Eng. Championship
2011-09-24 - Watford vs Nottingham Forest
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football : English Championship
Saturday 24 September 2011 - Kickoff 5:15pm
This game is live on TV
Watford
Watford have made an inconsistent start to the new season under Sean Dyche, and it is as Vicarage Road that they have found it particularly hard to get the results they are looking for.
The team are 18th in the Championship after acquiring 7 points from their opening 7 games of the new season, although the majority of those have been picked up away from home. Watford are 0-1-2 at home in the League, scoring 2 goals and conceding 7. Only Nottingham Forest have conceded more goals at home so far this season.
Watford have won just 1 of their 11 games in all competitions since the back end of last season, and that includes an early defeat in the Carling Cup at Bristol Rovers. They picked up a 2-2 draw in their last home game against Birmingham which has stopped a run of 3 consecutive defeats there and the 2 goals scored were their first at home in 4 games.
There are no new injury worries for Watford to face before this live game and they could play the same starting XI were the 4th consecutive game as they are unbeaten in their last 3.
Nottingham Forest
The cloud currently sitting over the City Ground has shown very little sign of moving away as Steve McClaren struggles to get his side playing in the correct manner. Forest did not spend much money in the transfer window and it seems McClaren was given false promises when he agreed to take over from Billy Davies, broken promises that almost led to his resignation a couple of weeks ago.
Forest are down in 22nd in the Championship having picked up just 5 points from the first 21 available and that is incredibly disappointing for a team that was expected to be challenging for promotion this season. They are 1-0-2 away from home where they have scored 3 goals and conceded 5.
The team have lost 3 consecutive games in the Championship, including an extremely disappointing 1-2 home loss to Derby last week when the opposition played with 10 men for the majority of the game. Forest showed some fighting character in coming back against Newcastle United 3 times in the Carling Cup on Tuesday, only to lose in the last minute of extra time. They have won 3 of 5 away games played this season, although 2 of those were in the Carling Cup.
Clint Hill has signed on loan from QPR and could be making his debut for Forest on Saturday. Chris Cohen is a long term absentee after suffering a knee injury last week and he is joined by George Boateng, Paul Anderson and Dexter Blackstock on the sidelines.
Head to Head
Nottingham Forest beat Watford at home last season, their first win in 5 games against them.
The last 6 games at Vicarage Road has seen both sides win 1 game, with the other 4 ending stalemates.
The last 2 games played on this ground between the teams have ended in draws.
Prediction
Recent games between the teams have not produced a lot of goals, but I have a feeling there will be a change from that trend when judging the defending of both teams in recent weeks.
Forest have conceded 14 goals in their last 6 games (within the normal 90 minutes period), while Watford have conceded 6 goals in their last 2 games at home and both are very likely to be pushing forward with ambitions of winning the 3 points from this fixture.
I can see both sides getting their side of the scoreboard ticking, and I do think one of these sides is capable of getting the win, even if I am not entirely sure which one.
That leads me to look at the 'Over 2.5 Goals' market and I am a little surprised it has been priced up as odds against at Pinnacle.
With all the defensive problems both sides have had, and the fact both have been scoring goals at the other end in recent games leads me to take the Overs for this game.
The Pick :
Watford 2-2 Nottingham Forest
