UNUSUALLY for a football fan, Michael Ricketts wants his team to lose on Saturday.

And the dead-eyed Wanderers marksman actually intends to plot their downfall.

Birmingham-born Ricketts has been a fan of his home town club all his life but he is determined to leave them singing the Blues in his former St Andrews stomping ground tomorrow.

"I am a Birmingham fan and I'm really looking forward to playing there," admits the man who has already savoured the St Andrews experience once during his time at Walsall.

He adds determinedly: "It will be good to go there and get three points."

It is not beyond the realms of probability that Ricketts, 22 next month and quickly earning a reputation as a talented goal poacher, could have been lining up in a Birmingham shirt tomorrow.

He carved out a reputation as a potential future star right under the noses of his boyhood heroes with Walsall last season.

The Saddlers planted a price tag of £1m around his neck and there were plenty of interested parties. In the end Wanderers boss Sam Allardyce's persistence got him his man at a knockdown £400,000 which is beginning to look like a real snip.

The player is more than happy to be lining up in a white rather than blue shirt tomorrow, despite his old allegiances, revealing that even if Birmingham had shown an interest he would have preferred the move to the Reebok anyway.

"I fancied getting away from the area altogether and having a change of scene," he says.

The change certainly seems to be doing him good with his spectacularly skilful back-heeled strike in the midweek 3-1 victory over Queens Park Rangers his eighth of the season.

It was only his second goal as a member of the starting 11 but he shrugs off the suggestion that he is more dangerous coming off the bench.

"It's not an issue to me and has never been an issue," he insists. "I scored 11 goals last season in a struggling side and the most important thing is that the team is winning.

"I enjoyed it against QPR. We got back to basics and we showed we are a good team. The players believe in themselves and we have a good manager.

"When we went a goal behind in midweek the fans started to get on our backs but the team responded well. The character in the side is tremendous."

He also put straight the story that he swears at his boss when he is left out of the first team and put on the bench instead.

"I don't swear at him - I just give him a look and he knows I'm not happy," he smiled.

"Everybody wants to start games and I'm no different but the gaffer is the one who picks the team and you have to abide by it."