Sporting Life
SportinglifeBet NowLive In-Running BettingCasinoPokerBingo
COLUMNISTS
Cheeky Punt
Latest Column!
PREMIUM TIPS
Horse Racing
Tips Centre!

 
BETTING HEADLINES
Picture Davies - can guide Forest to win.

FOREST TO BITE IN BERKSHIRE

Sky Bet's Odds Compare All Prices
Click here for our interactive football stats

BETTING BOX
FIXED ODDS
2pts Bristol City to beat Preston at 3/1 (Boylesports, Sky Bet). The Robins can hit the ground running for the third successive season.
2pts Nottingham Forest to beat Reading at 7/2 (general). Billy Davies knows exactly what it takes to get results in this division.
1pt Nottingham Forest to win to nil at 13/2 (Paddy Power, Sky Bet). The Royals have scored just three goals in 15 hours at the Madejski.
2pts Doncaster to beat Watford at 3/1 (Sky Bet). Rovers should win if they maintain the standards set after Christmas.

Of all the great managers who have found themselves plying their trade in the Championship over the last few years, few have been able to get results like Billy Davies.

The belligerent Glaswegian might not be everyone's cup of tea but his ability to control the outcome of football matches is undeniable - his record simply speaks for itself.

An average return of 1.73 points per game over the course of 153 matches is bettered only by Mick McCarthy (1.87) and that's without taking into consideration the comparatively huge budgets the Yorkshireman had at his disposal at Sunderland and Wolves.

By contrast, Davies spent most of his three years at Preston and Derby rummaging around the bargain bucket - his biggest signing at this level was Steve Howard for £1m in July 2006 - but you always knew that a player's performance level would spike once he had been subjected to the personal attention of the wee Scot's DVD home editing suite.

After a difficult first few months at the City Ground, steering Nottingham Forest away from danger with a squad lacking big-match experience, Davies is back in control of his own destiny once again and we shouldn't expect too much to have changed in the two years he has been away.

Forest travel to Reading on Saturday and they look decent value to land all three points at odds of 7/2 when you consider the problems the Royals experienced in front of their own fans towards the end of last season.

The Berkshire club failed to win any of their last nine matches at home, finding the net just three times in the last 15 hours at the Madejski, and though there will be a freshness about them in Brendan Rodgers' first game as manager, Forest will be looking to re-open those old wounds.

As such, it might also be worth staking a point on Nottingham Forest to win to nil at 13/2 considering that Davies boasts a clean sheet ratio of better than one in three in the aforementioned sample.

Elsewhere, we're going to follow up on our advice in the outright preview by siding with two of our handicap fancies to achieve winning starts on the road.

Enough has already been said about Bristol City in our pre-season coverage but they do look decent value at 3/1 against Preston.

The Lilywhites pulled off an incredible coup when pipping Cardiff to a play-off place at the end of last season but it ultimately ended in disappointment with an agonising defeat at Bramall Lane denying them a day out at Wembley.

Now the mood around Deepdale might seem rather flat in comparison to those amazing scenes witnessed on the final day and the Robins can take advantage.

As Gary Johnson pointed out in his interview with us, his teams tend to hit the ground running at the start of a new season and they will head up the M6 in a positive frame of mind, knowing they triumphed down the road at Blackpool this time last year.

Meanwhile, Doncaster have already been backed on the handicap and in a season match bet with Watford, so we might as well go the whole hog and take the 3/1 on them beating the Hornets at Vicarage Road on Saturday.

We've already registered our scepticism at the appointment of Malky Mackay and he will be taking over the team with the second-worst defensive record in the division last season.

Donny are another team with fond memories of an away win on the opening day last season - they won 1-0 at Derby - and if they can recapture anything like the form they showed in the second half of last season, then a maximum haul shouldn't prove beyond their reach.

