The first set of festive fixtures in the Sky Bet Championship concludes on Tuesday evening when the last two matches take place as four teams look to get what is a ridiculously heavy period of action off to a winning start.
Both of the matches are live on TV on Tuesday evening and they follow each other so there is no need for a second device or anything like that so there is no reason to not sit back and enjoy some second tier football.
Reading vs Swansea City (17.15 – Sky Main Event & Sky Football)
The opening match of the evening comes from the Madejski Stadium where two sides who have fallen away from the upper part of the table look to get their campaigns back on track when Reading welcome Swansea City to Berkshire.
Both these sides found themselves 3-0 down in their last outing. Swansea managed to turn it around to come back and draw with a decent Coventry City side while Reading got back to 3-2 but couldn’t find an equaliser against Birmingham City. I guess that would mean that the Swans will be slightly more confident going into this game as they will feel like they won at Coventry but the truth is that they are now seven games without a win and desperately needing three points to restore their confidence if nothing else. Reading saw a two game winning run ended with that loss last weekend but they now have just three wins in their last 12 and although they are generally much better at home than they are on their travels, such a run doesn’t really inspire too much in the way of confidence. If I was forced to I would back Swansea to get some sort of result but I’m happy enough to leave this one alone.
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Burnley vs Birmingham City (20.00 – Sky Main Event & Sky Football)
The second match of the night sees the league leaders Burnley looking to move three points clear at the top and perhaps more importantly a massive 11 points clear of third when they host Birmingham City at Turf Moor.
Burnley are the standout side in the Sky Bet Championship this season in terms of results and the football that they play but for all their class they do draw a lot of games which will keep Birmingham City interested. Birmingham are enjoying a much better season under John Eustace and are no respecter of reputation and make the trip to Lancashire with just one defeat in their last seven matches so they will feel they can lay it down to Burnley, particularly with the impression that the best way to get under the skin of the leaders is with a physical side to the game which the Blues have in abundance. The consensus is that Burnley will win this but these two drew at St Andrews a couple of weeks ago and a similar result can’t be ruled out. In saying that, Burnley have scored three or more in four of their last five matches and their home games average over three goals per game. Birmingham have scored in six of their last eight on their travels so I’m a little surprised the goal line is 2.25 in this one. If Burnley are on a going night they can cover that on their own but I expect Birmingham to contribute to the scoring so I like the over here.
Tips
Back Burnley vs Birmingham City – Over 2.25 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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