Birmingham City kick-off their Championship campaign at Luton Town this afternoon with the doom-mongers predicting this will be the season when their constant flirtations with League One finally cost them.
Thankfully all those doom-mongers exist outside a small first team squad that has been pulled together by new head coach John Eustace, galvanised by a siege mentality and charged with defying whatever odds are being laid against them.
Blues arrive at Kenilworth Road with four new faces, John Ruddy as the one permanent signing and loanees Przemyslaw Placheta, Auston Trusty and Dion Sanderson in their ranks. As long as Sanderson recovers from the ankle kick received against Rayo Vallecano a week ago, all four could feature this afternoon.
As for Luton, Nathan Jones – still vexed by last season’s two defeats, an 8-0 aggregate scoreline and the odd tennis ball-chasing steward – has already hinted his team will be very similar to the one which drew with West Ham United last weekend.
We’ll have all the team news as it breaks at 2pm so stay tuned.
Key Events
FT: Luton 0 Blues 0
They've held on. Not too nervy at the end either. Defensively Roberts and Ruddy were superb at times.
Added time
Four minutes. It looks as though Blues might hold on for a point here. A brave and competitive display. Unless I've jinxed it.
So close
Blues mess up trying to plan out, Woods loses the ball and Cornick has space to shoot, thankfully he went wide. He should be hitting the target there.
A quarter of an hour to go
Luton are building up a head of steam again.
Blues defended a long throw in but the ball was cleared to Woodrow whose first time shot went through a forest of legs but straight at Ruddy.
With that Deeney is replaced - to the jeers of the home fans - with Juke on. Jukey takes the armband too.
Twenty to go
Luton have made a couple of subs, Cornick and Woodrow on for Freeman and Morris. Blues just don't have that many options on the bench to change anything.
They have, though worked Placheta into a couple of crossing opportunities but he's far too deep, Blues need him to be more positive and go to the byeline rather than lifting a ball in for Sonny Bradley to gobble up.
An hour gone
And so far Blues' clean sheet is looking a good one.
They've just had a nice passage of a couple of minutes where Bacuna and James have got on the ball in more advanced positions. They are struggling for ingenuity and an obvious route to goal though.
Even at set-pieces they seem outmatched by the huge Luton defence.
Close
James has no-one to pass forward to as Hogan doesn't given him and outlet. As a result he loses possession as he crosses half way, Luton play into the space down the left and Morris jinks inside Trusty but his left foot curler flies across goal and just wide.
Back under way
Sanderson picks up a yellow card after a foul in the right channel. Luton have made a fast start to this half too.
HT: Luton 0 Blues 0
Survived the early pressure, defensive shape held, Ruddy very strong and calm, not much opportunity for Bacuna to get on the ball up the other end. But it's not disastrous and there are positives.
Game management
It's a bit cynical but you have to credit Blues who have slowed the game right down in the last 20 minutes. That's slowed Luton's pace and it's no longer the onslaught it was for the first quarter of an hour.
On target
A Roberts cross is headed out to the edge of the box where Placheta takes it down and fires a dipping shot straight at Horvath. .
The long throw lives
Placheta’s cross from the left is put out and up trundles Marc Roberts. It goes into the box and is cleared at the near post.
Luton break and Morris seems to have dummied his way past Trusty only for the American to quickly get to his feet and block the shot.
Breaking free
Blues have actually escaped their own half.
A Colin touch round corner sent Bacuna running at the three centre backs. The midfielder benefitted from a ricochet to get up to the edge of the box but his left footed shot was weak and wide.
Then on the half hour James gets space down the left his low cross is behind Deeney but he touches the ball into Colin’s path to the right of the D, the Frenchman shoots straight at Ethan Horvath. That was a half chance.
Colin follows that up by passing the ball straight into touch on half way giving Luton a counter attack chance. He redeems himself covering on the left after a quick throw-in.
Under pressure
Blues had a spell where Colin and Placheta got forward to relieve the strain on the backline for a few minutes. But as of the last two or three minutes it's been all Luton again with Dan Potts given far too much time and space to lift balls into the box, totally unchallenged. Woods or Hogan have got to close him down.
Blues have just survived two corners, Ruddy tipping one away. The clear plan for the Hatters is to get bodies and ball into the area, though. Just about coping at the minute.
