Football –England – League One
Tuesday 20th November 2012 – Kickoff: 1945hrs
Colchester United and Coventry City do battle at the Weston Homes Community Stadium on Tuesday night with the visitors keen to continue their climb up the table away from the bottom four places.
Colchester beat Bury 2-0 on Saturday to give them their fourth home win of the season, but this was against a poor travelling Bury side who have won on the road just once so far this term. However, this win broke back-to-back defeats against Notts County and Crewe Alexandra, and they’ve lost just once at home in their last six matches with straight wins over Hartlepool United, Stevenage, Carlisle United and of course Bury.
Colchester’s home record then stands at 4-3-2 13/9, and leading scorer is Jabo Ibehre (4 goals, 2 assists), and he’s supported by Anthony Wordsworth (3 goals, 2 assists), Freddie Sears (2 goals) and Clinton Morrison coming off the bench.
Tonight’s visitors, Coventry City, have made a vast improvement since I last featured them in one of my previews and the struggling midlands outfit have moved away from immediate relegation danger and are starting to climb up the table having put in some promising performances.
Recent wins over Leyton Orient 1-0 away, a 3-1 home win over Crawley Town and a resounding 5-0 win at rock-bottom club Hartlepool United on Saturday have improved the Sky Blues’ fortunes and they now have a three point cushion over 21st placed Oldham Athletic.
Following a disastrous start to the season on the road where they didn’t win an away match in their first four matches (losses at Crewe, Tranmere & Shrewsbury, along with a draw at Yeovil), Coventry turned their form around and have since lost just once in their last five which was at Brentford 1-2.
Coventry’s away record now stands at 3-2-4 12/12 and forward David McGoldrick (10 goals, 1 assist) is their leading scorer and he scored a penalty at Hartlepool in the Saturday match. Carl Baker (4 goals, 2 assists) has provided valuable back-up, along with Gary McSheffrey and Franck Moussa.
There doesn’t appear to be much between these two teams but looking at overall form in recent matches, Colchester United have won just once in their last five matches in all competitions while Coventry City have lost just once and won the other four in all competitions. I’ll therefore back the visitors here with the +0.5 handicap as they should be worth at least a draw here tonight (and this would be a win for us).
Pick: Coventry City AH+0.5 @ 1.65 bet365
