The second weekend in the Championship continues on Saturday with the majority of the matches taking place across the two kick off times we are going to need to get used to now that the new TV deal has kicked in.
We now have a bunch of matches brought forward to the lunchtime slot as part of the new TV deal and they are all available via the Sky Sports + service. The others will be updated in all of the normal places.
Saturday’s fixtures are as follows: (15.00 unless stated – UK TV in brackets)
Derby County vs Middlesbrough (12.30 – Sky Sports +)
Portsmouth vs Luton Town (12.30 – Sky Sports +)
West Bromwich Albion vs Leeds United (12.30 – Sky Sports Main Event & Sky Sports Football)
Bristol City vs Millwall
Burnley vs Cardiff City
Norwich City vs Blackburn Rovers
Plymouth Argyle vs Hull City
Sheffield United vs Queens Park Rangers
Swansea City vs Preston North End
Watford vs Stoke City
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
The main TV cameras will be at The Hawthorns to see if Leeds United can quieten down the growing talk of negativity around their supporters, particularly after an indifferent performance in midweek, albeit that was in the cup, when they travel to take on West Bromwich Albion. West Brom opened up with a good win last week and will be looking for two from two. The other TV games on the new channel see Championship new boys Derby County looking to bounce back from defeat to Blackburn Rovers last week when they host Middlesbrough while the League 1 champions Portsmouth play their first home match back at this level against Luton Town.
Best of the Rest
Burnley opened up the Championship season in fine style at Kenilworth Road on Monday night and they’ll be looking to show that they can deliver the goods over the course of the campaign. Cardiff City are the visitors to Turf Moor. Burnley’s rivals Blackburn Rovers have started the season well but they now begin life without Sammie Szmodics when they make the trip to Carrow Road to face Norwich City while at the other end of proceedings Wayne Rooney will be hoping for a positive result when he takes charge of his first home league game as Plymouth Argyle boss when they host Hull City. Watford and Stoke City both won last week and meet looking for two wins from two while Sheffield United go in search of successive wins when they host QPR at Bramall Lane.
Betting
I like a couple of bets over the course of the day and while I’m not a massive fan of betting the early kick offs I am probably going to have to get used to it with the amount of games which are getting brought forward and as such the over 2.5 goals in the match between Portsmouth and Luton Town just looks an obvious selection. I mentioned on Monday night how Luton are missing some key defensive personnel and they duly got picked apart at will by Burnley and while Portsmouth are unlikely to match those levels, they have just been to Elland Road and scored three times. Luton will be a threat going the other way though with the likes of Alfie Doughty, Carlton Morris, Elijah Adebayo and Tahith Chong all above the level. Luton games are going to be full of goals this season and in the amped up atmosphere of a first game back in the second tier at home I expect Portsmouth to put on the sort of show that allows the goals to flow.
The other bet that I think is a solid play is Burnley to cover a 1 goal Asian handicap against Cardiff City. Cardiff had near enough two-thirds of the ball against Sunderland last week and still came away losing 2-0 and now they go to a Burnley side who are probably going to dominate the ball and who will be a lot more clinical than Sunderland even allowing for the fact that Wilson Odobert has left to join Tottenham since the win over Luton. Burnley brought on Anass Zaroury and had Manuel Benson still on the bench at the end of the game so there are natural replacements for him in their squad. It might be that come the end of the transfer window Burnley have let some more players go but right now they have a wealth of depth and should have too much for a limited Cardiff outfit.
Tips
Back Portsmouth vs Luton Town – Over 2.5 goals for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with Unibet
Back Burnley (-1AH) to beat Cardiff City for a 3/10 stake at 1.77 with William Hill
Back them here:
