Will Birmingham Bounce Back to Premiership Promised Land?

Steve Bruce's Birmingham were sent spinning out of the FA Cup by Reading on Saturday but that could be a blessing in disguise for the 11/10 (Paddy Power) favourites for the Championship. Due to a couple of postponements, the Blues have a fixture backlog, meaning their squad could be stretched in the coming weeks. Their Midlands rivals West Brom are coming up fast on the rails and are 7/1 with bet365 to top the second flight. They'll be in great spirits after their 3-0 FA Cup win at Molineux but an extra Cup tie won't help their cause and, like Birmingham, they may struggle to get maximum points from their games in hand. There are some big prices knocking around for some of the other teams at the right end of the Championship table. 7th-placed Stoke City catch the eye at 33/1 withLadbrokes who pay a fifth of the odds for the first three places. They had a great win at Burnley last Tuesday and have home matches against Ipswich and Southend where maximum points look up for grabs. Similarly, Sunderland are flying at the moment and the 18/1 with bet direct will appeal to many punters who believe that the momentum is firmly with the Black Cats. Roy Keane's men also have two winnable home matches this week and that price could look big if some of their main rivals slip up. As well as an Outright market, bookiesbet365 and Blue Square also have odds on which teams will get promotion to the Premiership. West Brom look attractively priced at 13/8 with Blue Square to go up with Stoke worth an interest at 6/1.