Steve Cotterill is preparing his Birmingham City side for a huge week on the back of four games unbeaten in all competitions. 

The Blues stunned Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough on Saturday, beating them 3-1 to make it two straight league wins by that scoreline - which was enough to take them up to 19th place in the Championship.

The first of two massive matches Birmingham face this weekend comes tonight when they host Premier League strugglers Huddersfield Town at St Andrew's for the chance to set up a home tie with Manchester United in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

Once that has been negotiated, Cotterill will take his side to Villa Park to take on their bitter rivals Aston Villa but he will have to do so without left-back Jonathan Grounds.

The former Middlesbrough man had his injury assessed yesterday after being stretchered off in Saturday's aforementioned win at the home of Wednesday and Cotterill has been forthright in outlining the paucity of his options to replace Grounds.

He told the club's official website: "Put it this way, we don’t have a lot of options, so the option that I go with, I hope will be the best option in the coming games.

"We’ll have to wait and see. We need the results back off Jonathan first of all. There are a few big games coming up.

"And have you got players that can potentially play out of position that have played in that position before?"

Speaking about the suitability of Arsenal loanees Cohen Bramall and Carl Jenkinson for the role, Cotterill did not seem convinced. He said of Bramall: "He is more of a left wing back than he is a left-back. I don’t know whether he quite has the knowledge at this moment in time to be part of a back four.

"We will have to wait and see - he hasn’t been a professional footballer for very long." On Jenkinson, he said: "I don’t think so."

Youngster Steve Seddon emerged as a more viable option: "I don’t know (about Seddon). I’m still contemplating it. He’s trained with us and done great."

The Verdict

If I was a Birmingham fan, I would be worried about Cotterill's lack of faith in his options to come in and take Grounds' spot in the team, especially given that they consist of two Premier League loanees and a hot prospect from the youth team.

The transfer window has just passed and although nobody can legislate for injuries, assembling a squad that suffers so greatly from one injury isn't good management.

Birmingham fans - who would you play at left back? Let us know in the comments below...