Match betting preview: Watford v Birmingham City
Saturday August 25, Vicarage Road. Kick-off 5:20pm
WATFORD GAP: Zola knows he needs to plug at few holes in the squad to be competitive this season
By Lee Dover | Championship betting
The Championship has proven to be as unpredictable as ever as the opening skirmishes have thrown up some strange results.
Except for Blackpool, no team has managed to win two games on the bounce in the second tier of English football this season.
Two teams who have definitely not recovered from the long summer gap are Watford and Birmingham City. Both have come out of the blocks more like Dwaine Chambers than Usain Bolt and are already playing catch-up.
Watford manager Gianfranco Zola admitted as much when he analysed his team’s performance following their 1-0 defeat against Ipswich Town.
As he told the Watford Observer:
There is absolutely no doubt about it, it was a fair result and the team who played better on the day won the game. I knew we still have a lot of work to do before tonight; I wasn’t under the illusion that the game we played on Saturday was the solution.
At least The Hornets have managed to sting one of their Championship rivals in the early stages of the 2012/13 campaign. Birmingham City fans are sitting on their hands and wondering where their first league victory is going to come from.
Following a 1-1 draw against Championship new boys Charlton Athletic, The Blues then certainly began to sing the blues when they fell 3-2 against Sheffield Wednesday.
Birmingham City manager Lee Clark was in fighting humour when he spoke to the Birmingham Mail.
Are we going to be little boys about it, cower away in the corner or are we going to be men, come out and be counted and represent the club in the way it should be? I know what I’m going to be doing – I’m going to be making sure we get the result at Watford on Saturday.
Clark should take some heart from the stats in the recent head-to-head history between The Blues and The Hornets.
Birmingham City won 1-0 away in 2009 and have a strong home record against Watford in the Championship so they have the beating of them.
It’s 13/8 with Paddy Power’s online betting that Watford take all three points on Saturday evening after their marginally better start to the season.
With Birmingham out for their first points of the season the draw makes some appeal at 11/5 with Paddy Power.
But the recent form-guide suggests the Hornets are ready to give Birmingham the blues again.
Gionfranco, your next result will be – 2-1 to you, best regards Terry