Championship - 10th August 2013

With a week still to go to the Premiership’s much awaited return the Championship gets another day in the spotlight and Brighton can kickstart another push for promotion with a home win over Derby. The bouncing positivity around Leeds, with the excellent Brian McDermott at the helm having been appointed in March and Ken Bates’s often acrimonious ties with the club having been totally severed after eight and a half years, had much to do with the raucous atmosphere that faced Oscar Garcia’s men faced and eventually succumbed to with the last kick of the game. However that was a worst case scenario start for any side, let alone a relatively new manager, and considering those circumstances the performance they put in was as good as any, leading after Leonardo Ulloa put the seal on a confident start and dominating the middle part of the game, with Andrew Crofts, Iñigo Calderón and, with five minutes remaining, Will Buckley, all being denied by outstanding saves from Paddy Kenny before Luke Murphy’s late goal robbed them of a much deserved point.

Today they’re back infont of their own fans, where they’re e unbeaten at home in the league so far in 2013 - winning seven and drawing three – and they can make amends with a win over Derby, who have playoff hopes but have conceded in their last 12 matches on the road and were lucky to get away with a draw on balance against Blackburn, who missed many opportunities and could have had a penalty shout at the least given shortly afterwards. Bet Victor go evens on Garcia’s men making amends and that’s our bet of the day.

It’s early in the season but there are quite a few marquee sounding matchups on today’s coupon – Bolton v Reading was a Premiership fixture not too long ago – and we’re going to find out a lot about some teams’ early shape. Reading battled back to beat Ipswich - more on them later – on the first weekend in a fashion that some might have called unconvincing, but they got the job done anyway, while Bolton got a point from their tough opener against Burnely. In David N'Gog, Jermaine Beckford, Adam Le Fondre and Pavel Pogrebnyak, 4 of the Championship’s top goalscorers are present however and in a game of uncertainties, the most likely outcome looks to be goals – over 2.5 looks the solid option. Elsewhere, Leicester are strong favourites against Derby in one of the other marquee games and rightly so although that’s another game where I’d rather back goals than either side – even though the host’s opening day win at Middlesborugh was extremely encouraging with today in mind.

Ante post tips Watford had to do more grinding than one thought they would have against Birmingham – who finishes extremely strongly in the second half - on the opening weekend but showed fine mental strength to get the job done should be happier on home turf today against Bournemouth, who has a fairytale start to their season but face a team of much higher quality than the Charlton outfit they turned over last weekend and they’re worth backing at 3/4 to make it two wins in two.

Advice

3 pts Brighton (evs Bet Victor)

1 pt Watford (3/4 Bet Victor)

1 pt Over 2.5 goals in Bolton v Reading (10/11 Hills)