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 got off to a flying start under Lee Bowyer last night, beating Reading FC 2-1 at St Andrew’s.

Goals from Lukas Jutkiewicz and Harlee Dean secured the points for Blues, with Bowyer making an instant impact upon his return to the club.

Blues are nine points clear of the relegation zone now, despite Rotherham having a number of games in hand.

So, after a first look at Bowyer’s Birmingham, how do our writers assess their chances of staying up?

Ben Wignall  

I said the other day that I really fancy Bowyer to turn Birmingham around mostly due to the fact he will probably motivate this set of players a lot more than Karanka could - and the point is already proving to be right.

They just seemed to be going through the motions at times under Karanka, and after Harlee Dean's celebration last night and Scott Hogan's subtle tweet post-match, you can somewhat guess that he may have lost the dressing room.

This is where Bowyer will flourish - he won't take any prisoners and will say what he really thinks and he's clearly already delivering after they picked up three points against a promotion contender.

I think Rotherham will fade away the closer we get to the end of the season - and, of course, with their multiple games in hand it'll always be a worry for Birmingham fans, but if the Blues keep winning then they'll have nothing to worry about as they will remain in the Championship for me.

Jacob Potter

I think they've got an excellent chance.

They might not have the quality in their team compared to the other sides higher up in the table, but Bowyer has already shown what he can do with the Blues.

They battled for every second ball against Reading, and with that win, you could see what a relief it was for the Birmingham team to pick up points on Wednesday evening.

Bowyer is clearly trying to get his squad to fight for points at a crucial stage of the season, and that's exactly what's needed at the moment.

I'm confident that this will be the turning point in their season, especially if their impressive showing against Reading is anything to go by.

I think he'll keep them in the Championship this season.

 

 

George Dagless

I think they've got a great chance judging from that performance.

Yes, it's just one game but the Blues played with a real spring in their step, real intensity and just looked happier at what they were being asked to do.

They've got another home win under their belt in what has been a poor season at St Andrew's and Bowyer seems to have gone in there and given them a new lease of life.

It will be tough and there will be struggles on the way but I do think that Blues squad is good enough to get away from the drop and I think Bowyer has it in him to get them to put in performances that are far more like what we know they can do.