Huddersfield are potentially 90 minutes away from having their relegation fate sealed following a 4-0 defeat at the John Smith’s Stadium to Swansea last Saturday, when another second-half capitulation sentenced the Terriers to their 18th loss of the Championship season.
Town and the visitors were level heading into the final 20 minutes of the contest but once Jamal Lowe swanned into the hosts’ box and netted the opener, Huddersfield were quick to fall apart, with Ronald Pereira, Jerry Yates and Liam Walsh all getting onto the scoresheet for Luke Williams’s men.
If the last-minute equaliser conceded at Bristol City the week before was heartbreaking, then the Swansea defeat was a numbing one for those of a Terriers persuasion, with Andre Breitenreiter’s troops showing a worrying lack of fight once they went behind in the contest.
Heading into the final two matches of the term – and with a final-day trip to Premier League-chasing Ipswich Town looming large – Huddersfield sit 23rd in the Championship table, three points behind Sheffield Wednesday in 21st, meaning that the Terriers will be relegated should they lose to Birmingham.
One of the only survivors from the playoff-final campaign of 2021-22 under Carlos Corberan, Sorba Thomas has provided a rare source of creativity for Huddersfield this season, scoring on four occasions and setting up nine goals for teammates.
Following a resounding 3-0 victory over FA Cup semi-finalists Coventry City seven days earlier, last weekend’s trip to already-relegated Rotherham was meant to be the afternoon that Birmingham pulled another rabbit out of the relegation hat, preserving their Championship status ahead of a summer of spending under new ownership.
However – never inclined to get their survival business done earlier – Blues were unable to breach Viktor Johansson in the Millers net and had to settle for the most frustrating of points, leaving their fate in the hands of those around them heading into the final two matches.
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Gary Rowett’s men were plunged into the bottom three of the Championship standings on Sunday afternoon, when a piece of terrifyingly-comical goalkeeping from Blackburn Rovers’ Aynsley Pears helped Sheffield Wednesday to a landscape-changing three points in the race for survival.
Alongside the constant changing of managers throughout the season, a wretched away record will be to blame if Birmingham become a third-tier football club for the first time since the 1990s, with Blues managing just three wins and 13 points from 22 Championship outings so far.
Saturday’s visitors will be desperate for a repeat of the reverse fixture between the two sides in October, when John Eustace’s Birmingham were convincing 4-1 winners over Huddersfield at St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park, just days before the Blues hierarchy decided to wield the axe on the 44-year-old in order to hire Wayne Rooney.
