Shrewsbury vs Birmingham Prediction: Blues to lose two in a row?

Any talk of an unbeaten League 1 season was brought to a swift end on Saturday as Birmingham City lost their 0 at the hands of Charlton Athletic. Matty Godden scored the only goal of the game in that one, which led manager Chris Davies to strangely claim that “Charlton spent a fortune” in his post-match interview. 

Anyway, he will lead his side across to Shrewsbury on Tuesday night for their EFL Trophy clash that kicks off at 19:30. Having also lost on penalties to Walsall in the opening game of this competition, the Blues will be wanting to get back to winning ways. Below you can find my Shrewsbury vs Birmingham prediction, featuring team news and betting tips. 

Team News

Shrewsbury Town are currently battling relegation in League 1 and it looks like it could be a long old season. As a result, they may change things up for this one, but in truth that don’t have too much squad depth to call upon. Youngsters Char les Sagoe Jr and Tommi O'Reilly may come into the team along with Luca Hoole, while Tom Bloxham could be handed a start up top. 

Birmingham have a fair few issues heading into this one. Krystian Bielik was injured at the weekend and now joins a growing list of sidelined stars. Lee Buchanan, Ethan Laird, Luke Harris and Alfie Chang all remain out, and it gets worse for Davies. This is an international break and he has lost six more players as a result, including goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Paik Seung-ho, Lyndon Dykes and Jay Stansfield. Dion Sanderson is now fit to start on a positive note.

Shrewsbury vs Birmingham Odds

Shrewsbury are priced at 18/5 to win this game, with Birmingham available at 3/5. A draw can be backed at 11/4, over 2.5 goals is 8/13 and BTTS is 4/6. 

Shrewsbury to win tie @ 2/1

Now obviously Birmingham are the far stronger outfit if both teams had their best XIs on the pitch, and I’m happy to back them to win most league games this season. However, the issue with their ridiculous squad strength for the level is that they will lose players to international duty but still have to complete fixtures such as this one. Stansfield, Dykes, Paik and Peacock-Farrell are now all out, and when you add the injuries on top of that, I think there is enough room for an upset. 

Neither one of these teams is particularly bothered about this competition, truth be told. Shrewsbury would rather focus their attention on staying up, and Blues need to try and win the league. But I think there is value to be had in backing Shrewsbury to win this tie. Up against a severely weakened outfit, Paul Hurst may just fancy his chances. 

I’ve given us slightly more breathing space with this one by backing Shrewsbury to win the tie rather than in 90 minutes, and given EFL Trophy games go straight to penalties if the scores are level, and Birmingham lost on pens to Walsall, we could be in business. 

BTTS in the first half @ 3/1

Let’s back some goals, why not? Shrewsbury have seen both teams score in three of their last four matches, and they struck twice in the first half at Bolton last time out. Meanwhile, Birmingham have only failed to score twice this season and it seems as though Alfie May will be involved on Tuesday night. 

I think we might as well pick this game, in this strange competition to be a cracker, and I’m happy to back both teams to find the net before the referee blows his half-time whistle. There’s enough in both attacks for them to produce the goods. 

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