Birmingham City appear to be looking up, not down when it comes to their pre-season friendlies, and I think that’s something that will put them in good stead for the upcoming season.
It was revealed yesterday by our soon to be opponents Walsall that we shall be taking on the Saddlers in a pre-season encounter at St Andrew’s on Tuesday 3rd September to take our total this summer up to three, with Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City already in the schedule.
However, it’s those last two fixtures that I want to talk about, and what they say about the club going into the new campaign.
Obviously with the world the way it is, the options for who we can play in friendly games has somewhat been cut down, it’s not as if we can fly off on a pre-season tour to Spain and play a few of the local sides there.
Will fans be in grounds by the end of the year?
Yes
No
I think it’s very interesting that we are playing against two Premier League teams this summer, when last year we only played against one, and in all honesty I wouldn’t be stunned if we were to fit another game in, perhaps against another local top-flight side in Wolves or West Brom. In a sense we are punching above our weight, rather than punching down.
Beating a team in a lower division four or five-nil won’t really tell us much about things that need to be improved in the side. At least working against a Premier League side, and two sides near the top of the table, they are likely to exploit those gaps on a more consistent basis, then when it comes to playing against Championship sides, we should be able to deal with them a lot better.
That’s the theory anyway, I just hope that it carries through.
