There is one match left in the Sky Bet Championship weekend and it comes along in the Monday night game when two promotion challengers meet at Ewood Park when Blackburn Rovers take on Middlesbrough in a big clash for both sides.
Blackburn have already seen Bournemouth beaten this weekend so they will know that they will end this set of matches in the top two if they avoid defeat here. Middlesbrough dropped out of the top six on Saturday and need a win to return to that position.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football channels with the build-up beginning at 7.30pm and kick off coming at 7.45pm.
Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn saw a 10 match unbeaten run come to an end at Hull last week. Even though that result doesn’t look so bad after the Tigers went and won at Bournemouth at the weekend, Rovers will still be eager to get back to winning ways ahead of a tricky trip to Luton next week. Tony Mowbray’s men have claimed the joint most points on their own patch of any team in the league alongside Fulham so they will be pleased that they are on home turf for this one.
Only Fulham have found the back of the net more times than Blackburn this season as well. Rovers have 44 goals this term but worryingly almost half of those have come from the Chile international Ben Brereton-Diaz who is away on international duty for this game so you wonder who is going to step into his 20 goal boots. Blackburn are generally pretty tight at the back. They have conceded 30 goals in their 27 games but seven of them were when they ran into Fulham on the wrong night.
Middlesbrough
This is a second of two halves for Middlesbrough. They had the first two thirds of it when they were flattering to deceive under the dinosaur approach of Neil Warnock and then there is the last third or so where they have caught fire under his replacement Chris Wilder. I don’t think too many people will be too surprised at either of those statements but Wilder is definitely getting a tune out of this squad despite a raft of injuries at the Riverside throughout the campaign.
Middlesbrough go into this match off the back of six wins in their last seven matches with a draw at Stoke the only time they have failed to win in that time. Just as impressively they have only conceded three goals in that time although they did have to leave it quite late to see off a terrible Reading side last weekend which might be a concern. It is often the sign of a good side when you keep going and win matches late though.
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Team News
As highlighted above, Blackburn will be without Ben Brereton-Diaz for this contest as he is away on World Cup qualifying duty for Chile. Bradley Dack is still out injured but Ryan Nyambe and Lewis Travis are available after missing the loss at Hull.
Chris Wilder has moved to strengthen his attacking options already in this window with Folarin Balogun and Aaron Connolly having arrived from Premier League clubs and they will be expecting to be involved here. They will be without Riley McGree though as he is on international duty.
Betting
I’m not for one minute suggesting that Blackburn Rovers are a one man team but there is no getting away from the fact that Ben Brereton-Diaz has scored 20 of the 44 league goals they have scored this season so his absence is going to have an impact on them. That makes me think that if we get a winner here, which isn’t guaranteed as these two sides are fairly evenly matched, then it could be the visitors who get it despite Blackburn’s strong form at home.
Middlesbrough are just beginning to tick along nicely at the minute and each time I have heard Chris Wilder speak in recent weeks the only criticism he has had of his side is that they don’t convert enough of the chances they create. He looks to have moved to address that situation so we might see a more clinical edge to Boro in this match and moving forward. I’m not expecting there to be much between these two but Middlesbrough might be getting Blackburn at the right time so I’ll take them on the draw no bet lines.
Tips
Back Middlesbrough (0AH) to beat Blackburn Rovers for a 3/10 stake at 1.98 with Bet365
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