Eng. Championship
2012-02-07 - Birmingham City vs Portsmouth
A Sports Betting Pick by ArmchairPunter
Football – England – Championship
Tuesday 7th February 2012 – Kickoff: 1945hrs
Birmingham City take on another south coast team at St Andrews on Tuesday night when Portsmouth visit the West Midlands.
Birmingham City (5th)
HOME : 9-5-0 22/6
The Blues battled out a 0-0 stalemate in their weekend clash with second placed Southampton amidst a fixture schedule riddled with postponements due to the weather, and they still remain unbeaten at their St Andrews fortress.
Birmingham’s home record now stands at 9-5-0 22/6 and they’ve kept eight clean sheets in those matches so far. Blues have also performed well against the teams in the lower half of the division with wins over Coventry City, Millwall, Doncaster Rovers, Ipswich Town and Watford, and they’ll be looking for all three points against a Portsmouth side who are a shadow of their former self.
Birmingham now have a settled back four in place with Curtis Davies and Steven Caldwell forming the central defensive partnership, and with numerous attacking options now at Chris Hughton’s disposal, they should have too much depth for Pompey tonight.
Portsmouth (17th)
AWAY : 2-4-8 19/19
Portsmouth had a weekend off with their match against Hull City postponed, and will be looking to record back-to-back wins when they travel up to the midlands on Tuesday night. However, they will have to play well as no visiting team has beaten them on home turf as yet.
Pompey’s away record stands at 2-4-8 13/19 and suggests that they might struggle to get a maximum at St Andrews.
Portsmouth did beat Peterborough United last time out, and got a draw at Leicester City recently, but losses at Millwall, Watford, Ipswich Town and Derby County reveal that they are too inconsistent on the road to make an impression on the top half of the Championship.
They’ve also drawn a blank on seven occasions and when you’re travelling to the meanest defence in the division this is not a good sign.
The betting Verdict :
In the previous meeting between these two sides Birmingham won 1-0 in a tight affair with James McFadden scoring the 90th minute winner through a Seb Larsson assist.
We may see a similar scoreline here tonight with Blues’ defence and Portsmouth’s goal-shy attack, but I’ll go for the value option here and back Blues with the -1 handicap.
The Pick :
Birmingham to win 2-0
Gooner’s Statistical Value Bet
