Championship Draw Double

With a full midweek programme of fixtures in the Championship on Tuesday night there are a couple of apparent mismatches that may well end in draws. As always, picking out a couple of stalemates is a crafty way of engineering some decent odds on a double. Backing Preston v Leeds and Palace v Cardiff to end in draws is virtually an 11/1 shot with Victor Chandler.

Based solely on the league table both away teams should head home with three points in the bag; but this is the Championship and home advantage counts for a lot. In the case of Crystal Palace the significance of familiar surroundings could hardly be more stark. With only six points collected on their travels all season they must be doing something pretty well at Selhurst Park to currently sit outside the relegation zone.

The main thing they are doing is keeping clean sheets with great regularity; there were an astonishing eight in a row before the 3-3 draw with Reading last time out. That rare high scoring draw extended the Eagles’ unbeaten home run to ten matches, dating back to October. Admittedly, Cardiff have won eight times away this term but they will clearly need to be at their best to improve further on that. A home defeat to Ipswich on Saturday suggests form is currently sub-optimum and a share of the spoils could be the outcome.

Tipping Preston to draw may look like wishful thinking with high-flying Leeds heading to Deepdale, but this ignores a recent improvement under Phil Brown. Four of the last five matches have ended in plucky stalemates against Watford, QPR, Forest and Norwich. This tells us all we need to know; the spirit of the side is still evident and they aren’t afraid of the division’s better teams. Leeds are certainly one of those, lying in sixth position, but the 5-2 win against Doncaster on Saturday followed a 3-0 defeat to Swansea in their last away game. Like I said, home advantage counts for plenty in this league, and it should act as a levelling force in these two fixtures tonight.