The first Sky Bet Championship action of 2023 takes place on New Year’s Day when five matches takes place up and down the country to allow 10 teams the chance to open up a new calendar year with positive intent.
We have one of the five matches live on the TV to enjoy while when the other four matches come along one of those has been given permission to be shown on the red button and the other three will be updated in the usual places.
Sunday’s fixtures are as follows: (3pm unless stated – UK TV in brackets)
Blackburn Rovers v Cardiff City (12pm – Sky Main Event & Sky Football)
Blackpool v Sunderland
Coventry City v Bristol City
Huddersfield Town v Luton Town
Millwall v Rotherham United
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Preview
The televised action gets 2023 underway when Blackburn Rovers play host to Cardiff City at noon with both teams looking to make up for an ordinary Christmas period so far. Rovers have lost twice since Christmas while Cardiff have two points to their name but haven’t scored a single goal. Sunderland are the next highest placed team in action on Sunday afternoon. They begin 2023 in fourth place in the table and should Blackburn lose the early game the Black Cats can go third if they win away to second bottom Blackpool.
There is a repeat of one of the play-off semi-finals at the John Smith’s Stadium on Sunday afternoon when two sides who have enjoyed good Christmas periods meet as Huddersfield Town welcome Luton Town to Yorkshire. The other two matches see play-off chasers in action. Millwall start the day in ninth but could end it as high as third if they can see off Rotherham United at The New Den. The other match sees Coventry City hosting a Bristol City side who are steadily heading closer to the relegation zone and will be eager to get a result to halt that slide.
Betting
I’m always wary of getting too involved in these third matches in a week but there is one bet that I like over the course of Sunday. That comes in the form of over 2.5 goals in the match between Blackpool and Sunderland. Blackpool go into this one without a win in their last eight matches but they were competitive against Sheffield United, albeit they looked like they might concede whenever the Blades attacked them. They did offer a goal threat in that game though which bodes well here.
Sunderland are absolutely flying at the minute. They have won four of their last six matches but as a general rule they don’t keep clean sheets. They only have one in that spell of games and that came against a Millwall side who spurned a number of chances in the first half. Sunderland look better in attack with every match they play and with Ross Stewart back and firing and arguably the hottest prospect in the Championship in Amad Diallo doing his thing it is hard to see Sunderland not threatening the Blackpool goal regularly here. I think there is plenty of scope for more than 2.5 goals in this one.
Tips
Back Blackpool vs Sunderland – Over 2.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfred
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