Football – England – Championship
Tuesday 6th November 2012 – Kickoff: 1945hrs
Another top-half clash in the Championship is in the offing at the City Ground on Tuesday night as Nottingham Forest take on high-flying Middlesbrough with the winners vying for a play-off position and top of the division places respectively.
Forest have recently enjoyed a run of five matches without defeat but that run came to a sudden end at the weekend when they got downed 1-4 against Millwall at the City Ground which put paid to any sort of momentum at home following their surprise 3-1 win over Cardiff City.
It’s now just one home win in their last five matches which have consisted of draws against struggling Birmingham City and Blackburn Rovers and defeats to Derby and Millwall. Forest’s home record now stands at 3-3-2 9/9 and when you consider they were unbeaten in their first three home matches, the momentum has dropped somewhat since.
The Tricky Trees still have various dangerous players though in their weaponry such as Andy Reid, Dexter Blackstock, Simon Cox and Billy Sharp (all 3 goals each) but whilst scoring goals may not be a problem, they are not carving out the same sort of results as they were earlier in the season.
Visiting Middlesbrough have really hit their straps in recent weeks and are on a six match unbeaten run which includes five straight wins with victories on the road over Watford 2-1, Brighton 1-0 and Charlton Athletic 4-1 on Saturday, along with home wins over Hull City and Bolton.
Boro have also won their last four away from home on the trot and although they’re up against a Forest outfit who are on the edges of the play-off pack, the hosts have put in some indifferent results of late and the visitors must fancy their chances of at least a point here.
In addition, Boro too have players capable of creating and scoring; Marvin Emnes (3 goals, 1 assist), Lukas Jutkiewicz (4 goals) and Scott McDonald (4 goals, 1 assist in 5 matches) along with the creativity of Grant Leadbitter (5 assists), they surely represent a decent chance of at least a draw at the City Ground tonight.
Forest have faltered recently at home while Boro seem to be going from strength to strength both home and away, so I’ll take the visitors with the +0.5 handicap at very generous odds! Could be a draw or a Boro win I feel.
Pick: Middlesbrough AH+0.5 @ 1.90 bet365 looks a cracking deal
