Birmingham City and West Brom share serious issue - it needs to be fixed | OneFootball

The two West Midlands rivals have performed miserably on their travels

Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion were pinpointed as two potential play-off candidates before the Championship season commenced, but it has been a campaign of inconsistency thus far for both West Midlands sides.

It has been well-publicised that Blues are on a mission to regain their Premier League status for the first time since May 2011 as swiftly as possible under Knighthead Capital Management, with a top-flight return aligning with Tom Wagner's vision for the newly-unveiled 62,000-seater Powerhouse stadium and multi-billion-pound Sports Quarter regeneration project just a stone's throw away from St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park.

Meanwhile, their neighbours from approximately five miles west are also hoping to end a Premier League hiatus of their own, with the Baggies last featuring at the level back in 2020/21, eventually seeing hefty cash-flow figures from several campaigns in the top-flight diminish for the first time in over 20 years.

As well as being two historic, well-supported and ambitious clubs from the same region, Birmingham and West Brom were able to boast yet another similarity at the beginning of the campaign when Shilen Patel turned to former Tottenham Hotspur assistant, Ryan Mason, as a long-term appointment in B71 following a failed second stint for the vastly-experienced Tony Mowbray.

However, it proved to be another managerial mishap for Patel, whilst Mason's former colleague at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Chris Davies, is reportedly in no danger of losing his own first full-time managerial post despite becoming the occasional subject of sack talk at varying points of the season to-date.

Blues are currently three points and four places better off than Albion after 26 games played, with a 2-1 defeat in dramatic circumstances at Leicester City on Monday evening proving to be the straw that broke the camel's back as far as Mason's position was concerned, as he was sacked 12 hours after the full-time whistle.

Attention, of course, now turns as to who will replace the 34-year-old at The Hawthorns. However, as well as ensuring they remain in the post for a prolonged period, the Baggies' next leader must address a glaringly obvious elephant in the room, which has also been impacting Davies' side's own play-off bid in recent times.

Ever since Davies took charge at St. Andrew's, the 40-year-old has overseen a remarkable transformation of fortunes on home turf, ironically after the famous stadium was given a £15m makeover after Birmingham's first relegation to League One in 30 years.

Indeed, only five sides have emerged victorious in B9 across all competitions since April 2024, with only Hull City taking three points in a league encounter in a dramatic 3-2 success on October 18th. However, it has been a totally different story for Blues away from home.

Davies' side, who accumulated an all-time EFL points total of 111 last term, took 50 of those points when visiting their 23 counterparts last season - a theme which has not been replicated in the first half of their Championship return.

Despite starting their away campaign with a dramatic 2-1 comeback victory at Blackburn Rovers on August 16th, courtesy of late strikes from Jay Stansfield and Lyndon Dykes, Blues' only other away success this term also came in Lancashire, inflicting a first Deepdale defeat of the season on Preston North End with a 1-0 win on October 21st.

Only two further away points have been garnered against Wrexham and, ironically, West Brom, meaning a tally of eight from a possible 39 is the third-worst in the division right now, and also equals the club's away points' total at this stage of the campaign from when they were relegated two seasons ago under a total of six permanent and interim managers/head coaches.

An improvement is quite clearly needed, as Bluenoses are currently grateful that their impressive home form is providing a different outlook on what is possible between now and May.

Whilst results and performances at The Hawthorns were far from perfect in Mason's reign, they were significantly better than what was served up by Albion on the road, with his final game at the King Power Stadium summing up a disastrous six-month period.

It must be said, though, that the current rut which the Baggies find themselves in, was hard to envisage a handful of months ago, as they won three of their opening four away fixtures against Wrexham, Stoke City and Norwich City.

However, the 1-0 victory at Carrow Road on October 1st, courtesy of Josh Maja's 20th-minute strike, was the last time those in the Black Country would feel any remote sense of joy away from home.

An alarming performance and 3-0 defeat to Millwall four days later is the particular encounter which sparked a current run of 10 straight away defeats, although supporters would only begin to raise severe questions when Sonny Carey drove a 94th-minute winner past Josh Griffiths for Charlton Athletic at The Valley in early November.

Yet, despite dominating against the aforementioned Foxes on Monday night, it was an all-too familiar tale for Mason's side, as in a game they would have felt they should have taken maximum points from, they were still unable to end a lengthy run of away defeats when Abdul Fatawu slammed home another stoppage-time winner to win the game 2-1.

As such, Mason's position was made untenable when a 10th successive loss on their travels became the club's worst run on said front for 99 years.

A second away defeat to Swansea City in 10 days in the FA Cup would go on to equal Albion's all-time worst away run, which has stood since the aforementioned run of 11-straight losses back in 1927, meaning it is abundantly clear that this issue must be addressed as soon as possible, or they could find themselves dragged into a relegation dogfight.