Football Tips 18/01/2014

Coventry are in great form, a 10 point deduction at the start of the season made a promotion push seem unlikely and though mid-table now they would have been in the play-offs now were in not for their point deduction. Preston are a good attacking side, and put three past Ipswich in the FA Cup in their last match at Deepdale. At home they are solid but even the best teams in the league cannot beat Coventry to nil. 9 of the last 10 H2H meetings have all ended with both teams scoring, all of these saw a goal in the first half.

3rd place Crusaders come into this game having picked up a very important point against 1st place Linfield in the week, this will give them confidence to push on today and while a win here won’t see them move up the table it will set them up nicely for their encounter with second place Cliftonville next week. Warrenpoint have won just 2 of their 11 home fixtures this season and history is not on ther side when it comes to this meeting, they have never beaten Crusaders, the last H2H ending in a 2-0 win for out tip.

1st place Scunthorp are undefeated in their last 9 games within League One, they have also lost just 2 of the 11 played at Glanford Park this season and have what should be a fairly comfortable fixture against 15th place Wimbledon today, a side who have won just 3 games on the road so far (12 played). A loss today could see Scunthorpe more down 2 places within the league, something they will certainly like to avoid.

We tipped Middlesbrough away to Blackpool last week and were rewarded with a 2-0 win, this week they face a side even lower down the league, 20th place Charlton Athletic, who after 24 games have won five fixtures and sit just 3 points off the relegation zone. Middlesbrough have not lost to Charlton since 2006, have played 7 since and won 5 of these, there revival under new boss Aitor Karanka has seen them win 4 of 5 games over the new year period and another today will see them within 3 points of the play-off spots. Charlton’s terrible away form will likely play a big part today, this season they have won just 2 of 12 played on the road.