Blues to be Grrreat Against the Tigers? Hull Preview

After a week of craziness off the pitch it’s almost a welcome relief to get back to the football. Today sees the return of former boss Steve Bruce to St Andrews, as he brings his fourth-placed Hull City side looking for another win on the road. Can Blues continue their recent resurgence or is it going to be another blip?

Hull City

Hull City come to Blues fairly in form, having won four of their last six games, scoring nine goals and conceding seven. Their away record this season isn’t too bad, with three wins and a draw in eight games and having scored and conceded one goal more than Blues have in their home games.

On-loan winger Ahmed Elmohamady is a doubt with a muscle strain and Egypt boss Bob Bradley has incurred the wrath of Bruce having played the Sunderland man in the midweek game against Georgia in Tblisi. Paul McShane is rated at less than 50-50 but Alex Bruce could well return from a knee injury.

Steve Bruce will not be the only former Blue returning to Stans with the aforementioned Alex Bruce plus Sone Aluko potentially in the tigers line up. Aluko left Blues in 2008 having made one solitary sub appearance in the league cup; this season he has six goals in seventeen games since signing from Rangers.

Blues

Curtis Davies is a potential returnee after injury but if he doesn’t make it then Lee Clark will have to decide between keeping Paul Robinson in the centre back slot or bringing in Spaniard Pablo Ibanez who played another 70 minutes or so in midweek for the development squad. Blues are also missing Leroy Lita, who has returned to Swansea having suffered an injury and Keith Fahey who is back in Ireland on compassionate leave. Mitch Hancox could well keep his place on the bench after impressing in midweek as more senior pros return from injury niggles.

Today’s game is the acid test. The last home game showed a marked improvement in the manner of play and the away game at Blackburn continued in the same vein. However, the performance against Bristol City at home should be the norm, not the exception and it’s down to Clark to get the team motivated and firing from the first whistle. Whilst Hull are riding high in the league I have no doubt that if we can get into them early doors we will have a good chance of winning the game; start the game off slow and shoot ourselves in the foot with poor defensive mistakes and once again it’ll be an uphill battle.