Football – England – Championship
Saturday 19th January 2013 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
Third from bottom club Peterborough United take on second placed Hull City at London Road as they look to put some points between themselves and fellow relegation rivals Barnsley and Bristol City.
Peterborough have recorded some vital wins recently over Bolton 5-4, Wolves 3-0 away and a 2-1 home win over Barnsley on New Years Day which has kept them in the hunt to avoid the drop and keep in touch with those teams just above the relegation zone, but the aforementioned teams have also been struggling for form and are not exactly pushing Cardiff City for the league title as opposed to Hull City.
At home, Peterborough don’t tend to trade in draws – it’s either win or lose and they have won their last two at London Road on the bounce but these recent wins have been on the back of four straight losses. Inconsistency has been the downfall of Peterborough this term and it is reflected in their home record of 4-0-9 21/28 but only Bristol City (33 goals conceded) have a worse defensive record at home in the league and this is what gives Hull an edge here today.
Hull City came through the Christmas and New Year period relatively unscathed with two wins (Derby County and Leeds United) and two draws (Leicester City and Blackpool both 0-0), before last weekend’s devastating home loss 1-3 to lowly Sheffield Wednesday.
This may be the wake-up call that Steve Bruce’s men needed and they now travel down to East Anglia knowing they will need to start picking up points again with the likes of Leicester City, Crystal Palace and Middlesbrough all just two points behind them.
But we’ll cut Hull City some slack as that defeat against Wednesday was their first in nine matches and they definitely stand a very good chance of taking all the points at Peterborough given their away record; a record of 7-2-4 17/16 seems a bit so-so but take into consideration that The Tigers have now been unbeaten for the last five matches which includes four straight wins (Birmingham City, Nottingham Forest, Watford and Derby County).
So, inconsistent Peterborough have just shipped too many goals at home for my liking and I’ll back the more solid Hull City even though they’re away any day of the week, but I advise giving the quarter ball in the unlikely event of a loss. A 2-1 away win for Hull City here.
Pick: Hull City AH-0.25 @ 1.92 Pinnacle looks like a risk worth taking
