EFL WEEKEND: The EFL returns with some Good Friday action this week as the season enters its final month, including a big top of the table clash in the Championship. We preview three games below, alongside some of our recommended BETDAQ bets.
CHAMPIONSHIP
Middlesbrough vs Burnley – Friday 20:00
It’s third versus first in the Championship on Friday night at the Riverside Stadium, with both sides interestingly coming off the back of disappointing results. Middlesbrough were bizarrely humbled 4-2 by relegation-threatened Huddersfield last weekend, whilst Burnley were unable to see off midtable Sunderland at Turf Moor last Friday.
Boro’s defeat was just their second in 11 league fixtures and allowed Sheffield United to open up a six-point gap in the race for the final automatic play-off place, with the Blades also having a game in hand. Michael Carrick’s men must not let the shock result derail their promotion charge and will point to their 11-game unbeaten run at home – in which they’ve scored 26 goals – as encouragement against the Championship leaders.
Burnley have won just one of their last three games on the road but haven’t tasted defeat away from home since their chastening 5-2 loss at Brammall Lane in November. One would feel that, with an 11-point gap with eight games to play, that it’s a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’ for Vincent Kompany’s men, who won the reverse fixture between these sides 3-1.
It feels almost wrong to back against a Burnley victory in any game, but this Riverside crowd under the lights is a daunting prospect for even the best teams at the moment, so we’re sitting on the fence and backing the draw at 3.45.
Middlesborough vs Burnley markets
LEAGUE ONE
Oxford United vs Sheffield Wednesday – Friday 15:00
This is a curious fixture. Usually, you’d expect the league leaders to do the business without any issues against relegation fodder, but with Sheffield Wednesday on a baffling winless run stretching back almost a month, this could prove to be another banana skin for the Owls.
Oxford are winless in 12 games but will take positives from back-to-back draws away at Morecombe and Peterborough in their last two games – which represents more points than they’d picked up in their previous two months of League One football and included their first clean sheet since December. The U’s reside three points above the relegation zone with eight games to go and will try to take confidence from their 0-0 draw away at Hillsborough in the reverse fixture between the two sides if they are to go three games unbeaten for the first time since December.
Having won 11 out of 12 games between Boxing Day and March, Sheffield Wednesday find themselves on their longest streak without a victory of the season, which include defeats to Barnsley and bottom-side Forest Green Rovers. They have surrendered their lead at the top of the League One table – only ahead of Plymouth by virtue of goal-difference, whilst the Pilgrims have a game in hand on their Yorkshire counterparts.
Wednesday seem a tad overvalued here. They obviously find themselves in poor nick, but we’re certainly not going to turn down the chance to back Darren Moore’s side at above evens against the likes of Oxford. Backing the Owls at 2.14 is the play here.
Oxford United vs Sheffield Wednesday markets
LEAGUE TWO
Harrogate Town vs AFC Wimbledon – Friday 15:00
This is a game that is unlikely to seriously effect either end of the League Two table, but there’s definitely good value in correctly choosing the victor here. Harrogate come into this one four points above the relegation zone having drawn six of their last 10 games in the league, though they are commendably on a four game unbeaten run at home for the first time this season.
AFC Wimbledon will start the game week seven points above their hosts in 16th but are undeniably one of the least in-form teams in the division, having lost seven of their last nine league games as they continue to slide further down the table. A 2-0 win against Walsall two games ago was just their second of 2023, but the south-west Londoners slipped to a 1-0 defeat against bottom-side Rochdale immediately after to extend what has been a miserable domestic period for Johnnie Jackson’s men.
It would be dishonest to say we have confidence of either side getting a positive result here, but we like the price of Harrogate for this one. AFC seem unable to detach themselves from their recent slump, whilst Harrogate will be hoping to build upon a promising spell of home form to help release themselves from a relegation scrap. Backing the home side at 2.26 is the selection.
Harrogate Town vs AFC Wimbledon markets
