Birmingham City v Bournemouth preview: Simon Francis suspended for Cherries
Saturday 9 January 2016 17:58, UK
Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe is expected to change his starting XI for their FA Cup third-round game at Birmingham on Saturday.
Defender Simon Francis is unavailable after his red card appeal for a tackle on Jamie Vardy in their 0-0 draw with Leicester last weekend was rejected.
Francis will serve a one-match suspension and Howe will also be without new signing Juan Iturbe who is still waiting for his work permit to come through.
Birmingham boss Gary Rowett has an almost fully fit squad to choose from, with James Vaughan pushing for a start after rejoining until the end of the season.
The only player definitely unavailable is midfielder Koby Arthur (quad), but Rowett could also make changes.
"We are not going to devalue the FA Cup," said Howe. "For us we want to create more moments and more memories for our supporters and the trip to St Andrew's is our next game, so that's huge in itself.
"We're desperate to progress and we're desperate to win, we have rotated squads in previous years and our record has been good.
"There may be a couple of changes but the team will have enough quality in it to put in a performance.
"The philosophy won't change and we'll look at giving some game-time to others as we have to manage the squad well at this period of the year."
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This will be the first meeting between these sides in the FA Cup. Bournemouth won both league meetings with the Blues last season, including an 8-0 win at St Andrew's.
The Blues have only failed to progress from the third round once in the last six seasons (2012/13).
Bournemouth have reached the fourth round in both the last two seasons, having failed to reach the last 32 in the previous eight seasons.
Birmingham have only failed to score once in their last 10 FA Cup games, but they have only won one of their last seven ties against higher-ranked sides (L4 D2).
