The remainder of the Sky Bet Championship weekend will be played out on Saturday and after a stalemate to start the action we are set for an intriguing day as most of the division embark on a week where they will play three matches.
This is a traditional Saturday in that we have a TV match to enjoy but unlike the majority of Saturdays we have to wait until the end of the day for it to come around. Prior to that the rest of the matches take place and will have updates in the usual places.
Saturday’s fixtures are as follows: (3pm unless stated; UK TV in brackets)
Birmingham City v Sheffield Wednesday
Bristol City v Middlesbrough
Huddersfield Town v Southampton
Leicester City v Watford
Millwall v Coventry City
Norwich City v Queens Park Rangers
Plymouth Argyle v Sunderland
Preston North End v Cardiff City
Stoke City v Blackburn Rovers
Swansea City v Hull City
West Bromwich Albion v Ipswich Town (5.30pm – Sky Main Event & Sky Football)
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Big Matches
The top two have already seen one of the chasers in Leeds United drop points this weekend and they get their chance to answer that on Saturday afternoon when they are both in action. Leicester City remain at the top of the table despite successive defeats heading into the international break. They play host to Watford at the King Power Stadium while Ipswich Town in second spot will play their game in front of the TV cameras when they make the trip to The Hawthorns to take on a West Bromwich Albion side who are on the fringes of the play-offs.
Best of the Rest
Leeds’ draw on Friday night has opened the door for fourth placed Southampton to move above them into third place. They go to Huddersfield Town looking for the win which will take them above Leeds. Preston North End and Sunderland currently make up the top six. The former play host to Cardiff City while the latter go on their travels to Plymouth Argyle in one of the longer trips any team will make this season. Sheffield Wednesday and Queens Park Rangers are the bottom two and they are on their travels to Birmingham City and Norwich City respectively.
Betting
Liam Manning has had a couple of weeks to put his style across to his Bristol City players, or the ones which weren’t on international duty at least, but I think it might take a little longer for the adjustment to come and be translated into points. They go into this match off the back of just one win in their last four and while they didn’t lose either of their last two, a 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday and 0-0 draw with QPR are probably only average results rather than anything special.
Middlesbrough already have their style in place under Michael Carrick and while they started the season very slowly as new players bedded into the squad, they have flown recently and won seven of their last nine heading into the international break, including a 1-0 win over the leaders Leicester City immediately prior to the hiatus. Middlesbrough showed last season that they are one of the better teams in the league under Carrick and the signs are that is the case again. I think they go to Ashton Gate and get some kind of result.
Tips
Back Middlesbrough (-0.25AH) to beat Bristol City for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
