There are two match days left until we hit the halfway mark in the Sky Bet Championship season and the first of those finishes on Saturday afternoon when the remaining 11 fixtures take place up and down England and Wales.
It got underway in dramatic style on Friday night and a quick look down the card should see us certain to get plenty more of the same on a Saturday where once again we have a televised offering to keep us entertained.
Saturday’s fixtures are as follows: (3pm unless stated)
Birmingham City v West Bromwich Albion (12.30pm)
Barnsley v Queens Park Rangers
Brentford v Fulham
Bristol City v Blackburn Rovers
Derby County v Millwall
Leeds United v Cardiff City
Nottingham Forest v Sheffield Wednesday
Preston North End v Luton Town
Stoke City v Reading
Swansea City v Middlesbrough
Wigan Athletic v Huddersfield Town
Big Matches
There is a midlands derby of sorts for us to check out on the television on Saturday afternoon when Birmingham City, who are beginning to muddle their way around the middle of the table, host a West Bromwich Albion side who will be looking for the three points to go back to the top of the table for a few hours at least. You would think West Brom and Leeds United are away and gone in terms of the race for promotion and the latter get another chance to showcase their credentials when they host Cardiff City in a match which might well be lively on and off the pitch!
Best of the Rest
There are some massive matches at the other end of the table on Saturday afternoon not least the one between Wigan Athletic and Huddersfield Town which sees two of the bottom six meeting for some valuable points. Swansea City aren’t in any immediate danger but they are going the wrong way and will want to arrest the slide against a Middlesbrough outfit who are one above the drop while two other teams in the bottom seven battle at the Bet365 Stadium where Stoke City take on Reading in a big match for both sides. At the other end of the spectrum Fulham make the short trip to Brentford while Nottingham Forest and Preston North End both have home matches, against Sheffield Wednesday and Luton Town respectively.
Betting
This is the end of a busy week in the second tier so I’m not going to go too mad for bets as I always think this third game in a week is when the silly season results come about, and actually if you look in midweek there were one or two signs there anyway such as West Brom failing to beat Wigan. I’m going to stick with what I know and take a pretty obvious bet to keep us going.
That comes in the form of over 2.75 goals in the match between Preston North End and Luton Town. There is a similarity between the respective home and away records of these two sides. The 11 Preston home matches this term have seen 39 goals in them, the same figure that travelling Luton fans have witnessed in their 11 away fixtures. There is a history of goals in this fixture as well and with Luton’s defence quite frankly not good enough at this level I’m expecting the goals to flow once again. Preston have only kept one clean sheet in their last 13 matches. Luton have only kept one all season. The goals should continue to flow at Deepdale.
Tips
WON – Back Preston North End vs Luton Town – Over 2.75 goals for a 4/10 stake at 1.87 with BetVictor
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