Birmingham V Wolves – Betting TIP: WOLVES TO WIN – 1 May 2011

Premier League Tips

 

Birmingham City V Wolves

Date & Kick-Off: Sunday, 1 May 2011 – 12:00 (GMT)
Competition: Barclay’s Premier League

First up on Sunday is a tasty contest from the Midlands, as Birmingham entertain Wolves at St Andrews. I retract my previous statement about Birmingham ‘entertaining’, as that is certainly something they don’t do. Their football is tediously methodical and if ever there was a team the neutrals couldn’t wait to see the back off, it’s Alex McLeish’s resolute and extremely well-organised, yet painfully dull, Blues outfit.

When these two met at Molineux earlier in the season, Wolves ran out comfortable 1-0 winners as Birmingham failed to register a single shot on goal in a match which epitomised their entire campaign up till now. No team in the top-flight has registered fewer shots on target than Birmingham, who have also scored the joint-fewest overall (34), along with Wigan, though they claim full rights to having scored the fewest from open play this season (17).

Wolves have hardly set the Premiership alite this season, however, Mick McCarthy’s charges are characteristically dogged and hard-working, as tenacious a team as you’ll find, and you can guarantee they’ll be fighting tooth and nail for their Premiership status. And it goes without saying that this is a must-win game for them, having slipped into the bottom-three after failing to win any of their previous (W0 D1 L3), but their record against their Midlands rivals is very poor, woeful in fact, winning just one of the previous ten league meetings, though it was the most recent.

At Stoke in midweek, Wolves were abysmal, when going down 3-0, but I’m expecting a far more spirited performance from them in Sunday’s Midlands derby. Just one point from their last four games is pathetic form, and it does leave them exposed heading up to what used to be a formidable St Andrews.

However, the hosts aren’t in the best of shapes either, having lost their last two league games in a demoralising manner. Chelsea strolled past them (3-1), while Liverpool blew them away (5-0).

So, surely Wolves can achieve something against a shell-shocked and rattled Birmingham side who could be without arguably their player of the season in goalkeeper Ben Foster ,who, incidentally, has made more saves than any other keeper in the Premier League this season – A statistic which doesn’t exactly cover a supposedly resolute and tidy Birmingham defence in glory.

Betting Selection(s):

Wolves +0.5 AH @ 1.80 Bet365
Wolves to WIN @ 4.00 VictorChandler