Something For The Weekend: nPower Championship

Only have a few recommendations for English football this week due to a rather busy weekend ahead...I won't go into details but I'm going to have a raging hangover on Saturday morning and going over to my wife's parents and meeting up with her family could be a bit of an adventure.

Unless otherwise stated, use the Strategy With No Name on Betfair: out of personal interest all games are in the nPower Championship and kick off at 3:00pm GMT (10:00am EST) - for a general overview for this week's Championship games please visit Buzzin Championship Football.


Barnsley v Forest
Forest have only won twice in their last ten trips to Oakwell, last time was October 2000. Leave goals alone, although under 2.5 is possible it might be better to lay 0-0 instead. Bonus fact: Forest have not had a half time lead this season.
Recommendation: Forest don't seem to be able to win games away from home but they seem to have stopped their losing run - so I'm going to recommend a double chance of Barnsley/draw because although the price is short, it actually represents value.


Derby v Preston
Preston have only won twice in their last league trips to Derby (last win September '02, seven games ago), four of the last five games between these two at Pride Park have been draws. Bonus fact: neither of these teams has scored a goal in the last ten minutes this season - but that doesn't mean there won't be goals as both of these teams usually have very productive first halves when it comes to scoring. Kris Commons (Derby) and John Parkin (Preston) could be worth a look in the anytime goalscorer markets, but Parkin's hat trick in the 6-4 win at Leeds is an aberration rather than the norm.
Recommendation: back Derby at anything over evens and back over 2.5 goals


Ipswich v Coventry
No value in an Ipswich win, which is hardly surprising given the fact that Coventry have only won once at Portman Road in the last 20 league games (April 1994), Ipswich have won eight of the last ten of those games. About 40% chance of a drawn game at half time, which is the exact average for the Championship. Bonus fact: Ipswich have only scored once in the first half of home games in the league this season so backing 0-0 at half time might pay out.
Tentative recommendation: back the second half to be the half with the most goals; don't use the Strategy With No Name in this game.


Reading v Swansea
Plenty of value for a Reading win - I'm assuming that because Swansea won at Watford a couple of weeks ago the bookies think that they've improved, although the Swans had lost their previous eight league games away from home. In any case, Swansea's record at Reading is almost as bad as Coventry's at Ipswich: the Swans last win in Berkshire was in April 1985 and the Royals have won six of the last ten league meetings. Reading haven't been behind at home after 45 minutes this season; Jimmy Kebe of Reading might be worth a look at in the anytime goalscorer odds although he does have a tendency to score against poorer sides in the Championship.
Recommendation: back a Reading win at anything over evens.