Eng. Championship
2010-04-02 - West Bromwich Albion vs Leicester City
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: The Championship
Friday April 2nd 2010 - Kickoff 5:15pm
West Bromwich Albion
West Brom have been a yo-yo club over the last few seasons spending a bit of time in both the Championship and the Premier League. This season they are once again on the up as they look for automatic promotion back to the promised land. Another home win will put them firmly in position to do so.
The Baggies are 2nd in the Championship with 6 games left of the season and they currently hold a 9 point lead over 3rd place Nottingham Forest. They will be hoping to continue their strong record at The Hawthornes where they are 14-2-4 this season, scoring 42 goals and conceding 20 in those games. This makes them the 2nd highest scoring team at home in the division while only the sides directly above and below them have won more games at home this season.
West Brom are unbeaten in their last 7 Championship games, winning 6 of them and gaining a 1-1 draw at Reading last time out. They have now won 7 consecutive games at home in the League which has really seen them shoot past Forest in the race for automatic promotion and also briefly threaten to take them right to the top of the League.
Ben Watson has been recalled by his parent club Wigan, but WBA will be boosted by the returns of Roman Bednar, Marek Cech, Chris Brunt and Robert Koren.
Leicester City
After a couple of really bad seasons, Leicester City are once again seen as a credible threat in the race for promotion back to the Premier League. They are currently holding the final playoff spot in the League but need to keep winning with only a few games left this season.
As I mentioned, Leicester hold the final playoff spot of 6th in the Championship and are 4 points better off than Blackpool in 7th as we get down to the last few weeks of the season. They have made themselves hard to beat as can be told by their + 8 goal difference on the season. Away from the Walkers Stadium, Leicester are 6-7-7 with 18 goals scored and 23 conceded.
The Foxes are just suffering a bit of a blip at the moment with 3 consecutive losses. They had been unbeaten in 11 previous games to these losses and need to find points if they do not want to fall out of the top 6. They have lost their last 2 away from home but they had been unbeaten in their 5 previous away games.
Wayne Brown, Bruno Berner and Ryan McGivern are all hoping to be available for selection for this game as well as Lloyd Dyer. James Vaughan is also hoping to start after coming on as a substitute in the loss to Cardiff.
Head to Head
The 2 sides have crossed paths a few times over the years as both have been up and down the divisions. They met here last a couple of seasons ago when Leicester pulled off an impressive 1-4 win.
They met earlier this season at the Walkers Stadium and West Brom came out with a 1-2 win.
Prediction
West Brom have been in excellent form of late as the final push for promotion takes place. They have a healthy lead over Forest in the race for the automatic promotion spots but will look to secure that as soon as possible allowing Roberto di Matteo the chance to start focusing on the signings that can help them next season.
Leicester are going through a difficult patch at the wrong time of the season and they need to keep picking up points or they will be in danger of missing the playoffs after being in this position for so long.
I think West Brom can smell the Premier League now and they have been in very good form of late and I think they can pick up the 3 points here that will leave them very close to promotion again. Leicester have not been getting the results of late and look like they may be struggling towards the finishing line rather than finishing with a flourish.
The prices are about right and hopefully this can get the weekend off to a good start.
The Pick :
West Bromwich Albion 2-1 Leicester City
BEST BETTING TIP :
West Bromwich Albion WIN
