Aydilek set for start

Birmingham City have given Semih Aydilek

a first team squad number ahead of tonight's Carling Cup game at Southampton.

Birmingham City have given Semih Aydilek a first team squad number ahead of tonight's Carling Cup game at Southampton.

The 19-year-old forward has been issued with squad number 24.

Aydilek, a German under-19 international joined Blues in 2007 from his home town club Eintracht Frankfurt, where he was a youth player, after academy manager Terry Westley managed to convince him that moving to England was better for his career.

He recently recovered from an ankle ligament injury sustained while he was away with his national side. Aydilek has yet to make a competitive start for Blues, but he is in the 17-man squad which has travelled down to St Mary's this morning and he is hoping that he will get a runout in front of the 1,000 Blues fans expected to make the long journey to the south coast.

Blues will be hoping to keep up their unbeaten record against the Saints, who they beat at St Mary's 2-1 in the second game of the season thanks to goals from O'Connor and Kevin Phillips.

But Southampton are on a high after winning away at Derby on Saturday.