Football – England – Championship
Saturday 23rd August 2014 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
Watford secured all three points away at Rotherham United on Tuesday night with a valuable 2-0 win which has lifted The Hornets into 7th place.
That’s now two wins from their first three Championship matches with an opening day home win over Bolton Wanderers 3-0 and a 0-3 defeat away at Norwich City at Carrow Road in between. Watford’s form at their Vicarage Road ground last season was pretty reasonable overall, and they finished with a home record of 11-5-7 39/25.
However, manager Giuseppe Sannino will be keen to improve their performances on the road as their away form meant that Watford finished in just a mid-table position. The loss at Norwich City already indicates that this is an area of improvement for The Hornets, but they get home advantage this afternoon.
Strikers Troy Deeney (who has hit 44 goals in his last two seasons for the London club), Matej Vydra and Fernando Forestieri are the main goal threats for the hosts tonight.
Visitors Leeds United have started their new season in typically inconsistent fashion again with an opening day defeat away at Millwall 0-2, a first round League Cup win over League Two side Accrington Stanley, then a 1-0 home win over Middlesbrough.
But just when you thought that perhaps Leeds might have turned a bit of a corner, they then go down 0-2 to Brighton at Elland Road on Tuesday night – again, it’s a case of one step forward and two steps back for the West Yorkshire outfit. And there’s no McCormack this time to help them out.
Given manager Dave Hockaday’s limited experience at managing a football team, let alone a sleeping giant such as Leeds United, I daresay the tolerance levels for his tenure would be a lot lower than a proven manager. Even Brian McDermott who had had a successful spell with Reading before taking over at Leeds was shown the door, so I wonder if the names Hockaday and Leeds United will still be linked come December?
Watford are usually pretty solid on home turf while Leeds are just not to be trusted at all on the road – I’ll back the hosts for the straight win here, Watford winning perhaps 2-1.
Pick: Watford straight win @ 1.75 bet365
