Football Betting

Birmingham/ Newcastle

Radio Five Live was this morning encouraging listeners to text in their favourite sporting axioms, such as motor racing's "When the flag drops, the nonsense stops", cricket's "Catches win matches" or sprinters' "Go on the "b" of the bang." To this small pile of wisdom, the Wager would like to add something learnt from Newcastle's dire predicament: "Never hire a manager whose CV includes the word 'circus'." Newcastle's travelling fiasco tonight checks in at Birmingham, where defeat would leave them just one game away from their worst nightmare: waking up to find Dennis Wise as their manager, an experience akin to finding a rat in your fridge. It would also leave them just seven games away from another experience to make them shudder: in 1977/78 they managed 19 games without a win, and failure to win tonight puts them on 13. If they start smashing their failure records, Kevin Keegan's suitability to run even his soccer circus, let alone a football club, may be called into question. The body which represents circus folk would certainly be taking steps to prevent his causing any further damage to their professional reputation. Perhaps a soccer old people's home should be his next venture, preferably one of those where the residents' memories aren't as sharp as they used to be.

To find trends and research results for both teams, head to the chickendinner stats centre

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BIRMINGHAM
Last six: LWDDDL
Last six at home: WDDLDW
Last six home league games: WDDLDW
Injuries: Kapo (hamstring, 5 April); Queudrue (hamstring, very doubtful)
Suspensions: Taylor

NEWCASTLE
Last six: LLLLDL
Last six away: LLLLLD
Last six away league games: LLLLLL
Injuries: Milner (ankle, 5 April); Viduka (hamstring, slight doubt); Emre (calf, 22 March); Carr (hamstring, 30 March); Given (groin, very doubtful); Krul (shoulder, no return date); Ramage (knee, 18 March)
Suspensions: none

Headline Trends

» The last four meetings between the sides at St Andrews have been draws.

» Newcastle have lost their last four Premier League outings.

» Birmingham have lost just one of their last seven Premier League homes matches – against Chelsea.

Newcastle

» Newcastle have a decent record against Birmingham, with five wins, three draws and just one defeat in their nine Premiership meetings with the Blues.

» The Magpies, however, have been dreadful on the road this season, losing ten of their fourteen league contests away from St James’ Park. They have lost their last six.

» chickendinner superfact: Keegan’s side have conceded an alarming sixteen times and scored just once in their last four Premiership away fixtures.

» A remarkable twenty five of the thirty two goals that Newcastle have conceded away from home in the league have been scored in the second half.

Birmingham

» Birmingham are unbeaten in the eight league contests where they have lead at the interval.

» There have been fifteen goals in Birmingham’s last three league games, of which the Blues have contributed eight.

» Though Birmingham have lost five league games at home this season, they are unbeaten against sides in the bottom half of the table.

Any other business

» Betting on halftime: Only two of the last nine league fixtures played at St Andrews have been level at the interval.

» Betting on over/under 2.5 goals: Ten of Newcastle’s fourteen league encounters away from St James’ Park have seen more than 2.5 goals, including each of the last five.

» Late goals: There have been five goals in the final ten minutes of Newcastle’s last five fixtures, whilst four goals have been scored in the dying minutes of Birmingham’s last three outings.

17/03/08

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