Football betting analyst Mark O’Haire returns to share a couple of his favourite fancies across the globe with a focus on the Championship on Boxing Day.
Hull City continue to defy pre-season relegation predictions by clambering into the Championship play-off places following a recent run of four wins in five. The Tigers impressively have impressively overcome fellow high-flyers Millwall and Stoke on their last two road trips and sit just five points off the automatic promotion places.
Performances haven’t always matched results – last week’s win versus West Brom a case in point – yet Sergej Jakirovic’s side don’t appear to be dropping away anytime soon. A trip to Hillsborough on Boxing Day appears be a perfect opportunity to extend their eye-catching recent run with Hull available at 2.04 having gone W8-D2-L1 against bottom-half fodder.
Sheffield Wednesday start the festive period a whopping 30 points from safety on -9. The Owls have shown plenty of endeavour despite their perilous position, though Henrik Pederson’s beleaguered posse are shorn of second-tier quality and numbers. The hosts are looking particularly stretched for this showdown and therefore easily opposed.
Wednesday have 14 players over the age of 22 on their books, but half of them are unavailable, and many others are running on empty. Dominic Iorfa, Nathaniel Chalobah and Gabriel Otegbayo are doubts following recent injuries with Max Lowe looking unlikely to feature, whilst Yan Valery and Sean Fusire are now away on AFCON duty.
Barry Bannan and Svante Ingelsson have been playing through the pain barrier and recent addition Nathan Redmond is also absent with Di’Shon Bernard and Ernie Weaver long-term casualties. With Wednesday already struggling for results in South Yorkshire (W0-D2-L9) and conceding 3+ goals in six of those showdowns, Hull stand-out at odds-against here.
Marti Cifuentes endured a chastening return to Loftus Road last weekend as his Leicester side were shredded 4-1 by former club QPR. The Foxes were inexplicably four goals down before half-time and were barely able to muster a response after the interval as their erratic and inconsistent campaign took another step backwards.
The Spaniard will crave a response from his team on Boxing Day when Leicester host a lively Watford side at the King Power Stadium. The Hornets are one to watch having edged past Stoke at Vicarage Road last time out to move just three points outside of the play-off places – the visitors have lost only three of their past 16 Championship outings.
I’m expecting an entertaining encounter here and goals make most appeal. Watford have scored in 15 of those aforementioned 16 showdowns, as well as notching in 18 of their 22 tussles across the season so far. An impressive 16/22 (72%) matches have seen Both Teams To Score bank for Watford, with the same hit-rate also occurring for Leicester this term.
The two teams have combined to keep only five clean sheets in those 44 collective contests with BTTS paying-out in seven of their respective 10 home/away matches thus far. A repeat therefore holds plenty of appeal at 1.78 quotes considering 60% of all Championship games in 2025/26 have delivered winning Both Teams To Score wagers.
Subscribe to the Matchbook Betting Podcast here
Subscribe to the Matchbook YouTube channel here
