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2011-10-25 - Crystal Palace vs Southampton
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football : English Carling Cup 4th Round
Tuesday 25 October 2011 - Kickoff 7:45pm
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace have been in very good form to start this new season and it does not look like that will be finishing any time soon as they try to reach the last 8 of the Carling Cup. A cup run will be good for the coffers too at a club that has struggled financially, although they would have loved to have drawn a big Premier League club in this Round.
Palace moved up to 4th in the Championship courtesy of a 0-1 win at Ipswich Town at the weekend. They have a 3-2-1 record at Selhurst Park this season, scoring 8 goals and conceding 5, and are just 3 points off the top of the table. Palace have already won 3 ties in this competition at home this season.
The Eagles form has been impressive, with 4 wins in their last 5 games, and they have won the last 3 games all with clean sheets. Palace have won 2 of their last 3 games at home in all competitions.
Owen Garvan could return to the squad for this game. Palace have no other injury worries from Saturday.
Southampton
Southampton were a popular pick at the start of the season to be a dark horse for promotion, and they have started the campaign in good enough fashion to have the fans believing that a Premier League return could be in their near future.
The Saints have a 3 point lead at the top of the Championship and have only lost 2 of their 13 League games so far. They have been inconsistent away from home where they are 2-3-2 on the season, scoring 12 goals but conceding 10. Southampton also beat Swindon 1-3 away from home in this competition.
Since that win over Swindon, Southampton have failed to win any of their last 4 away games. They have scored in every one of their 8 away games this season, although they have not scored more than 1 goal in any of their last 4 away games.
Nigel Adkins is expected to make a number of changes to his first team for this game.
Head to Head
Crystal Palace and Southampton have had mixed results against one another in recent season.
Palace have won 2, Southampton have won 1 and there have been 2 draws in the last 5 meetings between the sides at Selhurst Park since 2004.
Prediction
This is a really tough game to predict as it looks like the away side could be making some changes, so the Crystal Palace to win option looks more attractive, although I am not quite sure how good Palace are.
They do have a special home record since Dougie Freedman took over as manager, and odds of 3.10 are appealing because of that.
However, I am going to have a small interest on the last goal in this game being scored in the 73rd minute or later- Palace have scored plenty of late goals already this season, while there are likely to be spaces to be exploited by whichever team is leading going into the final stages of the match.
Both teams are capable of scoring goals so that will be my pick in this game.
The Pick :
Crystal Palace 2-1 Southampton
FIXED ODDS BETTING TIP :
I'll back Time of Last Goal 73 minutes or later @ 1.92 (Paddy Power)
