English League Two
2011-01-29 - Oxford United vs Cheltenham Town
A Sports Betting Pick by Caged
Football : England : League 2
Saturday 30th January 2011
Oxford bounced back from defeat on Tuesday night with an ultimately comfortable home win over 4th place Shrewsbury Town.
Thats 7 wins from 9 games now for Chris Wilders side, despite conceding in every game since September 11th. Thats no clean sheet in 21 games.
Despite this good run of results, inconsistency, overconfidence, complacency and defensive vulnerability make Oxford a slightly iffy proposition in the match outcome markets. I certainly wouldnt be rushing to back them at odds on prices, even if they did have a decent home record (and poor away record) against the Robins when last in League 2.
But, as discussed in midweek, Oxfords achilles heel continues to be their propensity to give up soft goals. Despite having two good centre backs and one of the best keepers at this level, they seem to have an inherent weakness that means they are susceptible to a certain types of attack.
Giving away silly goals means United put themselves under pressure to score two or more themselves, but they do have the ability to do this.
With the aggression of James Constable, the clever link up play of Steven Maclean and the finishing of Tom Craddock its very rare that Oxford fail to score. In the last 9 games theyve scored 18 times.
Two top quality strikes from Constable sealed the win in midweek, and today Oxford secured pacey winger Jennison Myrie Williams to boost their attacking options.
We identified all this as a betting opportunity in midweek and scored a decent priced winner by backing both teams to score, and there is no reason whatsoever to abandon that approach this Saturday.
Because Oxford had trouble scoring early in the year they seem to be slipping under the both teams to score radar, so its a bet that has been available at really tasty prices of late. The prices are getting shorter game by game, with increasing pace now.
What of Cheltenham?
Well, good luck picking a pattern out of their results, they are all over the place. A poor home defeat to lowly Lincoln last time out was preceded by a win at playoff contending Port Vale.
Astonishing inconsistency seems to be all the rage in this improbably open field of a division.
But what we are interested in is the both teams to score market. We know that Oxford can score and concede against anyone, so is there any reason why Cheltenham will be any different. That 1-0 win at Port Vale suggests it might, but both teams have scored in 5 of the last 6 Cheltenham games.
And that means the evidence is overwhelming.
The Pick :
Oxford 2 Cheltenham 1
BEST BETTING TIP :
Take Both Teams To Score at 1.8 (bet365)
