Championship: Hull City- Cardiff City
Cardiff must be feeling more than a little nervous now, they let three points drop at Derby in midweek and watched Fulham move above them into the automatic promotions spots with a hard earned win last night. That means that unless the Bluebirds win today, matters will be outside their own hands and it must feel like something they have held onto for so long is slipping out of their hands like a greased piglet. Normally you would say that a lower midtable opponent with nothing to play for is ideal, but the Tigers are not your average team in 18th place, they are very strong offensively and can play without fear having secured survival last week.
Ahead of their last home game my notes included..........
Hull City are fast improving and ahead of their midweek trip to basement club Burton Albion my notes included ............
I touched upon Hull City on Saturday as having a good offense and they emphasized that within a couple of hours with a 4-0 demolition of QPR and that took them seven clear of the drop zone, but they would (obviously) like to make survival certain asap and are playing way better than 18th place suggests. They have the 7th rated offensive and have scored more goals than any team outside the top five, they have shipped a lot of goals at the other end, but are fast improving in that aspect since their change in coach and are a team to watch for next season . They have not been great on the road, but have won 3-0 at Ipswich and drew 2-2 at leaders Wolves in the last month and it is very difficult to see them coming up short this evening in terms of at least goals.
They landed a double bet there with a 5-0 win and the points took them up to a giddy 16th place in the Championship and above today's opposition on goal difference. The Tigers transformation has been amazing and we have to give head coach Nigel Adkins who took charge in December plenty of credit. The number of goals are eyecatching and that is what has got the most attention, but offensively they have "always" been good, however, at the end of November their defence was rated on a par with Burton/Sunderland/Bolton as the worst in the division, today they are #9 and that should be with a bullet and overall, City are playing at top 8 level. Wednesday are ranked just about where they are table wise with both offensive and defensive trends, especially the latter, on the slide, with a couple of big wins papering over some fairly alarming defensive issues. The Owls have conceded in their last 11 starts, given up four goals three times in that sequence and, to be honest, it should have been more and they have faced a huge number of attempts on their goal in recent weeks and it feels like there will be a lot of opportunities for the red hot City team today.
That finished 0-1, not sure how, with City having 24 attempts and a lot of good opportunities, they have played once subsequently and scored five on the road (of course they did !) to a top ten side sharing the spoils in an incredible ten goal thriller. That backs up all the notes above, they are a good bottom half of the table side, with potential for next season and will not want to end their home campiagn with a lacklustre preformance and I expect goals today.
1.75 units "over" 3 goals 2.16 asian line/Sportmarket.
Good Luck.
