Top within reach for Boro

Middlesbrough could find themselves joint-top of the table if they can leave with a victory from Birmingham City this evening.

Boro will give a late fitness test to midfielder Grant Leadbitter, who is available having served a one-match suspension but is carrying a slight calf strain.

Doubtful trio George Friend (hamstring), Faris Haroun (calf) and Jonathan Woodgate (calf) are all still out but could return at Peterborough United next week. Skipper Rhys Williams, Mustapha Carayol, Curtis Main and Julio Arca remain sidelined.

"The league is tight and Birmingham will feel that if they can win three or four games on the bounce - which they're more than capable of doing - they can catapult themselves right back into the fringes of things," manager Tony Mowbray told Boro's official website. "For us, we have to keep pushing on. There's an opportunity for three points, which we'll be going to the West Midlands and doing our best to get."

Birmingham make late checks to midfielder Hayden Mullins (groin) and on loan winger Rob Hall (illness).

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