English FA CUP
2012-01-07 - Birmingham vs Wolves
A Sports Betting Pick by Lamps
Football : England : FA Cup
Saturday 7th January - Kickoff 12:30pm
Birmingham City
Despite sitting in 14th Birmingham are having a good season as the side has had to not only cope with the loss of players in the summer. Bit this year as well as competing domestically, the club has been paying in the Europa League.
Fighting on 2 fronts has meant a high fixture congestion and as a result the club has struggled to really mount a promotion push. This Saturday they host Wolves in a Midlands derby for a place in the 4th round of the cup.
The blues away form has been poor domestically with just 2 wins from 12 but at St Andrews Hughton's side has the 3rd best home record in the league.
With 7 wins from 11 and 0 losses, Birmingham will be a real handful this Saturday lunch time and a shock could well be on the cards. 17 goals in 11 games isn't fantastic but when the defence has allowed just the 5 all season you can see why this team is so efficient at home.
The back line has kept 7 clean sheets this year, winning 6 of these games and with Wolves not looking that great going forward 1 home goal could be enough.
Wolves
McCarthy's Wolves are in a real fight for their Premiership survival at the moment and probably welcome this fixture to give them a breather. Unfortunately away to a rival isn't a nice game to get at this stage of the competition and the fans won't want to see them lose, especially to a side in a lower division.
There is real cause for concern from the Wolves camp as the side has not won in 6 games and whilst B'Ham are a lower leagued opponent it won't be easy.
When looking at the away form it's not great reading for Wolves with 1 win away from Molineux all season. 8 goals in just 10 away games is a cause for concern plus the home side has a tight defence so scoring won't be easy at all in this one.
Giving up 19 goals also is not great and whilst Birmingham don't score a lot themselves the defence won't be confident going into this one.
Fletcher is the man who is likely to score for the visitors and after coming off the bench against Chelsea he should be fresh. With 8 goals this season he is by far the top scorer at Wolves and any time scorer bets on him should give you a good run in this one.
Betting Verdict
I'm going to favour the home side in this to avoid defeat as I feel they will be up for this more than the visitors.
McCarthy only cares about keeping Wolves in the top flight and Birmingham would love nothing more than to beat their rivals. The home form is very good whilst Wolves away have been very poor and whilst they may score I don't see them winning this.
For me the home side with the level ball start is the best play, even more so given this is a cup game and not a league game where as we know upsets happen very often.
Good Luck
The Pick :
Birmingham City 2-1 Wolves
Gooner’s Statistical Value Bet
Take Birmingham on Level Ball (AH+0) at 1.80 with PinnacleSports
