Birmingham vs Rotherham Prediction: Huge game for both sides

Birmingham City welcome Rotherham United to St Andrew’s in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon (15:00). After beating Sheffield Wednesday on home soil last weekend, Wayne Rooney’s side slipped back to a defeat on the road at Blackburn Rovers in midweek with another woeful defensive display.

There will be a lot of pressure on Rooney to deliver a result in front of the home crowd once again, particularly with Rotherham’s terrible away record.

Here a couple of the best markets available to punters ahead of this second-tier contest.

Match Odds

Birmingham are priced at 8/15 to get the three points here. You can back the draw at 11/4, while Rotherham are valued at 9/2 to pick up a rare away win.

Both teams to score in this encounter is 5/6. Over 2.5 goals is marketed at 4/5.

Team News

Birmingham are going to be without Tyler Roberts, George Hall, Keshi Anderson and Alfie Chang for the weekend due to injury.

The Millers are going to be without Sam Clucas and Cafu for the trip to the West Midlands. Also on the sidelines for the visitors are Shane Ferguson, Cameron Humphreys, Tyler Blackett and Andre Green.

Both teams to score @ 5/6

The Blues have scored in their last five matches under Rooney, despite only picking up four points from them. They are starting to look a lot more dangerous going forward, but there are still a lot of concerns about them defensively after they shipped three goals in the space of 15 minutes at Blackburn last time out.

Rotherham’s away form for the past year has been terrible but even they will feel confident coming up against Birmingham’s defence with the form that they are in. The Millers have scored in four of their last five Championship games and they can definitely hurt the Blues on Saturday.

Siriki Dembele to score anytime @ 11/5

One of the positives from Birmingham’s 4-2 defeat at Ewood Park on Wednesday was Siriki Dembele’s two-goal showing, which sparked a comeback late in the second half. The winger has now joined Jay Stansfield as the Blues’ joint-top scorer in the Championship this season with five goals.

His dancing feet were causing Rovers lots of problems, as they have done against a few opponents this campaign, and Rotherham should be no exception. Both his goals in midweek were taken brilliantly and if he gets a sight of goal on Saturday, you’d be confident in seeing the ball hit the back of the net.