This article is part of Football League World’s ‘The Verdict’ series, which provides personal opinions from the FLW writers regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Birmingham City host Fulham in what is shaping up to be a very exciting contest at St Andrew's. 

The Blues have lost just a single game this season and are unbeaten in their last three, scoring eight goals and conceding one in the process. 

Lee Bowyer's side currently sit in 9th place, but victory tonight could push them up to as high as third in the second-tier standings. 

Despite their positive start to the new campaign, Fulham on paper is their most difficult match yet. The Cottagers have accumulated 13 points from their opening six games, sitting third in the table. 

 

 

A win tonight for Marco Silva's men will see them reclaim to spot. However, it was a defeat for the London club at the weekend, with Championship newcomers Blackpool ending Fulham's unbeaten start. 

With kick-off fast-approaching, we asked three of our writers here at FLW to share their thoughts on tonight's game...

George Dagless

I would have backed Fulham but that result at the weekend for them at Blackpool has made me give it a little rethink.

Birmingham look really decent at the moment and are clearly in good shape, though you cannot ignore the sheer quality that their opponents will possess tonight even if they did lose last time out.

Fulham will be a wounded animal looking to respond and also won here earlier this season in the cup, so there's obviously that going for them.

Blues are in decent shape and will fancy this one at home, though, so I think we're looking at a draw.

1-1.

Jordan Rushworth

This seems like a difficult one to call and it will be a major examination of the promotion credentials of both Birmingham City and Fulham after their strong starts to the campaign.

Fulham head into the game off the back of their first defeat of the season at Blackpool, and they will have to show a reaction to that and that means that Birmingham might be in for a difficult evening at St Andrews.

Marco Silva’s side have already beat the Blues once this term in the League Cup, and they will therefore have that confidence to take into the game and try to get back to winning ways.

However, Lee Bowyer has got his Birmingham side playing perfectly from a tactical perspective so far this season and the Blues have been one of the most difficult sides to break down and play against.

While Birmingham also carry a real threat going forwards with Tahith Chong and Jeremie Bela in particular able to drive at defenders and make things happen for them.

This game could come down to whether Silva can find a way to break down Birmingham’s backline without leaving his side open to the counter-attacks that the Blues will be aiming to mount.

You could potentially see the Blues hitting Fulham on the break and if they can edge themselves ahead in the game it would be very hard for Silva’s side to get back into the game.

This one could go either way but with momentum in their favour at the moment it would not be a surprise to see Birmingham edge this one 1-0.