Blackburn Rovers v Wolverhampton Wanderers Betting Tips

Saturday evening’s Championship fixture sees two former Premier League sides who are near the bottom of the second tier go head-to-head. Wolves parted company with their most recent head coach Walter Zenga this week, whilst Blackburn have kept faith with their summer appointment Owen Coyle even though Rovers are struggling.

Despite Rovers currently sitting in the Championship relegation zone, manager Owen Coyle has stated that he is confident that the points will come if they keep up their performances.

The problem with Blackburn is that they have been so inconsistent this season. In late September they recorded back-to-back victories against Rotherham United and Derby County and looked like they could finally get their season going. However, they followed that up by succumbing to defeats at the hands of Sheffield Wednesday and Birmingham City.

Results then picked up again with two good home results – a draw against Ipswich Town and a win against Nottingham Forest. Unfortunately they once again fell flat on their faces in the next match and lost to promotion-chasing Bristol City.

The front-line has been troublesome for Rovers as they have not scored more than two goals in a single match. Their habit of finding the back of the net just once in a match leaves them very vulnerable as just a solitary goal makes the difference between a positive and negative result for them whether that be having wins turned into draws or draws turned into losses. Fine margins like this can cost you dear in the rough and rigour of the Championship – probably the world’s most competitive league.

Home form has not been too bad this season with eight points from a possible 21 (although that is still a poor return). Their record at Ewood Park has picked up recently and they are undefeated in their last two matches on home turf (mentioned above). A match against a Wolves side with a terrible recent away record means Blackburn could certainly keep up that decent run in Lancashire.

Having said that, with Walter Zenga having left Molineux last week (the fifth of nine new Championship managers to have vacated their post), the slate is clean for Wolves and they can restart the season from now. First Team Coach Rob Edwards will take temporary charge of Wolves but the players will want to prove to their new manager, whoever that will be, that they should be firmly in his plans.

The general feeling around Wolverhampton is that Italian Zenga was treated badly by the hierarchy and he should have been given a lot more time. The star goalkeeper from Italia ’90 had built up a good rapport with the fans and was allowed to dig deep into the war chest provided to him by new owners Fosun International.

Perhaps he became greedy and brought in too many players at once but many fans seem convinced it would have worked out well in the end.

Wolves do have some very good technical players but whether they are anywhere near ready for the roughness of the Championship is another thing. The fact they are still not used to the league is evident in their inconsistency and poor away record where they have lost three out of the last four matches.

Wolves’ terrible away record goes beyond the manager and is down to players finding their feet in the physical battle, particularly on the road when the crowd is against you. With this in mind, I am backing the home side to win which you can get at 43/20.

Blackburn have remained undefeated at home against very respectable opposition in their last two matches and I think they can keep their record up against a Wolves side who are still getting used to the Championship.

Interestingly, in all but one of their matches in which they have scored at home (their 4-1 loss against Norwich), Rovers have found the back of the net in the first 45 minutes. This trend will probably continue against a shoddy Wolves back-line –  a back-line who boast a terrible away record – and I would certainly go with ‘Blackburn Rovers to Score First’ at 6/5, despite Wolves being the favourites in this market.

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