October 17th – Soccer / Football
Fulham vs Hull City
October 19, 2009
On paper, it doesn’t look like the best of starts to the season for Fulham. Occupying fifteenth place in the table, the Cottagers have lost two of their three matches at home, although closer inspection reveals defeats against Chelsea and Arsenal. The latter of these was extremely unfortunate, with Roy Hodgson’s team bossing the Gunners throughout the game and a repeat performance against Hull should see the home side bank all three points.
While Fulham are playing Roma on Thursday, the manager will be demanding total focus against a team who appear to be there for the taking. Hull may have shown a reasonable degree of improvement to beat Wigan 2-1 a fortnight ago, although there’s still a big question mark over their quality this season. Defensively, they look unsteady without Michael Turner at the back and it’s hard to see former Cottager midfielder Jimmy Bullard making too much of an impression on his return from injury. Instead, we should expect Danny Murphy and Dickson Etuhu to control the midfield area and create enough chances for Andy Johnson and Bobby Zamora to land Fulham victory.
$200 on Fulham win $1.72 (Sports Managed Fund 5% Bet)
Cardiff City vs Crystal Palace
October 17, 2009
It’s been a bizarre start to the season for Cardiff, who came out of the traps flying to win five of their first six matches.
Their next six matches saw them lose five from six, before dishing out thumpings to Derby and Watford to get their promotion campaign back on track. Indeed, the international break came at the wrong time for the Bluebirds after scoring ten goals in total against the Rams and Hornets, although they will still be buzzing when Crystal Palace come to town. Striker Michael Chopra is scoring goals for fun this term and Joe Ledley will return from suspension to pull the strings in midfield.
The Eagles are set for a season of struggle, despite having wily manager Neil Warnock at the helm. Palace probably deserve to have more points on the board after wrongly having a goal disallowed at Bristol City this season, while their last away game saw them win at West Brom. However, this is a young team whose heads might drop if they fall a goal behind and Cardiff have already dished out 6-1 and 4-0 thrashings at their new stadium this term.
$100 on Cardiff to win at $1.85. (Sports Managed Fund 2% Bet)
Milton Keynes Dons vs Gillingham
October 17, 2009
After the Dons yielded a comfortable 1-0 win last weekend, there’s no reason to desert them this Saturday when Gillingham roll into town. It’s now been three straight victories for Paul Ince’s team and all of them have been achieved without conceding a goal. Once again, the team appear to be destined for a top six finish, especially as they are proving so miserly in defence with just nine goals conceded in twelve matches. Jermaine Easter is among the best strikers in the division and is ably supported by Jemal Johnson and Aaron Wilbraham in attack. The Gills have been keeping their heads afloat since getting promoted through the play-offs last season, although this owes more to their excellent form at the Priestfield Stadium than any of their performances on their travels. Five defeats and one draw have been achieved from their six road matches, with a 2-0 loss at Brighton on Tuesday the latest loss.
Striker Simeon Jackson is a bright spark in attack, although it’s hard to see Paul Stimson’s team stopping MK Dons from their fourth win on the bounce.
$200 on the MK Dons win is $1.67.(Sports Managed Fund 5% Bet)
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