CARDIFF CITY v PRESTON NORTH END
Friday 29th December 2017 – Kickoff: 1945hrs
Football – England – Championship Betting Tips
Following recent back-to-back defeats, Cardiff City will be keen to get their bid for automatic promotion from the Championship back on track on Friday night when they play host to Preston North End at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Defeats to Bolton Wanderers away and a 4-2 Boxing Day defeat at home to Fulham have sent a warning message to Cardiff and manager Neil Warnock as The Bluebirds have dropped to third place with Bristol City now in second place thanks to a slightly better goal difference.
The loss to Fulham came completely out of the blue, such are the vagaries of the Championship, but having previously strung together a four match winning streak with wins over Ipswich Town, Brentford, Norwich City and Hull City, the hosts still have reason to be confident here.
Visitors Preston North End sit in 9th place in the Championship and have proven themselves to be hard to beat under former Norwich City manager, Alex Neil, as they’ve lost just five matches with only the top two teams in the division, Wolves and Bristol City, losing fewer games than them so far this season.
Preston also bring an eight match unbeaten run with them to Wales on Friday night which includes wins over Bristol City and Burton Albion (away) along with home wins over QPR and Sheffield United. They possess a fairly solid looking away record of 4-5-3 14/14 and have lost by just the single goal at Wolves and Derby County.
The visitors have also recorded a 3-0 home win over Friday night’s hosts, Cardiff City, earlier in the season at Deepdale, and they look a good bet to avoid defeat here again.
Pick: Preston North End AH+0.5 @ 1.81 Bet Victor
