Coca Cola Championship – Betting Guide and Preview
With sixteen or so matches left in Europe’s most competitive football league, the Championship title looks to be a three horse race.
Newcastle United are the current 10/11 favourites to take the Championship title and return to the top flight at the first time of asking. Chris Hughton has done a quietly efficient job since taking over at the Magpies and it is 1/4 that they will be promoted at the end of the 2009/10 season.
Many commentators expected Newcastle to struggle after their relegation in 2009, but instead seasoned professionals including Steve Harper, Steven Taylor, Kevin Nolan and Danny Guthrie have carried Newcastle to the summit of the Championship table. They also remain unbeaten at St James Park this campaign. It will be a close battle to see who takes the honours as league winners, but I can’t see Newcastle not taking their place amongst the Premier League sides in 2010/11.
West Bromwich Albion are another club looking to bounce back to the Premier League at the first time of asking. They are 6/4 to lift the Championship trophy at the end of the season and 1/3 to be promoted.
Under the guidance of their young coach Roberto di Matteo, the Baggies have been one of the most exciting teams in the Championship this season and are the divisions top goal scorers, averaging two goals a game. West Brom also managed to retain the core of the team that was relegated, with experienced heads including Slovenian national captain Robert Koren, Czech striker Roman Bednar and the young Dutch talent Gianni Zuiverloon. The Baggies’ away form has been their main asset this season, losing just one away league match.
Roberto di Matteo’s side are actually on a really good of form of late and so the 6/4 on them overhauling Newcastle at the top of the table looks good value.
It has been a long time since the fans of Nottingham Forest have had anything much to cheer. After three seasons languishing in League One, the two times European Champions finally returned to the second tier of English football in 2008. It’s been over a decade since Forest graced the Premier League in England, and the Forest faithful are desperate for the glory days to return to the City Ground.
For a 20 match period this season, it looked like Billy Davies’s side were finally upwardly mobile. A superb unbeaten league run incorporated the best away record in England and carried Forest up to the lofty heights of second in the Championship table. However, three recent defeats in quick succession, including a 1-0 reverse to rivals Derby County, have put a dent in their automatic promotion hopes.
Forest are 4/1 to win the Championship and 5/6 to be promoted. With a thirteen point cushion between them and the team in 7th spot, a play-off place should be well within Forest’s grasp this season. Billy Davies is on record as saying that it is ‘too early’ for Forest to be promoted to the top flight, but that won’t stop the faithful dreaming of glory between now and May.
Of the remaining contenders, the South Wales pair of Cardiff City and Swansea City lead the betting. Whilst you can back either side at 50/1 to win the title (they are a dozen or so points off the pace), Cardiff are 4/1 to be promoted with Swansea at 9/2. A more mouthwatering prospect (except for the South Wales Constabulary, I imagine) is that the two sides come face to face in the play-offs at the end of the season. Cardiff have the goals of Michael Chopra to thank for their league position and the striker is 2/1 favourite to be the Championship’s top scorer this season.
Middlesbrough are also a good outside bet at 13/2 to secure promotion back to the Premier League at the end of the season. Gordon Strachan’s side need to find some good form, but they sit just three points outside the play-off places and have both the personnel and managerial nous to climb the table. By the end of April, the 13/2 on Boro going up could look very long indeed.
