The Sky Bet Championship weekend continues on Saturday afternoon when another nine fixtures take place on a day where the teams who are in action will be looking for three points to seriously enhance their league position.
As is the case with most Saturdays, we have a TV game to enjoy but this time we have to wait until the end of the day for it to come along. Prior to that there will be the usual places updating us on the 3pm games.
Saturday’s fixtures are as follows: (3pm unless stated – UK TV in brackets)
Blackburn Rovers v Middlesbrough
Bristol City v West Bromwich Albion
Huddersfield Town v Rotherham United
Norwich City v Stoke City
Preston North End v Plymouth Argyle
Queens Park Rangers v Sunderland
Sheffield Wednesday v Ipswich Town
Watford v Birmingham City
Cardiff City v Swansea City (19.45 – Sky Main Event & Sky Football)
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Big Matches
We have quite a wait for the TV game to come around but when it does it should be worth the wait as the first South Wales derby of the season takes place when Swansea City make the short trip to the capital to take on Cardiff City in a match which will be fuelled by passion and pride. Neither team has got off to the start they would have wanted so this is a big derby. Earlier in the day, Preston North End went into the weekend on top of the table and will look to return there when they host Plymouth Argyle in what you could call the Ryan Lowe derby.
Best of the Rest
Ipswich Town were in the top two during the international break and they make the trip to Hillsborough to take on Sheffield Wednesday looking to get back there. Birmingham City have made a positive start to the season and they will hope to continue that when they head to Vicarage Road to take on Watford. Norwich City are the other team in the top six starting the day. They host a Stoke City side who threatened a promising season but are starting to offer up another false dawn. At the other end of the table, bottom placed Middlesbrough will look for a first win of the season when they head to Ewood Park to take on Blackburn Rovers.
Betting
Stoke City looked like they were going to be huge improvers this season when they won two of their opening three matches but they have lost their last two and despite some good work in the summer there is a feeling that the optimism could be about to fade. This always felt a big campaign for Norwich City. They made an absolute mess of an immediate return to the Premier League and if they don’t go up this term they will be under huge pressure next year with the parachute payments beginning to run out.
To the credit of the Canaries, they came out with three wins and a crazy draw from their opening four matches before a surprise defeat at Rotherham prior to the international break. Norwich have looked a lot better than last season though and you sense that after two weeks to work on getting those new arrivals further up to speed they are about to have a big run to really launch a promotion challenge. Stoke have been kept goalless on their travels while Norwich look good at home. I expect a home win here.
Tips
Back Norwich City to beat Stoke City for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
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