Key events
Our resident Grimsby chair – whatever happened to the Mariners this week, anyone know? – Jason Stockwood wrote up these recent thoughts on the Birmingham City ownership.
Good win for Leicester last week at Charlton.
For Birmingham, Lewis Koumas, son of Jasonon loan from Liverpool, an EFL Cup winner in 2024, makes a debut. No Bilal El Khannouss for Leicester again amid transfer talk despite being declared “available”. Jeremy Monga, 16, drops to the bench for Stephy Mavidi but Louis Page, 17, make his first home start.
Plenty of blooming youth around at the club of Jimmy Bloomfield, their legendary manager of the 1970s.
The teams
Leicester: Stoncher, Choudhury, Okoli, Vestergaard, Luke Thomas, Soume, Skipp, Fatawu, Page, Maviddi, Aywdi. Subs: Begovic, Faes, Nelson, Winks, Ricardo Pereira, Silko Thomas, Aluko, Monga, Daka.
Birmingham: Allsop, Samuel, Neumann, Klarer, Laird, Willumsson, Paik, Iwata, Gray, Koumas, Furuhashi. Subs: Beadle, Gardner-Hickman, Cashin, Cochrane, Leonard, Doyle, Anderson, Ducksch, Dykes.
Referee: Josh Smith (Lincolnshire)
Preamble
A midlands derby, east v west, and with there being no time like the present, and Stoke (!) running away with the Championship, this is a battle for the playoff. OK, it’s after four games but both teams are in a hurry to the Premier League. Leicester, well, finances dictate they need to get back up. Birmingham, well, with Toms Wagner and Brady involved, are shooting for the moon, and rebuilding the Second City with it. Or something. There’s high stakes at play here, with Chris Martin back at Leicester where he once worked under Brendan Rodgers. Martí Cifuentes is the latest manager asked to turn the Leicester ship around. Signs so far for both clubs have been promising.
Kickoff at 8pm. Join me.
