Taylor out of Brum six-pointer

Birmingham defender Martin Taylor will serve the third game of a three-match ban for his sending off against Arsenal for the visit of Newcastle on Monday.

The former Blackburn player is then pencilled in to play for the reserves against Tottenham on Tuesday evening.

Blues manager Alex McLeish has no fresh injury worries as his side look to repeat the performance in their last home game, when they demolished Tottenham 4-1.

Cameron Jerome suffered a toe injury before the midweek game at Portsmouth, but was able to come on as a substitute after taking painkillers.

Provisional squad: Maik Taylor, Kelly, Ridgewell, Jaidi, Murphy, Larsson, Muamba, Johnson, McSheffrey, Forssell, McFadden, O’Connor, Jerome, Nafti, Doyle, Queudrue, Zarate, De Ridder, Parnaby.