Eng. Championship
2008-05-14 - Hull City vs Watford
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
England Championship Play-offs - Semi Final - 2nd leg
Wednesday 14th May 2008 - KO 19:45
First Leg : Watford 0-2 Hull City
HULL CITY
Hull have one foot in the playoff final and a chance to compete for the right to play in the Premier League next season.
After winning 0-2 at Vicarage Road over the weekend, Hull will look to complete the job here at the KC Stadium. Hull had a great run to put themselves in a position to perhaps end in one of the automatic promotion positions but faltered a little at the end of the season and finished in 3rd spot.
Hull's home record was an impressive 13-7-3 with 43 goals scored and only 19 conceded. This meant they had the joint 2nd best home defence in the division and the 3rd best home attack. Only Ipswich lost less games at home and the same team also managed more home wins than Hull this season.
Hull have remained in excellent form recently, going 7-1-2 over their last 10 games. Hull are unbeaten in their last 9 games at the KC Stadium, also winning 5 of their last 6 at home. Over those games, Hull have managed to keep 4 clean sheets and have beaten fellow play off teams Crystal Palace and Watford here during those games.
Dean Marney is due to have a late fitness test for this game after missing the weekend victory. Jay Jay Okocha and Henrik Pedersen are both fighting for first team spots.
WATFORD>
Watford need to pull out an outstanding performance here if they are to attempt to regain their place in the Premier League. Watford won the most points away from home this season with their 10-9-4 record. They scored 36 goals and conceded 27 on their travels. Watford scored the 2nd most away goals in the league and lost the least amount of games away from home.
Watford have really ended the season badly with only 1 win from their last 15 games and this saw them fall out of the automatic promotion spots and just about scramble into the playoffs due to more goals scored than Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Watford have lost 5 of their last 8 games and have only scored 4 goals in those games. Watford have failed to win any of their last 7 away games, however they have also only lost 1 of those games. It might be a phycological disadvantage that Watford's only away defeat in that time was at Hull.
Watford's captain John Eustace is back in contention even though he was sent off in the first leg- the red card has subsequently been rescinded. Darius Henderson is also back after serving suspension.
HEAD TO HEAD
The teams meet for the 4th time this season here and so far Watford won the first match at Vicarage Road before Hull won the next 2.
It was only 6 weeks ago that Hull destroyed Watford here 3-0.
PREDICTION :
Hull will need to weather the early onslaught I expect from Watford who are fighting for their season. However, Hull have proved they have a solid backline and I expect they will get the chances to pick off Watford as the Hornets get desperate during the game.
I think Hull are an excellent price to maintain their home form and cement a place at Wembley in 10 days time.
The Pick :
HULL CITY 2-0 WATFORD
