Eng. Championship
2010-10-30 - Cardiff City vs Norwich City
A Sports Betting Pick by ArmchairPunter
Football : England : Npower Championship
Saturday 30th October 2010 – Kickoff 3pm
Cardiff City Stadium plays host to what promises to be a mouth-watering fixture between two of the Championship's more attacking sides, where Norwich City will be pushing to close the points gap on the leaders, while Cardiff City will be aiming for top spot come 4.45pm Saturday afternoon.
Cardiff City (2nd)
Regular readers of my previews will be familiar with my admiration for both teams attacking abilities, and this came to the forefront on Monday night when Leeds United hosted Cardiff City, hoping to display consistency and stability in front of the Elland Road faithful. They lost. Badly. The Bluebirds ran riot in the second half as Leeds were destroyed in their own backyard.
Cardiff showed a new dimension to their attacking approach which I haven't seen before, a ruthless streak in front of goal that has been previously lacking in Dave Jones’s former sides; Wolves, Southampton etc. But when you consider the firepower now at their disposal – striker Jay Bothroyd (9 goals, 1 assist), Peter Whittingham (3 goals, 4 assists), Michael Chopra (2 goals, 2 assists), with left-back Lee Naylor scoring a screamer – and Bellamy didn't even score!
Cardiff City have now won four games on the trot, scoring 11 goals whilst conceding four. At home they remain unbeaten with a 4-2-0 12/4 record, and have failed to score at home just once in their last eight league matches.
Norwich City (4th)
The visitors on Saturday are a different type of bird, a canary in fact. But The Canaries will also be confident going into this match, having enjoyed a great start to Championship life again. In truth, they were just too good for League One, but you still have to prove it, and prove it they did, quite emphatically.
They finished 9 points above Leeds United, and whilst Leeds have since lost prolific striker Jermaine Beckford to bigger fish, Norwich City’s squad has largely remained the same. Striker Simeon Jackson (4 goals, 1 assist) was drafted in from Gillingham and has taken to the step up like a duck to water.
Fellow forward Grant Holt (3 goals, 5 assists) has continued last seasons good form, and with other attacking personnel such as Andrew Crofts (3 goals, 2 assists) & Wes Hoolahan (3 goals, 1 assist), they are more than capable of upsetting the big guns as they did for pre-season promotion favourites Middlesbrough last Saturday.
Norwich City's away record stands at a healthy 3-2-1 7/4, and you may be aware they’ve kept a clean sheet in their last three on the road; 1-0 at Preston NE, 3-0 at Bristol City and a creditable 0-0 draw at QPR. But Cardiff City seem a breed apart right now, and with all cylinders firing, they should put Norwich City to a severe test.
The Betting Verdict :
But before I get totally carried away, remember this is the Championship and anything can happen on the day. So, once again I'm backing goals in this encounter with the various attacking personnel on the field.
BEST BETTING TIP :
Pick : Take Over 2.5 Goals @ 1.93 with Pinnacle Sports but be quick as the odds are dropping all the time.
