Birmingham City goalscorer preview – Obafemi Martins

Birmingham City have struggled for goals all season and they need on-loan Obafemi Martins to step up and fire them to safety.

He scored the winning goal at Wembley, though it was probably the easiest goal of his career after an almighty cock-up between Laurent Koscielny and Wojciech Szczesny, but he has not really hit the heights in the Premier League since returning.

Birmingham have languished near the wrong end of the league table all season and their cup exploits have only polished over the cracks in their campaign.

For the early months Cameron Jerome and Nikola Zigic both failed to impress and goals were hard to come by, with midfielder Craig Gardner topping the scoring charts.

There is no doubt Jerome (15/2 to score the first goal versus Wigan) is a hard-working striker but he does not boast the most impressive scoring rates and, more often than not, he promises more than he delivers. The 24-year-old has scored 37 goals in 171 appearances for Birmingham and remains a big threat with his pace and power, but he is not a predator.

Zigic took a long while to settle at St Andrews and has only recently started to show he can cope with the physical nature of the Premier League. His 6ft 7in frame towers over many defenders and he offers a massive threat in the air, but is Zigic (13/2 to score first goal versus Wigan) really a forward who is going to get 20+ goals a season.

With ever-green Kevin Phillips and Matt Derbyshire the only other attacking options, McLeish moved to sign the former Newcastle United striker Martins on loan from Russian side Rubin Kazan.

The 26-year-old scored 28 goals in 88 games for Newcastle before moving to Wolfsburg, however his time with the Bundesliga team never really worked out and hence his move to Russia.

Martins (6/1 to opening the scoring on Saturday versus Wigan) is a pacey forward with an almighty powerful shot but that Carling Cup goal remains his only strike in Birmingham blue since he arrived in January. The side sit out of the bottom three only on goal difference and need to start winning games, starting with this weekend's game with rock-bottom Wigan Athletic.

Birmingham are 13/5 to win the game, while the bookmakers have Wigan at 6/5 to win all three points, with the draw priced at 12/5.

The Nigerian striker recently said he is focused on scoring the goals to preserve Birmingham's Premier League future, despite his own future being up in air as there is no agreement in place with Rubin Kazan over a permanent deal.

If he starts scoring reguraly and fires Birmingham up the table then there could be a few Premier League clubs knocking on his door.

Speaking about his future, Martins told the Birmingham Mail: "I don't know anything.

"I'm still on loan and I just want to be with the team, scoring goals, and we will see what is going to happen."