The Saddlers will be back in action on Tuesday evening as they make the short trip to the second city as they get their Bristol Street Motors Trophy campaign underway.
PRE-MATCH NEWS & VIEWS
Walsall will be looking to build upon recent victories as they make their way to St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park to take on Birmingham City.
After knocking Huddersfield Town out of the Carabao Cup in midweek, the Reds followed that up with a welcome win over Cheltenham Town on Saturday afternoon as Nathan Lowe and Jamille Matt struck to guide their team to a 2-1 triumph.
After losing to Tranmere Rovers a week earlier, it was promising to see the team able to bounce back straight away and continue their strong, though somewhat unexpected, start to the new campaign.
Adding to wins over Morecambe and Swindon Town, the result sees Mat Sadler's men sit second in the table, just one point behind Gillingham, with plenty of reasons to feel positive ahead of this Tuesday's return to cup action.
After failing to get out of the group stage for the last few seasons, the gaffer will no doubt want his team to get some points on the board quickly and hopefully go some way to emulating the side that made it all the way to the final back in 2014/15.
However, this match is far from a foregone conclusion as the Saddlers will be coming up against a team that has also enjoyed a positive start to the season and, with the backing of ambitious owners, has assembled a strong squad.
Winning three of their four games in the third tier, they look to be candidates to make an immediate return to the Championship, with tournaments like the EFL Trophy likely to be low down on their list of priorities, though with a squad like the on they've assembled, will likely still field a strong side.
With the likes of Alfie May, Lyndon Dykes, and League One record signing Jay Stansfield vying for a place up front, the somewhat depleted Walsall backline will have their work cut out if they are to at least avoid defeat under the lights in Birmingham.
WALSALL TEAM NEWS
Along with the already absent Donervon Daniels, Priestley Farquharson, Brandon Comley, and Danny Johnson, the Saddlers will likely be without Liam Gordon, Oisin McEntee, and Josh Gordon, who were all subbed off during the win over Cheltenham.
It's fair to say Mat Sadler will have his work cut out if he is to construct a team capable of taking the game to the visitors whilst also able to thwart their advances.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
There have been just twenty-nine competitive meetings between the Saddlers and their near neighbours Birmingham City.
It's the Blues who hold a comfortable head-to-head lead as they've won on ten occasions compared to Walsall's tally of six.
The first meeting took place on Saturday, 10th September 1892 and saw Walsall Town Swifts and Small Heath battle it out on Division Two.
Small Heath would win the first meeting 3-1 before hammering the Swifts 12-0 in the reverse fixture that took place in December of the same year.
THE LAST TIME WE MET
The most recent competitive clash was a Division 1 match that took place in front of over 20,000 fans at St. Andrew's on Saturday, 22nd December 2001 and saw Darren Purse score the only goal of the game as he sent a first-half penalty past Jimmy Walker in the Walsall goal.
MATCH OFFICIALS
The EFL has confirmed that Sam Purkiss, who is based in London, will take charge of the match with Christopher Husband and Steven Plane being named as assistant referees, whilst Ravel Cheosiaua has been selected as Fourth Official.
GAMES OFFICIATED
|
2
|
YELLOW
CARDS |
RED
CARDS |
10
| 0
|
PENALTIES AWARDED
|
1
|