Tough going
Luton are all over Blues at the start. Trusty brought down Carlton Morris on the Luton right, James Bree drove in the free kick, which seemed to surprise Ruddy, who saw it late and had to stop it with his legs. The rebound was driven over by Campbell.
Then Placheta gave the ball away as Blues tried to break, James lost a tackle and Freeman was given space to twist into the area and shoot low to Ruddy’s right, the goalkeeper got just enough of a touch on it to put it behind for a corner.
Sanderson did really well to win a header at the near post. Blues have barely had any possession,
The teams are out
A real crackle in the atmosphere here at Kenilworth Road.
Troy Deeney is getting plenty of stick from the Luton fans - for his Watford past.
Eustace comes out after the players and gets a nice reception from the away following.
Blues huddle up, Deeney's head moving up and down to emphasise everything he says, then the group breaks up. Ruddy retreats to his goal.
And we're about to get underway.
Team's up
John Eustace has been able to include Dion Sanderson in his first Birmingham City squad, which takes the field at Luton Town this afternoon.
Blues’ head coach is also buoyed by the availability of Lukas Jutkiewicz and George Friend, both of whom are named on the bench despite injury-hit pre-seasons.
Sanderson has recovered from the ankle injury, administered in the final 20 minutes of last Saturday’s draw with Real Vallecano and takes his place in a side which features three debutants.
John Ruddy is handed a start in goal, with Neil Etheridge among the substitutes, his first Championship start in four years and after several seasons as No. 2 at Wolves.
Loanees Auston Trusty and Przemyslaw Placheta are also in the XI, in what looks like a wing back system with the Arsenal man on the left of a back three and Placheta playing wide.
That gives Blues a defence of Sanderson, Marc Roberts and Trusty, with Placheta and Maxime Colin as wing backs, Juninho Bacuna, Ryan Woods and Jordan James in the middle of the park.
Captain Troy Deeney starts up front, alongside Scott Hogan, with Jordan Graham and Jonathan Leko joined by youngsters Alfie Chang and Jobe Bellingham among the replacements.
BLUES (3-5-2): Ruddy, Colin, Sanderson, Roberts, Trusty, Placheta, Woods, James, Bacuna, Hogan, Deeney. Subs: Etheridge, Friend, Graham, Leko, Chang, Bellingham, Jutkiewicz
Gafffer tapes
Eustance spoke with the media this week.
“We are favourites for relegation so that should give them the desire, the hunger to make sure every time they go out on that football pitch, they roll their sleeves up and they put in proud performances for the club and the fans.
“It's just about us being competitive in every game for me and seeing where it takes us. It's important that this group's got good character. We want good characters in the team, making sure that they're putting on very competitive performances. And if we get that, then we'll see where it takes us.
“I think that the teams that have been relegated with all the parachute money, they're going to be very, very strong. The squads are a different class, they've got top players there – and the teams that have kept their squad from last season as well. You know they're going to be very, very good as well.
“The most important thing for me, I'm not worried about any of the teams. I’m just preparing this team, getting the squad together and making sure we're competitive. I've got the group and they've been a fantastic group of players and I've really really enjoyed working with them "
Clues
The club used their official Twitter account to show footage from Friday’s training session – which featured not just Sanderson but George Friend and Lukas Jutkiewicz also taking part with the first team squad.
While Jutkiewicz and Friend have not played in any of Blues ’ open friendlies, Sanderson has been a key part of pre-season playing on the right of a promising back three that also features fellow loan signing Auston Trusty. That was until his participation at Kenilworth Road was thrown into doubt late in the final warm-up game against Rayo Vallecano.
Sanderson was kicked on the ankle by Bebe and replaced by Tate Campbell with a quarter of an hour to go. He was kept out of Tuesday’s open training session but pictured in today’s handing John Eustace a big boost before his first official game as head coach.
No more Quest
The EFL highlights are no longer the domain of Quest, and therefore will be shown free-to-air on ITV.
Supporters can watch the highlights each Saturday at 9pm on ITV4, with a repeat being shown on the ITV main channel at 11:15pm.
Or alternatively, you can watch them on Sundays from 9:25pm on the main ITV channel.
Here's the information you need about Blues TV.
Hello
And welcome to BirminghamLive's coverage of today's curtain-raiser at Kenilworth Road.
We'll have the team news for you at 2pm so stay tuned - and why not catch up with a few bits of Blues news.
