The 5 most congested Birmingham City seasons ever (Ranked) | OneFootball

With a few cup runs, the Blues could end up playing 67 games this campaign, but what season did they play their most ever matches?

Birmingham City are - on paper at least - one of the best sides ever assembled in England's third-tier, though if their largely forecasted success this season does become a reality, they could be looking at an extremely busy fixture list in the months to come.

While there are certainly worse problems to have, the Blues are resounding favourites to both lift the EFL Trophy and achieve promotion back to the Championship.

The West Midlands club already find themselves out of the League Cup following a 2-0 loss to Fulham in the second round, though an inspired run in the FA Cup could see Tom Brady's side play well over 60 games before the end of May.

So just how rare would this be? We've taken a look through the annals of Birmingham City history to found out the Blues' busiest ever seasons, and how likely it is that they could break that record this campaign.

Admittedly, playing the full 67 is an extremely unlikely eventuality, but stranger things have certainly happened at St Andrew's in recent memory, as we will go on to learn...

Finishing 12th in the third-tier and failing to reach the third round of both FA and League Cups, it was a distinctly average season for the Blues. This was exemplified by their run of eight successive draws in the league, an English record still held to this day.

It was the team's performance in the Associate Member's Cup (Now EFL Trophy) that filled the extra dates in their calendar. Six victories and a successful penalty shootout saw them playing Tranmere in a Wembley final in front of over 58,000 spectators.

After squandering a two-goal lead, John Gayle scored an 84th minute winner to secure the Bluenoses their first piece of silverware in a quarter-century.

Defender Trevor Matthewson would have been most relieved to collect a medal for his troubles as the center-half started and finished all 58 matches that year.

A highly impressive yet heartbreaking campaign for Brum, who were now competing in the second-tier. As if losing a playoff semi-final on penalties wasn't gutting enough, Trevor Francis' side also lost in a major cup final in the same devastating fashion.

The first full season of the new millennium was to be the final year that the League Cup insisted upon double-legged ties in its opening two rounds. This inessentiality meant that any team in the lower leagues wanting to compete in the final would amass a mighty ten games to do so.

Upsets against Tottenham and Newcastle and a sensational turnaround against Ipswich in the semi-final earned the Blues a date with Liverpool in a first ever Cardiff final.

A 90th minute penalty from Darren Purse leveled Robbie Fowler's first-half strike, with a goalless extra time period taking the game to penalties. A young Andrew Johnson missed the decisive spot-kick, meaning the underdogs were left empty-handed in the most agonising of ways.

3 2011-12 (62 matches)

Perhaps the most interesting and unusual campaign of the bunch. In the season prior, Birmingham City had exorcised their demons of 2001 and successfully lifted the League Cup, beating Arsenal 2-1 at Wembley.

This was made even more remarkable by the fact that the West-Midlanders were relegated to the Championship that very same season. European qualification still withstanding, Birmingham would be competing in the Europa League from England's incredibly demanding second-tier.

After beating Portuguese side Nacional 3-0 on aggregate to qualify, Chris Hughton's side were desperately unlucky not to reach the knockout stages as their ten points fell just one short of the eventual top-two Braga and Club Brugge.

Perhaps victims of their own success, as if this continental adventure combined with a grueling 46 league games wasn't hard enough, Birmingham played six times in domestic cups (including replays against Wolves and Chelsea) and twice in the playoffs.

With clear competency across all competitions but nothing to show for it, this may have been the year that the schedule really took its toll on the squad.

2 1994-95 (63 matches)

Barry Fry wins promotion with Birmingham City in May 1995

A further point of interest for Birmingham in this season's EFL Trophy is that winning the cup would make them the side with the joint most titles of any team in the competition's 43 year history (three, with Bristol City).

Their most recent win came in 1995, with Paul Tait's golden goal against Carlisle granted the two-time-winners the silverware. But that was just one of 17 domestic cup fixtures played that campaign.

Aside from winning each of their eight EFL Trophy fixtures in regular time, an incredibly impressive side led by Barry Fry won the old Second Division title, and were narrowly eliminated from the other cups by both Liverpool and eventual Premier League champions Blackburn.

If the players of 94/95 wanted a rest, the following season only got worse, as the Blues reached the League Cup semi-final in debilitating fashion.

Sandwiched between the obligatory two-legged ties (first round, second round and semi-finals), Birmingham required replays against each of Tranmere, Middlesbrough and Norwich. This totaled to a baffling 14 fixtures, a substantial amount of effort only to be thumped 5-1 by Leeds United.

Were this not bad enough, the club were also selected to enter the final ever edition of the confusing and sporadically competed Anglo-Italian Cup, a tournament competed between second-tier sides from England and Italy. Beating the likes of Perugia, Ancona and Cesena in the group, Birmingham would eventually lose to West Brom in the quarter-final.

65 matches played between August 12th and May 5th meant that the Bluenoses had a game to attend every 4.1 days for the best part of nine months.

So yes, Birmingham could theoretically beat their record this year, but with the recent total abolition of FA Cup replays, they would need to reach the EFL Trophy final, the FA Cup semi-final and the Playoffs to beat the class of '96. Admittedly, this is an extremely unlikely eventuality, but as we have seen, stranger things have certainly happened at St Andrew's in recent memory.