Championship Betting Preview & Tips

It’s the second weekend of the Championship, and teams will be either looking to build on a good start or trying to turn around a poor one.

One of the team in the first bracket is QPR. Neil Warnock’s side travel to Sheffield United (his spiritual home), looking to build on their impressive 4-0 hammering of Barnsley last weekend.

Sheffield United had a solid start too, with a 1-1 draw away at Cardiff. They played for almost an hour of that game with 10 men, so if they can keep 11 on the park, they can give Rangers a run for their money this weekend.

QPR suffered a disappointing result in the Carling Cup in midweek, falling to a 3-1 defeat at home to Port Vale. Whilst the Blades themselves suffered a cup upset by losing at Hartlepool. However, both sides were missing players to international duty or they were rested, so don’t read too much into those scorelines.

The visitors can be backed at 23/10 with VCBet to take all three points, and looks to be very good value to me.

A team who will be looking to overcome a poor start is Bristol City. Manager Steve Coppell sensationally retired from football management this week, meaning his assistant Keith Millen takes the reins.

The Robins make the trip to Doncaster this weekend. The Yorkshire club got off to winning ways last weekend away at Preston but followed that up with defeat at home to League 2 side Accrington in the Carling Cup.

Beware of the new manager syndrome, Doncaster fans. You can get 3/1 (Betfred, Coral, Ladbrokes) on an away victory in this one, and you wouldn’t put it past Bristol City to walk away with three points. They do, remember, have David James between the posts.

The TV game this weekend, takes place at the City Ground where Nottingham Forest host Leeds United on Sunday. Forest were one of the favourites going into the campaign but have suffered a terrible start to the season with two defeats, firstly at Burnley in the league and then at Bradford in the Carling Cup.

Leeds were a little unlucky to start their league campaign with a defeat at the hands of Derby last weekend, but then went and thrashed Lincoln 4-0 in the Carling Cup to get it out of their system.

Forest still have a great array of attacking talent at their disposal, and a great home record of recent times too. I’d fancy them to take the victory and look out for perhaps a goal or two from Robert Earnshaw, who is 11/2 to open the scoring with Bet365.

Championship tips of the weekend:

• Bristol City to beat Doncaster @ 3/1 (Betfred, Coral, Ladbrokes)
• Scunthorpe/Norwich  – half-time/full-time @ 33/1 (SkyBet)
• Scott MacDonald to score first goal (Leicester v Middlesbrough) @ 13/2 (Bet365)

Championship Fixtures

Saturday 14 August

• 15:00 Barnsley (8/5) v (12/5) Crystal Palace (19/10)
• 15:00 Derby (6/4) v (12/5) Cardiff (2/1)
• 15:00 Doncaster (20/19) v (13/5) Bristol City (3/1)
• 15:00 Ipswich (7/5) v (23/10) Burnley (9/4)
• 15:00 Leicester (6/4) v (23/10) Middlesbrough (21/10)
• 15:00 Millwall (6/4) v (12/5) Hull (2/1)
• 15:00 Portsmouth (7/4) v (12/5) Reading (9/5)
• 15:00 Scunthorpe (7/4) v (12/5) Norwich (7/4)
• 15:00 Sheffield Utd (13/10) v (23/10) QPR (23/10)
• 15:00 Swansea (10/11) v (5/2) Preston (7/2)
• 15:00 Watford (5/4) v (23/10) Coventry (12/5)

Sunday 15 August

• 13:15 [TV] Nottm Forest (5/6) v (5/2) Leeds (7/2)

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