David Prutton believes Garry Monk won’t have a happy return to his old stomping ground tomorrow afternoon.
The Sky Sports Pundit expects Middlesbrough to come out on top with a 2-0 victory at the Riverside Stadium:
“Birmingham have had a tough couple of years and Garry Monk won’t have wanted to return to the Riverside Stadium so quickly. I can’t see them getting anything from this one. Home win.”
We showed more than enough against Norwich last week for me to believe this will be a tightly contested match. Our away form was pretty terrible last season and we need to get off to a good start on the road.
Under Monk, we certainly showed some promising signs away from St Andrews, such as the win against Bolton, but the defeat versus QPR in April was pretty poor.
Everyone will be hoping that a new campaign will also lead to a clean slate. We’ll need to keep things tight early on as Tony Pulis’s side came out of the traps with three goals in the first 25 minutes against Sheffield United on Tuesday night.
However, we will not be facing their new signing Jordan Hugill up front with the player out with a hamstring injury.