West Bromwich Albion vs Coventry City betting tips, BuildABet, best bets and preview
- Michael Beardmore is +26pts in profit for the 2023/24 football season
Football betting tips: Championship
2pts Callum O'Hare over 0.5 shots on target at 5/6 (bet365)
1pt Draw at 5/2 (General)
Is it getting to that stage of the season where we can start bandying around cliches like "six-pointer"?
It certainly feels like that could apply to Friday night's clash at The Hawthorns as West Bromwich Albion bid to cement their place in the Sky Bet Championship play-offs while visitors Coventry will be desperate to stay in touch with the top six.
Just five points separate the fifth-placed Baggies from the Sky Blues, in ninth - a gap that could be as large as eight by the end of the night, or as small as two.
What are the best bets?
Coventry were surprisingly thumped at home by play-off rivals Preston last Friday night and will seek to avoid a repeat of that, buoyed by securing a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals on Monday night when they brushed aside non-league Maidstone.
Meanwhile, West Brom's play-off tilt is being built on the foundation of a solid back-line - only top two Leicester and Leeds have conceded fewer goals than the 32 the Baggies have allowed to go past them.
The Baggies are strong at home (W11 D3 L3) but are short up front (see team news below), while Coventry have been solid away recently (W5 D3 L2 of past 10), leading me to feel the DRAW is slightly overpriced at 5/2 here.
Coventry have drawn 12 league games this term - only Huddersfield (13) have ended with honours even on more occasions. These teams are evenly matched and a point apiece is certainly not the worst result for either's ambitions.
We all have our favourite players when it comes to having a flutter, don't we? Full disclosure, Coventry midfielder CALLUM O'HARE is undoubtedly one of my go-to's.
I can never let him go unbacked when he's close to even money for 1+ SHOTS ON TARGET - and that is the case here, with the Sky Blues playmaker an inviting 5/6 with bet365.
He has 15 efforts on target in 20 games this season, his figure of 1.07 shots on target per-90 rivalling the output of strikers Haji Wright and Ellis Simms, yet O'Hare is virtually twice of the price of those pair to test the goalkeeper.
BuildABet @ 45/1
- O'Hare 1+ shots on target
- O'Hare to win 3+ fouls
- Furlong 1+ shots on target
- Furlong to win 2+ fouls
CLICK HERE to back with Sky Bet
Callum O'Hare has been a busy bunny recently. Across his past seven games, he has drawn 22 fouls. He missed a large chunk of this season with injury but has been fouled three times or more in seven of his 13 starts.
West Brom full-back Darnell Furlong is similarly all-action. He averages virtually a shot per game and is a huge set-piece threat but also wins plenty of fouls - 19 in his past 13 games - via rampaging runs.
Team news
West Brom are enduring a huge injury crisis in their attacking areas with Brandon Thomas-Asante joining fellow hamstring victim Matt Phillips, Daryl Dike (Achilles) and Josh Maja (ankle) in the treatment room for the foreseeable future.
Makeshift striker Jed Wallace led the line in the draw at Hull last weekend but Carlos Corberan is almost certain to hand on-loan forward Andi Weimann a return to the starting XI against the Sky Blues.
Coventry, meanwhile, are reeling from the news that Japanese midfielder Tatsuhiro Sakamoto will miss the rest of the season with a back injury sustained in last Friday's 3-0 defeat by Preston.
Sky Blues boss Mark Robins made six changes for Monday's FA Cup win over Maidstone but should revert to a more familiar line-up against Albion. Jamie Allen (fractured cheekbone) and Ben Sheaf (hamstring) are Coventry's other main absentees.
Predicted line-ups
West Brom: Palmer; Furlong, Townsend, Kipre, Pieters; Johnson, Swift, Yokuslu, Mowatt, Wallace; Weimann.
Coventry: Wilson; Van Ewijk, Thomas, Binks, Dasilva; Eccles, Latibeaudiere; O'Hare, Tavares, Wright; Simms.
Match facts
- West Bromwich Albion have won eight of their last 12 league games against Coventry City (D2 L2) and won each of their last two.
- Coventry have failed to score on seven of their last eight away league visits to West Brom – in the other game, they won 4-2 in December 2007.
- Following a 2-0 defeat to Southampton in their last league game at the Hawthorns, West Brom are looking to avoid losing successive home league games for the first time since October 2022.
- Coventry City have won four of their last six away league matches (D1 L1); they had only won two of their previous 13 away games (D5 L6).
- Darnell Furlong’s equaliser for West Brom against Hull was their 13th goal from a set piece situation (ex. penalties) in the Championship this season, with only Cardiff (17) netting more.
Odds correct 1645 GMT (27/02/24)
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