Birmingham V West Ham at St Andrews Stadium : Match Preview

Duo suffer Blues Birmingham will be without Curtis Davies and Jean Beausejour for the Boxing Day visit of West Ham. Centre-back Davies was shown his fifth yellow card of the campaign in Monday's 1-0 defeat at Crystal Palace and now serves an automatic one-match suspension, with Pablo Ibanez likely to step in. Liam Ridgewell (thigh) could come back into the mix as he looks to make his comeback, although the defender is unlikely to be thrown straight back into Chris Hughton's starting XI after seven weeks on the sidelines. Winger Beausejour, meanwhile, continues to struggle with a calf problem and will play no part against the Hammers, kick-off 5.30pm. Hughton is likely to bring fresh faces into his line-up following the defeat at Selhurst Park, with the likes of Chris Wood, Wade Elliott, Nikola Zigic and Morgaro Gomis all competing, while the Blues boss will also consider reverting back to a 4-4-2 formation after switching to 4-5-1 against the Eagles. Blues welcome Sam Allardyce's second-placed side to St Andrew's having yet to taste defeat on home soil this season while only conceding four times in nine games. Sam Allardyce's injury-hit West Ham squad could be boosted with Julian Faubert and Abdoulaye Faye set to be involved. Defender Faye suffered a thigh injury in the warm-up before last weekend's win over Barnsley while winger Faubert came off with a hamstring problem but both should recover in time. The news will be welcomed by Allardyce who has a doubt over striker John Carew after he was also forced off against Barnsley with a back spasm. The Hammers are also without defender Winston Reid (shoulder), wideman David Bentley (knee) and striker Sam Baldock (hamstring). Jack Collison serves the second-match of his three-match ban for his sending off against Reading, while Guy Demel is likely to be sidelined after being stretchered off with a thigh injury in that game. However, Henri Lansbury is fit after a knee injury, Joey O'Brien is back after his one-match ban and Gary O'Neil stepped up his recovery from an ankle injury by playing 80 minutes for the reserves. Birmingham V West Ham - view commentary, squad, and statictics of the game live.

Source: PA