Steve Cotterill poured cold water on Birmingham City’s FA Cup tie against Huddersfield Town, pledging to make wholesale team changes.

With the Terriers playing Liverpool on Tuesday and the Blues facing a crunch SkyBet Championship clash with Sunderland, changes are anticipated on both sides.

And Birmingham boss Cotterill confirmed the intention to shuffle his pack for the trip to the John Smith’s Stadium during his pre-match press conference.

“We’ll make changes on Saturday, but we still want to go and do ourselves justice and we’re mindful of the supporters travelling,” he said.

“There might also be a couple of younger players that are in the 18.

“There have not been any changes in terms of the amount of effort, time, planning or preparation that’s been put in.

“I don’t think anyone deliberately devalues the FA Cup but the game has changed.”

Birmingham City's manager Steve Cotterill will make wholesale changes to his side this afternoon.
Birmingham City's manager Steve Cotterill will make wholesale changes to his side this afternoon.

The visitors are likely to restrict regular starters to bit-part roles, chiefly Maikel Kieftenbeld, Jonathan Grounds and Craig Gardner - returning from a groin injury.

Both Grounds and Gardner scored in City’s crucial 2-0 win over the Terriers in their penultimate game of last season, a huge step in them staving off relegation.

Cotterill was in the home dugout as first-team coach on that day, recognising the importance of the win to securing his side’s survival.

“After missing the penalty and going down to ten men after 20 minutes, it was about being totally organised and not putting a foot wrong,” he said.

“We did that and thankfully got another penalty that Craig tucked away, it was a huge win.

“You didn’t know at the end we still had to win at Bristol City, so it ended up being a very big result.”

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Town had already comfortably secured a play-off place by that stage.

Cotterill, appointed permanent manager in September, has been impressed with Huddersfield’s performance in the Premier League.

“They recruited well in the Championship and I think they’ve recruited well in the Premier League,” he said.

“No doubt we will see a few of those on Saturday, they have a good sized squad.

“They’ll be able to change it around as they did at Bolton - I’m sure they will make changes.”