Eng. Championship
2012-12-08 - Peterborough United vs Middlesbrough
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Championship
Saturday 8 December 2012 - Kick Off 3pm
Peterborough United
After a horrific start to the season, Peterborough United did not panic and sack Darren Ferguson and the son of one of the most famous managers in the World has kept the side in touch with the safety positions. The problem for Peterborough remains the amount of goals they concede, but they have given themselves a fighting chance.
Even though Peterborough are still bottom of the Championship, they are just 4 points from the safety zone and have got to a point where their goal difference is not a big problem. The Posh have to improve their home form where they are 2-0-8 this season, scoring 12 goals and conceding 20.
They have failed to win any of their last 7 games coming into this game and Peterborough have lost 6 of those games. Since winning back to back home games, Peterborough have lost 3 in a row at home including back to back 1-4 losses to Blackburn Rovers and Blackpool, the latter last weekend.
Middlesbrough
After putting themselves in great contention in the Championship, Middlesbrough have just hit the buffers in recent games. However, Tony Mowbray will at least be a little happy that they have not lost too much ground in the automatic promotion race.
Middlesbrough remain 4th in the Championship and find themselves 6 points off leaders Cardiff City after a 3-2 loss at Birmingham City last weekend. That loss also dropped their away record to 4-1-5, scoring 13 goals and conceding 15 in those games.
The blip in form that I mentioned has seen Boro lose 3 of their last 4 Championship games following a 9 game unbeaten run to push themselves up the table. Middlesbrough have failed to win any of their last 3 away games, losing their last 2 in a row, although they should have had more success at Birmingham last Friday.
Head to Head
Middlesbrough have won just 1 of their last 7 games at Peterborough United in all competitions and even that came in the League Cup.
3 of the last 4 League games here at London Road have ended with the points shared, while Peterborough won the other game.
Prediction
Both sides have been out of form in the last few weeks and that makes this game a little tougher to read as far as I am concerned.
Peterborough United are conceding a lot of goals at home and Middlesbrough could take advantage of that here, although they too have looked vulnerable to conceding goals.
I'll be surprised if a winning team in this one does so in a low-scoring encounter, but I do like Middlesbrough's chances of snapping their recent poor away form and picking up three points.
Instead of backing them at short odds, I'll take them to win with at least 3 goals scored in the game at 2.90 being offered at Ladbrokes.
The Pick :
Peterborough United 1-2 Middlesbrough
BEST BETTING TIP :
I'll back Middlesbrough to win and Over 2.5 goals (The Total Result) @ 2.90 (Ladbrokes)
