This isn't so much a preview, more a warm up. You see, we have The Clowns coming to Villa Park and when I say The Clowns, it won't just be eleven players on the pitch - there will be a few thousand inside Villa Park too.
You see, it isn't even like Manchester City in Manchester or Everton in Liverpool, or Spurs in London. Birmingham City are so much more a Leyton Orient - they've won nothing, never will and will never be the big club in the city they live.
And I call their supporters clowns, because every time they get promoted (a penny really should have dropped by now), they think this is their time and that they are going all the way. They are clowns because they know no better.
Throw a dog a bone
I'm not saying, like Dennis Mortimer did not so long ago, that I want Birmingham City to win this match, but if they did, I might, somewhere deep deep down, have an emotion come to life that you might normally associate with performing a charitable act.
That isn't true. I'm actually trying to be charitable and trying to be nice, but it doesn't work. I don't want that shower of shit to ever win a match. I want to see them relegated, back where they belong, because they're like a piece of shit in the park and when you stand on it, it is bloody annoying.
In fairness, they are only a point below us and a draw from them would see them go above us, so but nothing other than a win will be good enough on Sunday and I hope Gerard Houllier knows this. He needs to know this.
Missing men
Marc Albrighton, Gabby Agbonlahor and Stiliyan Petrov will be missing for this match and there is a chance Richard Dunne might not make it too, so there will never be a better chance for the clowns than now; a new manager and quite a lot of players missing.
But apart from Albrighton, I'm not actually that concerned by the others. Albrighton will be missed because we have nobody to naturally replace him on the right side of midfield, although I'm told Barry Bannan could do a job.
Prediction
I can't see anything other than a home win for this match, but that is just me. The manager will surely know how important this game is to the supporters and if he doesn't know this, it is also important for him.
If he loses this because he didn't get the players up for it, it will have some suggesting that if he can't get the players up for this match - what hope do we have.