The Championship weekend begins on Friday night when for the second time in four rounds the focus will be on St Andrews as tenants Coventry City host Bournemouth in the opener to the last set of matches before the international break.
Coventry go into the match with one of everything on their ledger, a win, a loss and a defeat while Bournemouth have a couple of wins and a draw so the Cherries have made the better start of the two. Whether that counts for anything remains to be seen.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live on the Sky Main Event and Sky Football channels with the programme beginning on the latter at 7pm and the former at 7.20pm. The match itself kicks off at 7.45pm.
Coventry City
I know from the experience that my team had of it last year that it is not easy to adjust to life in the Championship. That is the case when you have a full League One season let alone three quarters of one where the strength and natural improvement that confidence brings is halted. To the credit of the Sky Blues they have started the season well and if they can come out of this one with three points they will go into the break in decent shape.
Usually the hardest thing for teams new to this level to do is keep the ball out of their net but Coventry have only conceded four goals in their three matches so they are not leaking too much. In Matt Godden they carry a threat at the top end of the pitch so if they can continue how they have started they should be fine. This will be their toughest test so far despite Bristol City currently having a perfect record.
Bournemouth
You never quite know what to expect from a team that is relegated from the Premier League. Usually the ones who know it is coming are better prepared for the season ahead but Bournemouth didn’t have that luxury having only got relegated on the final week of last term. What doesn’t help in assessing what to expect from the Cherries is the fact that they have changed manager since then and lost a lot of key players. It might be that they are at their best after Monday and the closure of the transfer window as you would think they’ll do late business.
Bournemouth have started the campaign well despite their changes and will go to the top of the table for a day at least should they find their way to a win in this match. They haven’t picked up an away win yet in this campaign but to be fair they have only played one away match and they got a point away to Middlesbrough. It will be interesting to see how they go about this given that they will be expected to win this one.
Special Offer
Opt in and place 5 accumulators either in a Boylesports shop or online and get an acca free! Click the image below to bet. ALL CUSTOMERS! 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Team News
Coventry ae hopeful that Liam Kelly will be fit to play in this match but they are going to be without defender Brandon Mason as well as Will Bapaga, Julien Dacosta, Marcel Hilssner and Ben Wilson against the Cherries.
Bournemouth could give a debut to loan signing Rodrigo Riquelme should they receive his international clearance in time. David Brooks has tested negative for Covid so he could return here as could Junior Stanislas.
Betting
I’m expecting to see some goals in this match. I say that because I think Coventry will have a bit of a go in their home matches and I expect Bournemouth to be carrying a good deal of confidence into this match with them and they will fancy their chances of picking up a positive result. That leads me to think that we’ll get some attacking football with both teams looking to win the game, even more so after both have made positive starts to the season.
Coventry were involved in a great game the last time they played in front of the cameras on a Friday night when they beat QPR 3-2 while Bournemouth have already had a 3-2 this season themselves. Bournemouth are likely to look to get on the front foot but I don’t think Coventry will mind being underdogs here. You can get odds against on over 2.5 goals and that looks tasty enough for me in this Friday night fixture.
Tips
WON – Back Over 2.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with BetVictor
Back it here:
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2020
