Birmingham City vs Stockport County Prediction: Blues can edge exciting clash

Birmingham City will hope to stay on course for automatic promotion from League One when they host fourth-place Stockport County on Wednesday evening (19:45 GMT, Sky Sports+).

Blues sit third, five points behind leaders Wycombe with a game in hand, and they will be after an important victory over County, who also have promotion aspirations this season. Read on for my Birmingham City vs Stockport County prediction, as well as the latest team news and match odds.

Football Odds

Team News

Both managers made changes for their FA Cup wins at the weekend, but Chris Davies and Dave Challinor are set to revert back to their strongest line-ups for this game.

Blues trio Emil Hansson, Alfons Sampsted and Scott Wright have all been ruled out through injury, while Lee Buchanan will be given a late fitness test as he steps up his recovery.

Former Blues man Odin Bailey is unlikely to retain his spot in the Stockport side for Wednesday night after he came in for the Cup tie against Brackley.

Leading scorer Louie Barry will be back to face Blues, though, while Isaac Olaofe, who came off the bench to score on Saturday, is also pushing for a start for the visitors.

Birmingham City vs Stockport County Odds

*Please click on the link above to be taken to the main Birmingham City vs Stockport County page on betfred.com (or app) for all the live betting prices on this match.

Birmingham, as you would expect, are favourites at home at 8/13. The draw is 3/1, while an away win is 9/2.

A high-scoring game is expected with over 2.5 goals priced at 8/11, while both teams to score is available at 4/5.

League 1 top scorer Barry is 7/1 to score first and it’s 23/10 for the Stockport livewire, who is on loan from Birmingham’s big rivals, Aston Villa, to net anytime

Birmingham to win and both teams to score @ 9/4

Birmingham appear to be over their recent minor blip, when they drew with Mansfield and Northampton and lost to Shrewsbury, as Davies’ side have since seen off Exeter 2-0 and also moved into the third round of the FA Cup at the weekend by beating Blackpool.

Blues are third but they have games in hand on all their promotion rivals, so remain very well placed to secure promotion back to the Championship at the first time of asking this season.

They should get the better of County, but the visitors will be competitive at St Andrew’s.

The Hatters recently beat second-place Wrexham 1-0 and are also into the third round of the cup, having beaten non-league Brackley at the weekend, amid a three-game winning run.

Stockport have scored the third-highest number of goals in the third tier, 29, so they will be confident of at least getting on the scoresheet in the West Midlands, even if they may end up going home with nothing.

Over 2.5 goals @ 8/11

This should be an exciting clash with goals at both ends expected and therefore the chances of at least three on the night look high.

Seven of both teams’ League 1 games this term have featured over 2.5 goals and this should follow that pattern.

Furthermore, five of Stockport’s last six games have had at least three goals in and there is plenty of firepower in both squads.

Stockport boast the league’s top-scorer in Barry, who has 13 goals this season, while Blues’ Jay Stansfield has also had a fine campaign so far, netting seven times in the league.

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