Championship Tips

It's a big old day of football on Tuesday, with the Champions League and a full Sky Bet Football League programme to get stuck into. Let's start right here in the Championship.

The first bet simple has to come at Preston where Alex Neil is making his moderate resources go considerably further than the sum of their parts by making his side incredibly solid at the back. Of course, that comes at a cost, and they have scored just three goals in six league games so far this season. That's one more than their opponents of course, which has allowed them a reasonable 11th place in the table. They will need all the resilience they can find when they take on table topping Cardiff, and that points to one thing in this match - a tight encounter.

Neil knows the limits he is working within, and won't be ashamed to try to take as much energy out of the game as possible here. They might even do enough to nick it, but a wiser play would be to go low on the goals.

1pt Under 2.5 Goals at Preston v Cardiff at 11/13 (UniBet)

1pt Under 1.5 Goals at Preston v Cardiff at 13/5 (UnitBet)

Brentford find themselves second from bottom of the table after a run of just three points from six outings. It's a shocking return for a side who have actually been playing very well, and luck will surely correct itself soon. Sheffield Wednesday could pay the price of the rising frustration of the Bees at Hillsborough on Tuesday.

Words are cheap of course, but the stats talk volumes about how unfortunate Brentford have been. They lost 1-0 at Sheffield United despite winning the shot count 12-9, lost 4-3 to Forest after winning the shot count 20-13 and then drew 2-2 with Bristol City - yes, you've guessed it - they won the shot count 24-8 that day. It goes on. At Ipswich they outshot the Tractor Boys 22-5, but came away losing 2-1, they took a 0-0 draw against Wolves in a close match (they lost the shot count 15-14) and then went to Villa and again drew 0-0, but won the shot count 18-10.

Of course, their finishing needs to be better, but having taken 22 shots for every goal this season, an improved return is only just around the corner - no side will maintain that sort of poor fortune over a season.

Back Brentford on the handicap and keep the draw on your side is the advice here.

1pt Brentford (+0.5) to beat Sheffield Wednesday at 4/5 (General)

#Football