  • Preview posted at 1755BST on 06/08/2009


      Latest Zone Stories
     POMPEY CAN CHIME IN WITH A VICTORY
     PLACE YOUR BETS!
     CLARK CAN CLAIM PEBBLE PRIZE
     BLUEBIRDS COULD BE GANNON FODDER
     STAKE YOUR CLAIM WITH STANLEY
     GERS SET TO SLIP UP
     RANDHAWA READY TO ROCK
     HOSTS IN A WINTER WONDERLAND
     ZONE TEAM BASH THE BOOKIES

    © Bettingzone.co.uk 2010, all rights reserved.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------
    Part of 365 Media Group

    Sports News & Entertainment
    Sporting Life | TEAMtalk | Sportal | Football365 | Cricket365
    Golf365 | Fixtures365 | Extreme365 | Planet F1 | Planet Rugby | Sky Sports | Football365 ZA

    Betting & Gaming
    Betting Zone | WSOP |Sky Bet | Poker | Online Casino | Online Bingo | Oddschecker | Casino Checker | Poker Checker | Bingo Checker | Free Bets | World Cup Odds | Cheltenham Festival Betting

    Mobile, Fun & Games
    Free Online Games | 24-7 Football | Fantasy Football | Fantasy F1
    ----------------------------------------------------------------

    © 2010 365 Media Group Ltd, All Rights Reserved.
    Email Your Comments - Advertise With Us - About/Contact Us
    Terms & Conditions - Privacy Notice - RSS


  • MARKET MOVES CENTRE
    Festival Move!
    Summit Meeting cut for Neptune after win
    Football Specials!
    Firms price up ahead of Weds action
    Red Alert!
    Rafa's Reds 10/3 to finish above Arsenal
    Pay Up Pompey!
    Grant's side backed ahead of tonight's clash
    Click here for today's latest betting update!
    ODDS COMPARISON SERVICE
    TODAY'S BETS
    Football - Tuesday Premier League
    2pts Portsmouth to beat Sunderland at 6/4 (general).
    2pts Fulham to beat Burnley to nil at 7/4 (general).
    0.5pts Wigan/Draw HT/FT at 16/1 (Sportingbet/William Hill).
    Football - Tuesday Championship
    1.5pts Peterborough to beat Cardiff at 11/2 (general).
    0.5pts Peterborough to win to nil at 11/1 (Blue Square).
    1pt Aaron Mclean to score first against Cardiff at 10/1 (Ladbrokes).
    1pt Aaron Mclean to score last against Cardiff at 10/1 (Ladbrokes).
    2pts Coventry to beat Nottingham Forest at 11/4 (Sky Bet).
    1.5pts Derby to beat Newcastle at 10/3 (general).
    Football - Tuesday League One/Two
    3pts Brighton to beat Huddersfield at 21/10 (Betfred).
    1.5pts Tranmere to beat Gillingham at 16/5 (Sky Bet).
    4pts Accrington Stanley to beat Northampton (draw no bet) at 6/4 (Hills).
    2pts Accrington Stanley to win promotion at 13/2 (Paddy Power).
    Football - Wednesday SPL
    1pt Motherwell and Rangers to draw at 10/3 (Sky Bet).
    1pt Hamilton to beat Dundee United draw no bet at 5/1 (888sport).
    Golf - Avantha Masters
    1.5pts e.w. Jyoti Randhawa at 30/1 (1/4 1,2,3,4,5 bet365).
    1.5pts e.w. Gaganjeet Bhullar at 28/1 (1/4 1,2,3,4,5 Coral, Betfred).
    1pt e.w. SSP Chowrasia at 150/1 (1/4 1,2,3,4,5 general).
    1pt e.w. Mukesh Kumar at 100/1 (1/4 1,2,3,4,5 general).
    1pt e.w. Mark Brown at 100/1 (1/4, 1,2,3,4,5 bet35, Betfred).
    Golf - AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
    1.5pts e.w. Tim Clark at 33/1 (Betfred, Sportingbet 1/4 1,2,3,4,5).
    1.5pts e.w. Mike Weir at 28/1 (General 1/4 1,2,3,4,5).
    1pt e.w. Charlie Wi at 125/1 (General 1/4 1,2,3,4,5).
    1pt e.w. Kevin Sutherland at 80/1 (Sportingbet, Ladbrokes 1/4 1,2,3,4,5).
    Other Sports - Winter Olympics
    2pts Great Britain to win 2-3 medals at 4/5 (William Hill).
    2pts Canada to win more than 29 medals at 9/5 (Sportingbet).
    2pts Maria Riesch to win the women's super-combined at 5/2 (Paddy Power, Coral).
    2pts Lindsey Vonn to win women's downhill and super-G double at 3.73/1 (Betfred).
    1pt Manuel Osborne-Paradis to win the men's downhill at 10/1 (Coral).
    2pts Shani Davis to win men's 1,000m and 1,500m speed-skating double at 1.47/1 (Betfred).