Wigan Athletic vs Birmingham City | League One Preview
After a delayed start to 2025 League One action, Wigan Athletic host Birmingham City at the Brick Community Stadium for our first game of the new year.
Part One | An overview of our opponents. 🔎
Part Two | “Who to Watch” players. 👓
Part Three | What can we expect from this game? 🏟️
We will try this again, shall we? Happy New Year! 🥳
After a delayed start to 2025 League One action, Wigan Athletic host Birmingham City at the Brick Community Stadium for our first game of the new year.
The Latics and the Blues met on August 31st with Chris Davies’ side securing a 2-1 victory after Scott Wright’s 91st-minute winner erupted St Andrews.
Let’s see what we can expect from this game 👇
Birmingham City
League One newcomers, Birmingham City, have had an exceptional start to the campaign and sit 2nd in the table with 50 points.
To see how the Blues ended up back in the third tier after 29 years in the top two divisions, you can read all about their history in our last meeting’s preview 👇
Eighteen League One games have passed since we met at St Andrews and the Blues have won twelve, drawn four, and lost just two.
Scott Wright’s 90th-minute winner against Latics last time out extended their winning streak in the league to three games. Four more wins followed with full points against Wrexham (3-1), Rotherham United (0-2), Peterborough United (3-2), and Huddersfield Town (1-0) ✅
The Blues then lost their first league game of the season on October 5th after Charlton Athletic won 1-0 at The Valley. Matty Godden, who was signed to replace Alfie May, netted the winning goal in the 54th minute.
A 3-1 victory away at Lincoln City swiftly brought Birmingham back to winning ways and they followed it up with a 2-0 victory at St Andrews against Bolton Wanderers. That ended Ian Evatt’s four-game winning streak.
Chris Davies’ side then went three games without a win with back-to-back 1-1 draws against Mansfield Town and Northampton Town followed by a 3-2 loss away at Shrewsbury Town in Gareth Ainsworth’s first game in charge.
This setback kicked the Blues into gear and on a six-game winning streak with victories against Exeter City (0-2), Stockport County (2-0), Barnsley (1-2), Bristol Rovers (2-0), Crawley Town (0-1), and Burton Albion (2-0). This run sent the newcomers to the top of the table. 📈
Birmingham are now on the verge of going three games without a win again after a 0-0 draw at home to Blackpool was followed up with a 1-1 draw away at Stockport County most recently.
After Wycombe Wanderers scored a 94th-minute winner over Exeter City last time out, they have moved above the Blues in the table but are tied on 50 points. The Chairboys have also won 15 and drawn 5 but have a better goal difference by +3.
As Birmingham City will be visiting the Brick Community Stadium on Saturday, their away form signals that the Latics could be in for a good result. Both of the Blues’ losses have been away from home, with their overall record standing at 7 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses. 📊
On the road, they have scored 19 of their 38 goals, conceded 11 of their 17, and kept just 3 of their 9 total clean sheets.
Birmingham City’s Last 5 League One Results
Birmingham City 2 - 0 Bristol Rovers
⚽️ Goals: L. Buchanan (6’), J. Stansfield (Pen. 38’)
Crawley Town 0 - 1 Birmingham City
⚽️ Goal: J. Stansfield (79’)
🅰️ Assist: K. Anderson (79’)
Birmingham City 2 - 0 Burton Albion
⚽️ Goals: J. Stansfield (Pen. 26’), Own Goal (56’)
Birmingham City 0 - 0 Blackpool
Stockport County 1 - 1 Birmingham City
⚽️ Goal: A. May (5’)
🅰️ Assist: W. Willumson (5’)
Chris Davies has a side capable of winning League One this season with a squad full of impressive talents. Here are the three that have stood out to me most so far 👇
Jay Stansfield
👕 Number 28 | Forward | Age: 222
✍️ Joined on August 30th 2024 from Fulham
After arriving from Fulham in the summer with a hefty price tag, reportedly £15 million rising to £20 million with add-ons to break the all-time League One transfer record, Jay Stansfield has been under heavy scrutiny with questions of ‘Was the price tag worth the player?” 💭
In my opinion, yes it was. While it was an incredibly large figure to spend on a player to compete in the third division, Birmingham City simply have to get promoted this season and begin re-establishing themselves as a Championship side as soon as possible. I feel they will be a top two side this season to gain automatic promotion.
