Middlesbrough V Birmingham at The Riverside Stadium : Match Preview

07 April 2014 16:31
Middlesbrough V Birmingham - view commentary, squad, and statistics of the game live.


Boro monitoring duo

Middlesbrough will check on the fitness of two players ahead of the clash with Birmingham.


Dimi Konstantopoulos and Emmanuel Ledesma both suffered knocks in Saturday's 1-0 win over Derby and will be assessed in the build up to kick-off but Dean Whitehead will not feature as he serves the second match of his two-game suspension.


Aitor Karanka brought in Nate Chalobah for Whitehead and the Chelsea loanee looks set to keep his place having netted the game's only goal to secure back-to-back Championship wins for the first time since mid-January.


Tomas Mejias (finger), Daniel Ayala (ankle), Seb Hines (thigh), Rhys Williams (Achilles), and Stuart Parnaby (knee) remain sidelined while Muzzy Carayol (cruciate) will not play again this season.


Lee Clark admits he has a selection headache ahead of Birmingham's trip.


The Blues boss changed formation and introduced Nikola Zigic with his side 1-0 down at half-time against Doncaster and watched on as they came back to win 3-1. He has selected teams based on second-half performances before and is wary of his decision "backfiring" once again.


Clark was impressed with young centre-back Tom Thorpe on his second debut for the club and he is likely to keep his place alongside Paul Robinson.


Tom Adeyemi made his comeback from a hamstring injury as a substitute on Saturday and he is among Clark's options.


Source: PA