Birmingham City may already be marking 15th February in their calendar - View | OneFootball

Birmingham City may be looking ahead to February following their first League One defeat of the season at the weekend.

Birmingham City may be looking ahead to February after their unbeaten run in League One was ended by Charlton Athletic at The Valley on Saturday.

Charlton boss Nathan Jones changed his system for the visit of Blues, and starting with a 'box' midfield and an aggressive man-to-man press proved to be the right decision as the Addicks became the first team to beat Birmingham in the league this season.

Left-back Alex Cochrane admitted that the hosts' press caused his side problems, as per London News Online.

"Charlton made it hard for us from the first whistle," said Cochrane.

"It was a tough game. It's not easy coming here - Charlton made it hard for us. It hurts but we have to pick ourselves up and move on.

"They pressed well throughout the game, you saw that from the first minute. It is maybe just down to us as players to try and get around that - but it wasn't easy."

Goalscorer Matty Godden and Jones both revealed that the Addicks had used Krystian Bielik's comments as motivation, after the former Charlton loanee had claimed that Birmingham were "too good" for League One during the week leading up to the game.

There is no doubt that Birmingham will be looking forward to the reverse fixture at St Andrew's, and they will be expecting to get revenge on the team that halted their unbeaten start to the season.

Birmingham City v Charlton Athletic rematch in February

Charlton will travel to the Midlands to face Birmingham on the 15th of February 2025 and Blues are surely going to be ready to take revenge after they were comfortably beaten in SE7.

The likes of Alfie May, who Birmingham signed from Charlton in the summer, and Jay Stansfield, who became the most expensive League One signing of all time when he arrived from Fulham, will be hoping to have a greater impact against the Addicks' physical defenders than they did at the weekend.

Charlton centre-back Alex Mitchell was seen winding up the travelling Birmingham fans after the full-time whistle, which will surely serve as motivation for Blues when the two sides meet again next year.

Birmingham put the negative result behind them quickly with a comprehensive 4-0 victory over Shrewsbury Town in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday, so they will have confidence that they can get back to winning ways in the league against Lincoln City after the international break and start another unbeaten streak.

Charlton Athletic have only lost once at St Andrew's since 2008

Since they were beaten 3-2 at St Andrew's in November 2008, Charlton have only lost once in their last five visits to Birmingham.

The Addicks managed to pick up two 1-0 wins and two 1-1 draws during those games, all of which were Championship fixtures.

Lloyd Dyer scored the winner the only time that Blues were able to beat Charlton at home in the last 16 years, when his low driven effort found the net beyond the reach of Charlton's current goalkeeper coach, Stephen Henderson, during the 2014/15 season.

Birmingham may already be looking ahead to the 15th of February, and they will be desperate to beat Charlton at St Andrew's following the disappointment and frustration of their visit to The Valley.