Key events
Some loud Kasbabian – thankfully not their awful Sky Premier League anthem – is ringing out. Here we go in the greatest league in the whole bloody world. The teams come out to applause for the last game of August.
Apologies for the Chris Davies/Martin mix-up. Guess I’m just too much of a Coldplay fan. And lover of the current Bristol Rovers striker. Sad thing is, I have actually spoken to Chris Davies. Nurse…
Demarai Gray, who began his career at Birmingham, before joining Leicester in the glory season of 2015-16, is back at Blues, and has experience and talent to add to his boyhood club.
Will Birmingham miss Jay Stansfield, who is missing through injury? He got a foot injury at Port Vale in the EFL. He’ll be out for “weeks”, according to Chris Martin Davies.
Our resident Grimsby chair – whatever happened to the Mariners this week, anyone know? – Jason Stockwood wrote up these recent thoughts on the Birmingham City ownership.
Good win for Leicester last week at Charlton.
For Birmingham, Lewis Koumas, son of Jason, on loan from Liverpool, an EFL Cup winner in 2024, makes a debut. No Bilal El Khannouss for Leicester again amid transfer talk despite being declared “available”. Jeremy Monga, 16, drops to the bench for Stephy Mavidi but Louis Page, 17, make his first home start.
Plenty of blooming youth around at the club of Jimmy Bloomfield, their legendary manager of the 1970s.
The teams
Leicester: Stolarczyk, Choudhury, Okoli, Vestergaard, Luke Thomas, Soumare, Skipp, Fatawu, Page, Mavididi, Ayew. Subs: Begovic, Faes, Nelson, Winks, Ricardo Pereira, Silko Thomas, Aluko, Monga, Daka.
Birmingham: Allsop, Samuel, Neumann, Klarer, Laird, Willumsson, Paik, Iwata, Gray, Koumas, Furuhashi. Subs: Beadle, Gardner-Hickman, Cashin, Cochrane, Leonard, Doyle, Anderson, Ducksch, Dykes.
Referee: Josh Smith (Lincolnshire)
Preamble
A midlands derby, east v west, and with there being no time like the present, and Stoke (!) running away with the Championship, this is a battle for the playoff. OK, it’s after four games but both teams are in a hurry to the Premier League. Leicester, well, finances dictate they need to get back up. Birmingham, well, with Toms Wagner and Brady involved, are shooting for the moon, and rebuilding the Second City with it. Or something. There’s high stakes at play here, with Chris Martin Davies back at Leicester where he once worked under Brendan Rodgers. Martí Cifuentes is the latest manager asked to turn the Leicester ship around. Signs so far for both clubs have been promising.
Kickoff at 8pm. Join me.