With 12 goals and 1 assist to his name so far, the young forward has been directly involved in a third of the Blues’ goals this season and has shown plenty of potential to be successful when they are back in the second tier. 👏
Stansfield roams the frontline well, but most often plays in off the left or in central areas. His biggest trait is how clinical he is with a range of finishes in his highlights reel. Therefore, our defence cannot afford to give him any time or space to work with.
Alfie May
👕 Number 9 | Forward | Age: 31
✍️ Joined on July 2nd 2024 from Charlton Athletic
Last season’s League One Golden Boot winner ended the campaign with 23 goals and 1 assist in a lower-midtable Charlton Athletic side.
After 22 appearances this season, May has netted 8 times and provided 4 assists. His role has adapted from being a dependable target man who scores the majority of the goals into a team player who can utilise the players around him to create a frightening and united attack.
At 31 years of age, the EFL veteran has plenty of experience and knows how to unpick any defence. Like with Stansfield, our defence must keep a close eye on May and keep him from getting too much space and time on the ball.
Tomoki Iwata
👕 Number 24 | Center Midfielder | Age: 27
✍️ Joined on August 30th 2024 from Celtic
As far as centre midfielders go, Tomoki Iwata is probably the best of the bunch in the division and could easily play at a higher level.
Iwata has 5 goals and 1 assist so far, with some stunning strikes in his highlight reel. Four of his goals have been from outside the box. 🎯
His work rate and overall defensive success are what make this midfield work so well. Especially, when you pair him alongside Paik.
With Matt Smith, Tyrese Francois, and Baba Adeeko all out injured, Scott Smith and Jensen Weir are most likely going to start and have to keep in clear communication if they are to compete well against a midfield of Iwata and Paik.
A difficult December saw the Latics go up against three of the divisions’ newcomers in Huddersfield Town, Rotherham United, and Wrexham.
While Steve Evans’ side are struggling in the bottom half of the table, both the Terriers and the Red Dragons are competing in the top six and Maloney had plenty of positives to take from those games despite losing them.
Even when you go back to the 1-0 loss at home to Wycombe, Latics could and should have won that game with the amount of chances we had in the second half. A Franco Ravizzoli masterclass kept us out.
Maloney has shown signs of settling with a squad that he feels he can depend on and recent performances have shown the benefits of sticking with a steady squad selection.
Aside from the Leyton Orient loss, Latics have shown anywhere from 45-minute to 90-minute spells of excellence and that we can compete with some of the best sides in this division.
Birmingham City’s away form has been much shakier than performances as St Andrews, and overall they aren’t blowing any team out of the water with heavy scorelines recently. The Blues have won by a two-goal gap in four of their last ten games, been held to a draw three times, and lost against Shrewsbury.
There are some frailties to exploit against them, and if Latics can perform like we have seen of late then why can’t we get something from this game? 💭
We can expect Birmingham to line up in their 4-2-3-1 shape, with centre-back Bielik as a stand-in right back. Alex Cochrane is most likely going to start as Lee Buchanan has been ruled out for the season through injury, and he loves to get forward down the wing. This can see the remaining defensive trio of Davies, Klarer, and Bielik form a back three to cover.
The Blues will aim to get on the ball as much as possible and attempt to wear out the Latics through a passing game. However, when space opens up they can exploit it quickly through impressive team play and create a goalscoring opportunity.
If you cast your mind back to Birmingham’s opening goal against Wigan last time out, this is a great example of how being out of position will allow them to move the ball quickly and directly to advance towards the goal.
You can read more about my debrief of our last meeting here 👇
Weekly De-Brief: A serious conversation needs to be had now...
Less than a month has passed since football returned for a new season, and it has certainly been far from an enjoyable 26 days in the life of a Wigan Athletic supporter.
For Wigan to get something out of this game, I feel that patience is going to be key. Birmingham are bottom of the table for shots faced and shots on target faced, showing that they do not offer up many chances for opponents to score.
Our forwards will need to be smart with the press, aware of when to track back and help the midfield, and ready to pounce into open areas when we gain possession of the ball.
I have been impressed with our play over recent weeks, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see us kick off the new year with another point on the board. Let’s hope it’s three though! 🎁
👕 Starting XI Prediction: Sam Tickle, Toby Sibbick, Jason Kerr, Will Aimson, Steven Sessegnon, Jensen Weir, Scott Smith, Jonny Smith, Thelo Aasgaard, Silko Thomas, Dale Taylor
⚽️ Score Prediction: Wigan Athletic 1 - 1 Birmingham City
Up the Tics 🔵⚪️
🙌 Thank you for reading!
✍🏼 Charlie Keegan / Central Wigan
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