Eng. Championship
2012-12-01 - Leicester City vs Derby County
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English Championship
Saturday 1 December 2012 - Kick Off 5:20pm
This game is live on TV
Leicester City
Nigel Pearson will not have been happy with the 1-0 loss at Leeds United during the week and he will surely be demanding his side get back on the horse in this one. The Championship is notoriously a difficult Division to escape into the Premier League, but building momentum ahead of the busy Christmas period could be a key point of the season.
Leicester City are 4th in the Championship, but the defeat at Elland Road means they are still with 33 points and are now 5 points behind the leaders Cardiff City. They have remained especially impressive at the KP Stadium where Leicester are 7-1-1 this season, scoring 20 goals and conceding 6.
The side had a 4 game unbeaten run snapped with the loss at Leeds and Leicester had actually won back to back League games ahead of that loss. Leicester have bounced back from their only League loss of the season by earning a 2-2 home draw with Nottingham Forest before thumping Ipswich Town 6-0.
Derby County
I say it quite often, but Derby County have to remain patient as the financial problems at Pride Park makes it hard for Nigel Clough to really build a side that is capable of promotion to the Premier League. They remain one of the sides that can upset the apple cart on any given day, but Derby are too inconsistent to really trouble the Play Off places.
Before the weekend begins, Derby County are 12th in the Championship, but they have picked up 27 points which leaves them only 5 points behind the sides in the Play Off places. The Rams are a much tougher test at Pride Park and they are 2-2-5 away from home while scoring 7 goals and conceding 15.
Derby come into the game with 4 points earned in the last week, although both of those games came at Pride Park. In fact, Derby have lost 3 in a row on their travels since a 1-2 win at Ipswich Town. In those losses, Derby have conceded 7 goals and only scored 1.
Head to Head
This is considered a Midlands derby and it is Leicester City that have dominated the recent games with 4 straight wins at home and away and keeping clean sheets in all of those games.
Leicester are unbeaten in 7 straight home games against Derby County, winning the last 2 and keeping 3 clean sheets in a row.
Prediction
I hate when the statistics are screaming one way, but recent results between the sides also agree with those stats and will form the basis of my play.
I think Leicester City are definitely a better team at home than they are on their travels and they haven't conceded many goals here this season, while Derby County have failed to score in their last 3 visits to this Stadium.
Derby themselves have only scored 7 goals in their 9 away games in the League, with just 1 of those coming in the last 3 on their travels.
I hate odds on quotes as they never represent much value for me personally, so backing Leicester City to win to nil at 3.20 looks very generous with the way things have gone for both sides this season.
The Pick :
Leicester City 2-0 Derby County
