The Sky Bet Championship is gearing up for a thrilling conclusion and we move nearer the end on Tuesday evening when two sides play a rescheduled match which was cancelled earlier in the season as Southampton play host to Preston North End.
Southampton are hugely involved in the race for promotion to the Premier League and will be eager for a win here while Preston probably saw their chances of reaching the play-offs come to an end at the weekend so could be ideal opponents for the Saints.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football channels with the build-up beginning at 7.30pm ahead of an 8pm kick off.
Southampton
There have been plenty of bumps in the road this season for Southampton but they have hung around enough to still be a part of the automatic promotion race and with the three above them all seemingly seeing the finish line there is still time for Saints to come along and pip a couple of them to a top two spot. That opportunity is probably only still there for them should they win this match though so there is everything on the line in this one.
The positive for Southampton throughout the season has been that they have been able to score goals. Only the leaders Ipswich Town have more goals to their name this term but the issue has been how many they concede, and generally when they do concede goals go against them in bunches. If they can sort out their defence for the run-in the three teams above then have suddenly stalled so the Hampshire side could yet dodge the play-offs.
Preston North End
I think the defeat to Norwich City, the side who they were looking to chase down, on Saturday has ended the hopes of Preston North End extending their season but when you consider who they are and what they have, to be looking at a top 10 finish in the Championship is certainly no mean achievement, even if this campaign promised much more in the initial stages when they were setting the very early pace in the division.
Were Preston to win here they would move to within five points of Norwich who are in sixth spot but they would only have three matches left and it is hard to see Norwich collapsing that dramatically to let them back in. Nevertheless, Preston are a club who are steadily improving under Ryan Lowe despite the lower resources available to them compared to some others and they look to finish seasons strongly. The chance to put a dent in a promotion challenge of an opponent might just get their juices flowing.
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Team News
Russell Martin has declared that he has no fresh injury problems heading into this match but with a midweek game here and another next week he might choose to rotate a couple of players. Ryan Manning, Ryan Fraser and Stuart Armstrong came off the bench at the weekend and could start here.
Ryan Lowe has confirmed that Ali McCann is likely to miss the rest of the campaign having picked up a thigh strain. He is also without Brad Potts, Liam Millar and Ben Whiteman but Ched Evans could play a bigger part in this one.
Betting
You would imagine the sheer need to win would give Southampton a motivational edge but we only have to look back to Saturday to see how they can allow things to get nervy and in the end they needed an incredibly late winner to see off a Watford side who had nothing to play for, so I don’t really want to be on them and certainly not to cover a hefty handicap when they will just want to get the job done. This is a Southampton match though which often means goals.
Southampton matches average comfortably over three goals per game so I’m a little surprised that we can get a 3 goal line for this one, especially as Preston are anything but watertight but who can pack a punch themselves. We saw at the weekend that the visitors have a goalkeeper blunder in them and that will keep Southampton interested. Saints can’t rival Leeds and Leicester for goal difference but they could bring Ipswich within reach by winning their two games in hand and winning them well so I don’t expect the foot to come off the gas at any point. I think we’re ripe for goals here.
Tips
Back Over 3 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.85 with Bet365
