We are heading towards the first international break of 2021 but there are two sets of matches in the Sky Bet Championship before we get there, the first of which begins on a competitive looking Tuesday evening.
These matches were all originally scheduled for this night which means that one of them will be shown on the main channel on Sky Sports Football while the other five will all be available to view via the red button.
Tuesday’s fixtures are as follows: (7pm unless stated; UK TV in brackets)
Cardiff City v Stoke City
Derby County v Brentford
Luton Town v Coventry City
Middlesbrough v Preston North End
Rotherham United v Watford
AFC Bournemouth v Swansea City (7.45pm – Sky Main Event & Sky Football)
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Preview
The race for automatic promotion forms the backdrop to much of the night with the three challengers all in action. Swansea City will get most of the attention as they are involved in the televised game when they make the trip to AFC Bournemouth, who themselves will be eager for the points having dropped five points behind Barnsley in the race for sixth place. Watford currently head the charge for second place and they make the trip to Rotherham United who play for the first time in a couple of weeks while Brentford, the other team involved in the promotion shake up, face a tricky trip to Derby County.
Cardiff’s defeat to Watford at the weekend has left them playing catch up in the chase for a play-off place so they need to win when they host an out of form Stoke City side. The other two matches sees Middlesbrough, who themselves haven’t completely given up hope of a top six finish, hosting Preston North End, while at Kenilworth Road Luton Town welcome a Coventry City side who will be looking for a second successive win to pull further clear of the drop zone.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of Tuesday evening with the first of them coming in the form of a Cardiff City side who will have been disappointed to lose late on against Watford on Saturday but who will be out to put that right when they host Stoke City in a match which might not be one for the purists I think it is fair to say. Stoke were expected to challenge at the top end this season under Michael O’Neill but they can’t seem to buy an away win with just one of them to their name in their last 12 away from the Bet365 Stadium, and that was only at rock bottom Wycombe Wanderers. That defeat at the weekend was the first Cardiff have suffered under Mick McCarthy and it took a terrible piece of goalkeeping for them to go down in that game. They are clearly the more in form side of the two and in a match where both play a similar game I’ll take Cardiff, who play it slightly better, to get the job done.
The other bet I’m happy to get involved in is my own team Luton Town who play host to a Coventry City side who also find it hard to win on their travels. They have only won two matches away from St Andrews all season with one of those coming at Wycombe which again isn’t the best form guide in the world. Luton go into this match off the back of successive defeats but they were at Norwich and at home to Swansea, the second of which they were the dominant side but couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net against a very good defensive unit. Prior to those losses though Luton were an injury time strike away from winning three on the trot having been denied a win against Millwall and then following that up with victories over Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest. The Hatters are in decent form and they are usually a tough nut to crack under their own floodlights. I’m very surprised they’re the outsiders here but I’ll look to take advantage of that.
Tips
HALF LOSS – Back Cardiff City (-0.25AH) to beat Stoke City for a 3/10 stake at 1.97 with Bet365
WON – Back Luton Town (0AH) to beat Coventry City for a 3/10 stake at 2.13 with Bet365
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