There is a midweek round in the Sky Bet Championship this week which will be played over two days, the first of which is Tuesday when nine fixtures will be played out in what is the last game of a strange 2020 for the teams involved.
With matches taking place behind closed doors we can get two games live on the TV for us in the UK to enjoy while the others are all available via the various streaming services that the clubs offer. There is also the social media feeds too.
Tuesday’s fixtures are as follows: (7.45pm unless stated – UK TV in brackets)
Birmingham City v Derby County (5.30pm – Sky Football)
Sheffield Wednesday v Middlesbrough (7pm)
Huddersfield Town v Blackburn Rovers
Luton Town v Bristol City
Norwich City v Queens Park Rangers
Preston North End v Coventry City
Rotherham United v Barnsley
Wycombe Wanderers v Cardiff City
Stoke City v Nottingham Forest (8pm – Sky Football)
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Big Matches
The televised action begins at St Andrews where Birmingham City play host to a Derby County side who are much improved since Wayne Rooney took charge even though they were beaten at the weekend. When they are done the attention switches to the Bet365 Stadium where Stoke City host a Nottingham Forest team who are in need of the points in order to ease their relegation fears. Elsewhere the leaders Norwich City play host to QPR where the Canaries can move seven points clear at the summit.
Best of the Rest
Middlesbrough and Bristol City will be looking to close in on the top six of the division when they head to Sheffield Wednesday, who begin life without Tony Pulis, and Luton Town respectively while at the bottom of the table Rotherham United host Barnsley in a crunch Yorkshire derby for the home side while Wycombe Wanderers welcome Cardiff City to Adams Park in a match where only the most sadistic will get any enjoyment from! Huddersfield Town host Blackburn Rovers and Preston North End take on Coventry City in the other matches.
Betting
I’ll go with a couple of bets over the course of the night in the Championship with my own side Luton Town being the first of them. They take on an injury ravaged Bristol City whose only win in their last four matches came against Wycombe Wanderers on Boxing Day. That isn’t exactly a huge form guide though. The fact the Robins have so many players missing means that Dean Holden won’t be able to change too much for this game which could be significant. One reason why that could be significant is Luton boss Nathan Jones revealed after the defeat to Reading on Boxing Day that he left the classy pair of Rhys Norrington-Davies and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall on the bench to save them for this match and the Saturday home game with QPR. In their last three at Kenilworth Road the Hatters have beaten Norwich and Preston and held Bournemouth in a match they had chances to win. I think they should be backed to continue their good home form here.
Rotherham United have been hampered by Covid-19 issues in recent times and we’ve seen all season that just because they have been cleared to play again doesn’t mean that those problems have disappeared. In fact a lot of the time teams need a game or two to spark into life again having not been able to train for the period that Covid-19 had struck. Their match with Barnsley was going to be a tough one anyway with the form the Tykes are in but throw the virus issues into the mix, which could reduce the Millers’ bench to just three or four substitutes, and the away win looks a good thing here. Barnsley have won four of their last five with the only defeat in that time coming at Swansea which is no shameful result. Barnsley are dark horses for the top six over the second half of the campaign and they can show that by winning here.
Tips
WON – Back Luton Town (-0.25AH) to beat Bristol City for a 3/10 stake at 1.94 with BetVictor
Back them here:
WON – Back Barnsley to beat Rotherham United for a 3/10 stake at 2.05 with William Hill
Back them here:
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