Birmingham v Ipswich Match Result
There’s a brilliant fixture to kick off the 2025/26 Championship season, with St Andrews hosting a clash between two clubs targeting promotion to the Premier League. Birmingham City recorded an amazing 111 points in League One last season when storming to the title, with the Blues landing thirty-four victories from the forty-six games played.
Chris Davies is now tasked with the tougher task of achieving a promotion to the top flight. There have been some notable captures, with Kyogo Furuhashi arriving from Stade Rennais for £9 million in a statement of intent. Let’s not forget that Birmingham previously spent close to £20 million on Jay Stansfield and the striker should be able to hit the ground running.
The Championship betting sites are slight favourites to claim three points against Ipswich in this encounter. There are lots of other new arrivals at St Andrews, with Taylor Gardner-Hickman, Kanya Fujimoto and Phil Neumann among the other players who look set to make an impact.
St Andrews will be bouncing although Ipswich are the title favourites as far as the second flight is concerned. McKenna has to reshape his squad after an unsuccessful Premier League campaign and it’s clear that the funds received from the sale of Liam Delap will be reinvested. Azor Matusiwa is a defensive midfielder who has arrived from Stade Rennais, with Cedric Kipre recruited to bolster the defence.
This could be a close encounter although Birmingham might be capable of making home advantage count. Last season, the Blues were unbeaten on home soil and recorded nineteen wins and four draws from their twenty-three games at St Andrews. Forty-seven goals were scored and just eleven conceded – they’ll want to make it a similar type of fortress this time around.
Goals Under/Over
Under 2.5 Goals is trading as the slight favourite for this Championship clash. We know that Birmingham had a strong track record at St Andrews last season. City conceded just eleven times on home soil last term and they will look to boast a similarly strong defensive track record. However, they did average two goals per home match last term and they will certainly be roared forward by a sell-out crowd.
Naturally, this is a big step up from League One to Championship although the Blues are third favourites in the outright betting. Ipswich two seasons ago finished second in the second flight and they didn’t have too many high-scoring clashes on the road. They scored thirty-three times away from home and conceded on just twenty-five occasions. McKenna’s approach was to be more defensive away from Portman Road and perhaps a low goal count is on the cards.
BTTS
It’s a toss-up between BTTS Yes and BTTS No according to the latest betting odds. There were only two Birmingham home matches last season where the Blues failed to find the net. That means they were on target against twenty-one of their opponents. This might end up being their toughest home clash of the entire campaign, although they were able to flex their attacking muscle towards the end of the season.
Towards the end of March, there was a 4-1 triumph against Shrewsbury Town and then came a 6-2 success against Barnsley. Jay Stansfield bagged twenty-four goals in all competitions last term, with Alfie May having scored seventeen times and there is a strong likelihood that they will find the net at least once here.
Ipswich will want to leave St Andrews with a positive result. It’s a tricky opener and a low-scoring draw would work out fine. Despite getting relegated from the Premier League last term, they managed to score twenty-two times on the road last season which was actually one more than Manchester United. However, the BTTS No option covers a goalless draw.
First Goalscorer
Jay Stansfield scored nineteen goals in League One and it’s clear that he was too good for that level last season. At the age of 22, the England Under-21 international is open to further improvement and he will be looking to get on the scoresheet early into the campaign. However, Alfie May was able to finish on sixteen last term, with the former Cheltenham man likely to offer a big scoring threat.
Ipswich have to find a way to replace the goals scored by Liam Delap last season, with George Hirst having signed a new four-year deal at the club and perhaps he can find the net regularly at Championship level. Conor Chaplin was a goal getter at this level before and he should find more first-team opportunities away from the top flight, with Wes Burns another potential option.
It's clear that there’s still more business to be conducted by both of these two ambitious clubs, with new arrivals set to bolster the squad and look to get among the goals. Therefore, we recommend looking out for the latest signings and understanding their previous goal records to get a feel for their first scorer bets. You can also place a Bet Builder where you can include one of the players to be on the scoresheet.