Birmingham City are still not out of the woods in the battle to avoid relegation from the Championship this season.
Back to back wins over Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland had seen Blues move six points clear of the relegation zone. That had provided some welcome breathing space to the bottom three.
However, a 3-1 defeat to Ipswich Town on Saturday afternoon has dragged them back into the picture.
Combinded with results elsewhere, Birmingham City are now 18th in the Championship table, just three points above the dotted line.
As a result, it appears there may be a sense around followers of the club that while Blues should be good enough to stay up, there is no guarantee of that.
Birmingham City warned of ‘horrible turn’ in relegation fight
While Tony Mowbray‘s side do have a game in hand on the teams around them, those sides still have 12 games of the season remaining.
That of course, means there could still be enough time for Blues to surrender that advantage they currently have in the battle to avoid relegation.
Not surprisingly therefore, the possibility of relegation is one topic being discussed in Birmingham City circles, with mixed feelings.
Speaking on the Keep Right On podcast about the possibility of Blues going down this season, Birmingham Mail journalist Alex Dicken said: “So I still think Blues’ squad is too good to down. It’s got too much quality in there, it shouldn’t be in this position.
“But they’re down there for a reason and they’ve got to get out of it. My belief is still that Blues will stay up, but I think there’s going to be a horrible turn to come where they could even end up being the 22nd place team, because I think that will change multiple times between now and May.”
Next up for Blues is the visit of Southampton to St Andrew’s on Saturday afternoon.
Blues far from safe yet
It does seem as though Birmingham City’s Championship status for next season is still far from certain at this moment in time.
As is pointed out in these comments, that does feel rather remarkable, given the players they have in this squad.
The summer transfer window was an impressive one at St Andrew’s, with a number of eye-catching signings joining Blues.
Indeed, the excellent start to the season they made under John Eustace should not be forgotten. Birmingham City has been in the play-off places at the time of his departure.
That therefore, shows just how good this squad can be in the right circumstances. However, now that they are down there, it cannot be ruled out that things could still go wrong for them.
Indeed, wins for a number of those around them in the table at the weekend, did go to highlight how quickly things could change.
With that in mind, this could still be a very nervy end to the season for Birmingham City.