The final set of matches in the Sky Bet Championship begins on Friday night when two sides hoping to gatecrash the top six battle it out at Ashton Gate when Bristol City welcome Norwich City for a huge game for both teams.
Bristol City will move up to fifth ahead of the rest of the weekend if they win here but Norwich are now seven points adrift of the top six and for them this is a match that they have to come out on top in to keep their play-off hopes realistic.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Football channel with the build-up to the contest beginning at 7.30pm ahead of the 8pm kick off.
Bristol City
As we approach the home straight in the regular season, Bristol City are very much in the hunt for a top six finish but they will need to finish the campaign strongly if they are going to achieve it, and when they get the chance to put some pressure on the other teams by playing first, like they do here, you get the impression that the three points on offer are even bigger. That of course brings pressure and it will be interesting to see how the Robins handle that as it could give us an indication of whether they are genuine top six hopefuls or will just finish in the top half once again.
City come into this match off the back of a run of one defeat in their last 10 matches and at home they have only lost three times all season and two of those were to teams in the top three in the form of Sheffield United and Burnley. They have lost one game here since November so they will be feeling very good about themselves on their own patch. They are entitled to feel confident after their performance at Bramall Lane in midweek too.
Norwich City
Given they were in the play-offs last season, many expected Norwich City to get back into the top six in a weaker division this time around but they just haven’t been able to find any consistency and in all likelihood a terrible week on their home patch has probably put paid to their chances of finishing in the spot they would have been seeking unless they can have an extraordinary end to the campaign. The Canaries have won just one of their last seven and they have chosen a terrible time for that run of form to come along.
The big problem for Norwich City is the goals that they are conceding. They have never had much of a problem scoring them but they only have one clean sheet in their last 12 outings and if they are going to claw the top six back then that is an area they have to improve in. When it comes to this match the Canaries will need to quickly bounce back from that disappointment in midweek where they surrendered a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2.
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Team News
Liam Manning is expected to freshen up his side for what is a third match in six days and after coming off the bench to score in midweek Mark Sykes could come in for a start. Luke McNally is out for the season and Joe Williams is a doubt.
Johannes Hoff Thorup has suggested that George Long will return to the side between the sticks and that Marcelino Nunez is available too. The Dane has also suggested that the short turnaround means his team will need to rotate.
Betting
These third matches in a week are always tough to bet on because the relentless slog of the Championship almost ensures that we aren’t going to see teams at their best, whether that is in personnel or fitness and as such some surprise results will be thrown up this weekend. The good thing from a spectacle point of view here is that these two look to have deep enough squads to rotate without dropping standards too much which leads me to one bet.
That comes in the form of both teams to score. That has landed in eight of the last 10 matches that Bristol City have been involved in and seven of the last 10 for Norwich. We know that Norwich have goals in them. They still have two of the top three goalscorers in the division but they struggle to keep them out. Bristol City have goals in them but defensively they can be found wanting a touch too, especially against a free scoring side. Rather than working out who is stronger personnel wise going into this match and motivation and all of that I’ll play it safe and go with both teams to score.
Tips
Back Both teams to score for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with William Hill
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