Birmingham City vs Stoke City Prediction: Stoke winless last nine games

Birmingham City will welcome Stoke City at St. Andrew's Stadium in Game Week 24 of the English Championship. Stoke are winless in their last nine games while the hosts are looking for third win under Rooney. Who will come out on top after 90 minutes?

Birmingham City finished their last Championship game of 2023 on Saturday at Home Park, facing Plymouth. Plymouth had recently lost their head coach, Steven Schumacher, to Stoke. At halftime, Birmingham had a 2-1 lead with goals from Jordan James and Jay Stansfield. However, the game took a turn when Krystian Bielik was sent off in the 48th minute. Eventually, Plymouth scored an 86th-minute equalizer through Morgan Whittaker. Despite only winning two out of twelve matches, Wayne Rooney, the manager of Birmingham City, received applause from the fans for the draw at Plymouth. The team currently sits in 18th place in the Championship standings, with a seven-point lead over 22nd-placed Queens Park Rangers. However, they are nine points behind Hull City in sixth place. So far, Birmingham has only lost to Hull City and Leicester City at St Andrew's. Since Rooney took over from John Eustace, they have won only one of their five home games, a 2-1 victory against Sheffield Wednesday, who are in danger of relegation.

Ruddy; Aiwu, Sanderson, Roberts, Longelo; Sunjic, James, Bacuna; Miyoshi, Dembele, Stansfield

After two matches with interim manager Paul Gallagher following Alex Neil's dismissal in early December, the bet365 Stadium warmly received former Plymouth boss Schumacher as the new manager of Stoke City. However, Schumacher was unable to lead his team to a victory in their ninth consecutive match. The first game under Schumacher's leadership ended in a goalless draw against Joe Edwards's Millwall, who are also struggling to find a win. Despite the stalemate, Schumacher was satisfied with his team's performance and the point earned leaves Stoke City in 19th place, four points ahead of QPR, with the chance to move past Birmingham on Boxing Day. Stoke City's last Championship victory came in an impressive away performance against Middlesbrough on October 28th, with goals from Michael Rose and Mehdi Leris securing the win. The team has not won in their last five visits to St Andrew's, with their last victory there occurring over a decade ago in October 2013. Peter Crouch and Marko Arnautovic were the scorers in that match, which was a fourth-round EFL Cup contest.

Bonham; Hoever, McNally, Rose, Gooch; Burger, Laurent, Bae; Tchamadeu, Vidigal, Mmaee

Birmingham's offensive performance has shown improvement in recent matches and they have the opportunity to showcase their progress against a struggling Stoke side. The Potters appeared to be more organized under Schumacher in their previous match, but we are forecasting a loss for them on Boxing Day at St Andrew's.