Easter weekend means that there are two rounds of Sky Bet Championship matches taking place with the first of them on Good Friday where the entire division is in action over four different kick off times throughout the course of the day.
The beauty about this set of matches is that every single one is available to watch live on TV in the UK if you have Sky and even though the weather is expected to be sunny there is the chance to watch nearly 10 straight hours of Championship football!
Good Friday’s fixtures are as follows: (3pm and Sky Sports+ unless stated)
Derby County vs Luton Town (12.30pm – Sky Main Event & Sky Football)
Blackburn Rovers vs Millwall
Bristol City vs Sunderland
Coventry City vs West Bromwich Albion
Middlesbrough vs Plymouth Argyle
Norwich City vs Portsmouth
Stoke City vs Sheffield Wednesday
Swansea City vs Hull City
Watford vs Burnley
Sheffield United vs Cardiff City (5.30pm – Sky Main Event & Sky Football)
Oxford United vs Leeds United (8pm – Sky Main Event & Sky Football)
Special Offer
Sign up for a Boylesports account and bet £10 to get up to £20 in free bets! Perfect offer for the Sky Bet Championship! Click the image below for this great offer! New accounts only. 18+ T&Cs apply. Gamble Aware.
Big Matches
We have three matches live and in full in front of the main TV cameras on Friday and the action begins with a huge lunchtime clash at the bottom end of the table where fourth from bottom Derby County entertain second from bottom Luton Town where the losers are in trouble and danger of being relegated. Once the 3pm matches have passed us by the attention turns to the automatic promotion race where Sheffield United will look to close the gap to the leaders Leeds United when they entertain Cardiff City, who could come out of the bottom three if they win the match and results go their way. The last TV offering sees Oxford United hosting the leaders Leeds United, who were Sheffield United to lose could move to the brink of promotion back to the Premier League.
Best of the Rest
We have a couple of matches which could have massive implications on the top six as well. Fifth host fourth when Bristol City welcome Sunderland to Ashton Gate with that potentially being a rehearsal for the play-off semi-final. Sixth host seventh in a huge game at the CBS Arena where Coventry City host West Bromwich Albion. Middlesbrough and Millwall will be hoping for dropped points from someone there and will then look to take advantage when they host Plymouth Argyle and travel to Blackburn Rovers respectively. Elsewhere, Hull City will look to pull further clear of danger when they head to Swansea City while Stoke City will look for the three points which will almost make them safe when they host Sheffield Wednesday.
Betting
I like two bets over the course of the day with the first coming at Ewood Park where I have to take Millwall with a quarter goal start against Blackburn Rovers. I saw Rovers last week and although they beat Luton there was nothing really to like about them. It might be that the confidence of finally winning under Valerien Ismael boosts them but ultimately they have nothing to play for whereas Millwall all of a sudden could genuinely gatecrash the top six but that can only happen with a win here you would think. Millwall have won their last three and five of their last seven with the latest two wins against Sheffield United and Middlesbrough which bodes well. One team in Millwall are flying home this season while the other are labouring home. I’ll take the fliers here.
Sheffield United had a terrible week at the wrong time and now they have been left in the distance chasing the top two and they simply have to pick up three points at home to Cardiff City in the late afternoon game. Cardiff head to Steel City off the back of one win in nine in all competitions and that win over Blackburn doesn’t carry much strength to the form. There has been a lot of negative fall out from the recent Sheffield United matches but it wasn’t so long ago that they did a real good performance on a buoyant Coventry here. A repeat of that showing or something close to it should be more than enough for them to win this and win it comfortably.
Tips
Back Millwall (+0.25AH) to beat Blackburn Rovers for a 3/10 stake at 1.86 with Bet365
Back Sheffield United (-1AH) to beat Cardiff City for a 3/10 stake at 2.09 with Bet365
