18.
The last couple of weeks have given Lee Bowyer's side plenty of time to reflect on that game though, which the Blues lost 4-0 against their promotion-chasing opponents.
The heavy defeat was the latest poor performance and result on their disappointing run of form since they won three in a row in the back end of October through to the beginning of November.
Since those successive triumphs, Bowyer's men have won just once in seven attempts, which has seen them quickly fall from playoff hopefuls to bottom-half strugglers.
Twelve points now separate Birmingham from the playoff places, and their lowly position of 17th means they are now only five places and eight points above the drop zone.
Off-the-field problems in recent years means Bowyer's hands have been tied behind his back ever since he took charge, so a promotion push always seemed unlikely, but if the ex-Charlton Athletic boss cannot refresh his squad in the winter transfer window, results may continue to suffer and Birmingham could well fall into a relegation battle after all.
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Meanwhile, the visitors saw two of their games earlier in December postponed due to COVID-19, but have since returned to action with a 1-0 defeat at home to league leaders Bournemouth and a 2-1 victory over Bristol City on Thursday evening.
As previously mentioned, Yoann Barbet's late goal in the third minute of stoppage time provided Mark Warburton's side with the three points, after Charlie Austin's penalty on the stroke of half time had initially pulled them level after falling behind early on.
Warburton will be eager for his players to bring those high spirits from Thursday into Sunday's trip to the West Midlands, as he continues to search for the solution to his side's consistency issues so far this campaign.
The Hoops have seemed destined to secure a playoff spot come May on so many occasions when they put together a strong run of form, but they often drop off for a few games before bouncing back with another successful run.
As a result, QPR do find themselves out of the playoff places heading into the weekend, but Thursday's late victory pulled them within one point of Huddersfield Town in sixth place, who they have two games in hand over.
Another three points on Sunday could see them regain their playoff spot in the table, and after defeating their hosts 2-0 in the reverse fixture back in September, they will certainly possess the confidence to do so.
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Team News
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Birmingham will be missing the creativity of Riley McGree on Sunday, who has returned to Charlotte FC following the end of his loan spell.
The young Australian will be a big miss, after he had stepped up to the mark in the absence of on-loan Manchester United forward Tahith Chong, who remains unavailable for the long term after initially impressing earlier in the campaign.
Craig Gardner should return though, after missing the defeat to Blackburn due to COVID-19, but Marc Roberts, Jordan Graham and Ivan Sanchez are doubts for the hosts.
As for QPR, Andre Dozzell will be a welcome return for Warburton, after he missed the trip to Bristol City due to a one-match suspension.
The influential Ilias Chair, as well as Andre Gray, were unavailable due to injury, so the duo will need to be assessed ahead of their second game in four days.
The defensive trio of Jordy de Wijs, Sam McCallum and Moses Odubajo are all definitely ruled out for the visitors though.
Birmingham City possible starting lineup:
Sarkic; Sanderson, Roberts, Friend; Colin, James, Sunjic, Woods, Pedersen; Aneke, Deeney
Queens Park Rangers possible starting lineup:
Dieng; Dickie, Dunne, Barbet; Adomah, Dozzell, Johansen, Amos, Wallace; Willock, Dykes
We say: Birmingham City 0-1 Queens Park Rangers
Birmingham find themselves on a wretched run of form heading into this one and will be severely lacking in creativity without McGree and Chong.
QPR will be in high spirits after their late winner in midweek, and despite their opponents being the far fresher side, we can see them picking up a narrow win in their search for a playoff spot.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Queens Park Rangers win with a probability of 38.45%. A win for Birmingham City had a probability of 33.66% and a draw had a probability of 27.9%.
The most likely scoreline for a Queens Park Rangers win was 0-1 with a probability of 11.59%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.07%) and 0-2 (7.13%). The likeliest Birmingham City win was 1-0 (10.67%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (13.12%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with an 8.1% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Queens Park Rangers would win this match.
