Eng. Championship
2012-10-27 - Cardiff City vs Burnley
A Sports Betting Pick by ArmchairPunter
Football – England – Championship
Saturday 27th October 2012 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
Joint leaders in the Championship, Cardiff City, take on mid-table Burnley at the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday afternoon knowing that if they take all three points today, then Cardiff City stand a good chance of becoming outright leaders by Saturday evening.
Leicester City play host to Crystal Palace which should be a tight affair and could, in all probability, end up as a draw.
Cardiff City
Back to Cardiff then, and they’ve won seven of their last nine Championship matches with six home wins on the trot over Huddersfield Town, Wolves, Leeds United, Blackpool, Birmingham City and Watford.
The Bluebirds’ home record stands at a very impressive 6-0-0 13/4, with only Leicester City also boasting a 100% home record in the division. What is also impressive is the lack of goals conceded by the defence with only Leicester City (2 goals conceded) having conceded fewer on home soil.
Ever-reliable Peter Whittingham (7 goals, 2 assists) is Cardiff’s leading scorer but he’s assisted by Heidar Helguson (4 goals, 1 assist), the two Craigs (Bellamy and Noone (4 assists), while Connolly, Hudson and Gunnarsson have all chipped in with 2 goals each.
Burnley
High-scoring (and conceding) Burnley make the trip to Wales having lost just once in their last six league matches with draws at Millwall and Sheffield Wednesday and back-to-back wins over Blackpool and Bristol City. The loss came against Crystal Palace away from home so I guess they can be excused of that.
The Clarets however tend not to travel too well and they’ve won just twice in their last eight away from home in the Championship with a current record of 2-0-4 12/15. They’re also conceding on average 2.5 goals per game and despite scoring 12 themselves on the road, they are likely to concede just one more.
Burnley have also kept just two clean sheets in their last fifteen away matches in this division and against a Cardiff City side who possess a mean defence, they could be in for another tough afternoon.
At the business end, in-form striker Charlie Austin (14 goals, 2 assists) will need to be watched, as too Chris McCann and Martin Paterson (3 goals each) while McCann (4 assists), Junior Stanislas (4 assists) and Kieran Trippier (5 assists) have provided the bulk of the ammunition.
The Betting Verdict :
There’s never usually a shortage in goals where Burnley are concerned, but in this case you have a poor away defence against a team joint top of the league with a mean defence;
I’ll back Cardiff to win this one by a cuople of goals, perhaps it might only be 2-1 but I will go for the extra value in the -1 handicap at juicy odds!
The Pick :
Cardiff City 3-1 Burnley
Gooner’s Statistical Value Bet
