Saturday Football Accumulator

It’s unusual to see three away teams in the Championship all with such an outstanding chance of victory that cumulative Coral odds of 24/1 seems very generous. Norwich and Reading are in sparkling form and travel to promotion rivals who are heading in the opposite direction. Momentum is everything in this division and it takes some stopping. Cardiff finally dazzled in a 4-1 victory last week and they should have too much for a sluggish Doncaster.

Second placed Norwich recently overhauled Saturday’s opponents Swansea due to a fine run of nine games unbeaten and one defeat in 18. Lowly Scunthorpe were the latest side put to the sword, hammered 6-0 with two Canaries, Grant Holt and Simeon Jackson, both claiming hat-tricks. It will be no consolation for Swansea to see that the Norfolk side are as adept at picking up points on their travels as anyone. Brendan Rodgers will be alarmed that his Welsh side have recently lost to Preston, Scunthorpe and Derby - three teams that don’t send fear through their opponents on a typical day. I suspect the Norwich juggernaut will continue with a win (11/4), and leave Swansea desperately chasing a play-off spot.

Reading have been doing a very good impression of Norwich of late with five straight wins and an unbeaten run of nine. The Royals have stormed into the promotion picture from mid-table to rise to sixth, now three points above Saturday’s opponents, Nott’m Forest. Billy Davies has all manner of alarm bells ringing having seen his side slip from second to seventh after no wins in eight games. The 4-1 defeat to Leeds on TV last week will have done nothing to improve confidence. On form this is another no-brainer away win at 15/8 with Coral.

Our final pick is Cardiff City to take three points off Doncaster at 11/8. The Bluebirds have been less spectacular than our other two picks of late, but with the likes of Craig Bellamy and Jay Bothroyd, they should have too much heavy artillery for their opponents. The Yorkshire side lost 4-0 in the reverse fixture in Wales and the goals have continued to fly in at the wrong end in 2011. Goalscoring is no less of a problem with Doncaster failing to find the net in the last three outings. If Cardiff are going to keep their automatic promotion hopes alive this is a fixture they must win, and I think they will, hopefully completing a 24/1 payday.