Eng. Championship
2013-05-04 - Brighton vs Wolves
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Championship
Saturday 4 May 2013 - Kick Off 12:45pm
Brighton
This is the final game of the regular season for Brighton, but that won't mean they will be thinking about their holidays having booked a place in the Play Offs already. Gus Poyet might be tempted to rest a couple of players for those Play Offs, but he is also going to be keen to maintain form as momentum has proved to be so useful in the Play Offs over the last few seasons.
With the way the table has worked out, Brighton are about 99.99999% sure of finishing in 4th place in the Championship table meaning they will have the second leg of the Play Off Semi Final at home. It would take a 14 goal swing and Brighton to lose and Crystal Palace to win to prevent Brighton from keeping hold of 4th spot now. They have a 10-9-3 record at the Amex Stadium, scoring 37 goals and conceding 17 in those games.
Brighton are unbeaten in their last 8 games in the Championship and they have won 3 of their last 4 to make sure they are booked into the Play Offs. They have a 9 game unbeaten run in the League at home since a 1-3 loss to Watford, and Brighton have won 6 of those games including a 6-1 win over Blackpool in their last home game.
Wolves
It was only twelve months ago that Wolves were being relegated from the Premier League and they would have had high hopes of getting out of the Championship this season. It looks almost certain that they will be exiting the Division at around 2:30pm on Saturday afternoon, but not many of the fans would have been expecting Wolves to be relegated into League One, the lowest Division they have been in since the mid-1980's.
Dean Saunders arrived at the club to try and change the fortunes of the slide down the table, but it hasn't helped and now Wolves are 23rd in the Championship with a lot of permutations going against them. Wolves have to win this game, hope Barnsley and Peterborough United lose and that Wolves can make up a 4 goal deficit to Peterborough in the goal difference category. They have a 7-2-13 away record this season, scoring 25 goals and conceding 32 in those games.
Wolves did beat Hull City 1-0 last month, but they have lost 4 of their last 5 League games and the 1-2 home loss to ten man Burnley last weekend has virtually ensured they will be relegated. They have lost 3 of their last 4 away games in the Championship, although Wolves did beat Birmingham City 2-3 in the only exception in that run.
Head to Head
A last minute goal from the home side earned Wolves a 3-3 draw with Brighton earlier this season.
Brighton have not hosted Wolves for seven seasons since a 1-1 home draw against them and Brighton have only won 1 of their last 6 home games against Wolves.
Prediction
There is some sense that Brighton will perhaps be resting players with the Play Offs in mind, but I think they will want to maintain their form ahead of the next stage in their season. They are playing a Wolves team that has to be so down after defeat last week almost certainly sent them down.
At odds against, the home side have to be worth an interest.
The Pick :
Brighton 2-0 Wolves
BEST BETTING TIP :
I'll back Brighton to Win @ 2.00 (Paddy Power)
