Eng. Championship
2013-05-27 - Crystal Palace vs Watford
A Sports Betting Pick by ArmchairPunter
Football – England – Championship Play-Off Final
Monday 27th May 2013 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
CRYSTAL PALACE
Wembley Stadium is the venue for the last, and arguably, the most important match of the whole of the English football season when the two London clubs Crystal Palace and Watford do battle down the road at the national stadium on Bank Holiday Monday.
Looking at Crystal Palace first, it seems an age ago when even the play-off semi finals were being played out and Palace overcame Brighton in the two legs after seemingly being down and out following their 0-0 stalemate at Selhurst Park in the first leg with a trip to the Amex Stadium ahead of them.
But Ian Holloway’s side showed their resilience when it mattered most and came up trumps at Brighton winning 2-0 in what was an unexpected triumph for The Eagles. Manchester United-bound Wilfred Zaha bagged a brace against The Seagulls and a similar performance is once again needed if they are to be successful in this crucial showdown with Watford, particularly with star striker Glenn Murray (30 goals, 7 assists) ruled out until next season following injury in the first leg against Brighton.
The Eagles’ season run-in ended in somewhat frustrating fashion as they missed out on automatic promotion thanks to securing just two wins from their last twelve matches (including the play-off semi’s) and six draws which ultimately cost them valuable ground on eventual runners-up Hull City. They now face another difficult ‘winner-takes-all’ fixture against Watford without Murray, and can they repeat their previous heroics at Brighton again versus Watford?
WATFORD
Onto Watford then, and Gianfranco Zola’s men narrowly missed out on automatic promotion themselves finishing just two points adrift of Steve Bruce’s Hull City following their surprise last-day defeat at home to free-falling Leeds United 1-2.
The Hornets’ play-off dreams also seemed to be floating away after their 0-1 semi final loss at Leicester City but they bounced back well at Vicarage Road winning the second leg 3-1 and once again the Championship threw up yet another thrilling footballing moment.
Watford were also slightly below-par in the final weeks of the regular season as they returned mixed results which consisted of three defeats, three wins and a draw in their last seven matches of the campaign.
THE BETTING VERDICT:
Goals obviously win football matches, and when I compare the two prospective teams I feel that Watford have the edge in the final third with a more balanced side on paper; Deeney, Vydra and Abdi seem to outweigh a Palace side whose hopes are heavily pinned on another Zaha performance, and bereft of the prolific Murray.
It’s gonna be another tight one and should be an absolute classic with the stakes being so high, but I’ll back Watford to just edge this titanic struggle and return to the top-flight.
Watford to win 2-1 as a possible scoreline.
The Pick :
Crystal Palace 1 Watford 2
