Birmingham City are on the cusp of sealing promotion back to the Championship. Here is how they can be promoted on Tuesday night and the records they can break this season.
How Birmingham can be promoted on Tuesday night
It has, in essence, been a procession to promotion for Birrmingham City.
They faced an early assault from Wycombe Wanderers, but have remained consistent and have been top non-stop since early January.
Currently, they find themselves 11 points clear of Wrexham in second, with two games in hand. More crucially, they are 17 clear of Wycombe in third, with a game in hand on the Chairboys.
It really is a matter of when, not if, their immediate return to the Championship is secured. There is every chance it could be sorted on Tuesday night, ahead of their clash in the Vertu Trophy final against Peterborough on Sunday.
Victory is all they need against, coincidentally, their Wembley rivals Posh in midweek. But they could lose or draw and still get promoted, if Wycombe fail to win away at Huddersfield.
Birmingham on track to make League One history
Highlights of the Sky Bet League One match between Birmingham and Barnsley.
It has been a cruise to promotion for most of the season for Birmingham City. They have lost just three games all season, and could be set to break the record for most wins and most points in the third tier.
The record for points currently belongs to Wolves, who accrued 103 in 2013/14.
As it stands, Birmingham have 92 points after 39 games. They could still gain a maximum of 113 points this season, and need to take just 12 points from their final seven games to break the record.
Birmingham also have 28 wins so far this season. The record in the third tier is 32 wins, set by Aston Villa in 1971/72. The Blues need to win five of their final seven games to beat that.
Could they beat the overall points record?
- Birmingham are on pace to equal, and possibly break, the points record for an English professional league season.
- That was set in 2005/06 by Steve Coppell’s Reading, who won the Championship title with 106 points.
- Birmingham will beat that total should they continue at their current rate of 2.36 points per game.
- They require 15 points from their remaining 7 matches (2.14 PPG) to surpass Reading’s haul.
Birmingham club records
- 92 points – new club record for most points in a season, beating 89 in 1994/95 Division 2 under Barry Fry.
- 28 league wins – beating 26 wins in the 2006-07 Championship under Steve Bruce.
A Blues cruise in the third tier, but could they go back-to-back?
Sky Sports EFL Editor Simeon Gholam:
“Such is the positivity that has swirled around St Andrew’s this season, it is easy to forget that this is a club that had just suffered a near-historic relegation to League One – their first spell in the third tier for nearly 30 years.
“Mistakes were made last season, especially in terms of management recruitment, but the new owners have been working hard to rebuild the relationship between club and fans that had dissipated during the previous era.
“While the owners have made their long-term plans clear to rejuvenate the club and area, they have also not forgotten the short term. St Andrew’s has been given a new lease of life, and the place feels buoyant again.
“Winning games has also helped, of course. A club that had spent the best part of a decade treading water in the Championship have cruised to the cusp of promotion in League One.
“A lot of money has been spent on the playing squad, as well: £15million+ on Jay Stansfield, for example, is an unprecedented cost for a League One club. But the gamble has paid off, in hope they were assembling a team that could immediately go on to try and compete in the Championship as well.
“It hasn’t been long since we’ve seen Ipswich achieve back-to-back promotions from League One to the Premier League. There is a growing sense among the Blues that something similar is on the horizon.
“The first step, of course, is getting the job done in the third tier first.”
