Swansea City v Birmingham City

Dyer (hamstring) and Kalulu (ankle) are both still out with injuries sustained in the Preston game last Saturday. Carroll is continuing to build up his fitness after a long term injury and had some game time with the U23’s, where they drew at home against Villa last Monday, although he didn’t play last night at Middlesboro in the 3-2 defeat.
Birmingham look set to continue with their 5-3-2 formation after both strikers Alvaro Gimenez and Lukas Jutkiewicz scored in the 2-0 mid-week win over Barnsley.

We are live in front of the Sky cameras this weekend as the game is moved to a Sunday midday kick off to accommodate them.
A good crowd is expected as the Swans try to maintain their unbeaten start to the season, and with the Blues having 1,800 plus away fans.
Winger Jefferson Montero is ineligible to play against his parent club. Maxime Colin (hamstring) will have a late fitness test but could be available after missing the Barnsley game. Jake Clarke-Salter, Kerim Mrabti and Cheick Keita have all returned to training but may need additional time to regain match fitness. Jacques Maghoma (calf) is likely to be back in contention in the near future. Jonathan Grounds (calf) and Maikel Kieftenbeld (knee) remain out.

At 0-0 half time I was wondering if we could break down Birmingham’s big, solid defence, with a back five in a 5-3-2 system.
Kyle Naughton came on for Jake Bidwell at half time.
In the 56’ Lee Camp made a point blank save, he thrust out an arm to push Borja's goalbound header to safety.
In the 63’ Naughton hit a right footed shot from outside the box into the left hand corner of the net
Hoorn joined the attack and slotted the ball through for Celina to hit home a left footed shot to the top left hand corner of the net in the 68’.
Dhanda was brought down in the box and Baston slotted home the resultant penalty to the right hand corner of the net in the 75’ to make it 3-0.
Garrick and Byers came on for Celin and Dhanda in the 84’ but there were no further goals

Even this early in the season I thought the win was important to make a statement of intent.
Now the crunch match is coming next Saturday away at Leeds. First and second in the table. Should be a good advert for Championship football.

I thought the introduction of Naughton was the turning point. With Bidwell reluctant to press forward first half we lacked width on the wings to break down the 5-3-2 formation. It was Naughton, high up the field, who cut inside and let off a great right foot shot for the first goal. More of the same please.
We’ve faced two sides in the last few days with completely opposite tactics. QPR all out attack with twenty shots on goal and Brum who were just happy to sit back and defend. We’ve dealt very well with both types of tactics and scored three goals in each of those games, which makes me optimistic for the rest of the season