The Baggies v The Blues

With betting odds favouring the draw followed by the away win on this season's 3rd local derby, Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish is not complacent and admits that Albion will be gunning for a scalp from this match, knowing that points from any or indeed all of their local derbies will increase their chances of survival at the end of the season.

This is what makes local derby games so interesting, as we have seen in previous seasons, the passions of a debry game are far higher than any other games with the possible exception of cup matches. The pre-match excitement I feel this afternoon when I troop off to see Villa take on Bolton, will pale into insignificance compared with the adrenalein build up for both Blues and Albion fans as they approach the Hawthorns for their three o clock kick-off.

Ok, the Albion Blues clash will not register quite as high on the Richter scale of fan's emotions as Wolves-Albion and Blues-Villa, but even so, there is plenty of rivalry between these two teams. Of the 60 games played between these two at the Hawthorns, the Baggies have won the fixture 26 times and Blues have won 15 times. Their previous match at The Hawthorns was in March 2007, where the two sides shared the spoils courtesy of a 1-1 final scoreline in a Championship match.

“I think they will be absolutely after our scalp,” Blues boss Alex McLeish told the Birmingham Mail this week. “Roberto di Matteo said he learnt a lot from the Chelsea game. But they will see these kind of games today the way we do - bread and butter. These are the games where you’re looking to take points from your neighbours. There’s probably seven, eight teams in the Premier League that should be guaranteed OK. And then it’s a fight with the other 12.”

Albion manager Roberto di Matteo is relishing the encounter and believes his team have already bounced back from the 6-0 battering by Chelsea a few weeks ago:

"Preferably I could have done without that kind of experience. It was a slap in the face. It was hello guys you are in the Premier League now and we are the top team. It was an indication that we have to learn fast at this level. The good thing is that we have not been crushed by the defeat. We have bounced back with some good performances and we have got better with each game. I have seen an improvement in every match we have played. That is very encouraging. I have seen a reaction and that shows the team spirit that we have within the dressing room."

McLeish and Di Matteo - Friends

On Blues, Di Matteo (a close friend of Alex McLeish - they recently travelled to a Champions League match together) says:

"Birmingham have certainly given enough people a clear indication of what is possible after reaching the Premier League. They had a tremendous run last year and what they achieved was impressive."

So, everything looks nicely polite and mutually respectful between the Managers, but will it transfer to events on the pitch?

I'm sorry Baggies fans but Braggley the Bingo playing Octopus predicts 1-3 to Blues with Marc Antoine Fortune scoring for the Baggies followed by a devastating reply from Gardner (2) and Zigic, the big Serbian showing his class in the second half. 

But as you know folks, Braggley has been known to get it wrong. In fact he hasn't managed to get it right so far this season, so we have had to ban him from going to his bingo for the past week so he can stay at home in his tank and fine tune his psychic abilities by reading Derren Brown's autobiography in a waterproof format.

That's how seriously we take things at Braggers' League.

May the best team win this afternoon - bring it on!