Cardiff City v Bristol City Betting Tips

One of the Championship’s Friday night fixtures sees two sides at opposite ends of the table come together. However, Cardiff’s new managerial appointment of Neil Warnock means that things may not be so straight forward for Bristol City.

Cardiff have decided to act quickly before relegation becomes a real threat. Neil Warnock is pretty much the go-to guy if you are having problems in the Championship – the second tier’s Sam Allardyce or Tony Pulis. You can probably say pretty safely now that, despite Cardiff currently sitting in 23rd position, the Bluebirds will have a fighting chance of staying up this season.

The 67-year-old has been managing in the Championship on a regular basis for the best part of two decades and has recent experience of survival after staying up with Rotherham United last season. Warnock is seemingly the perfect appointment for the Bluebirds.

Obviously Cardiff have been in pretty dire form recently having lost six out of the last seven matches. However, with Warnock coming in, the place will have been lifted and we can pretty much wipe the slate clean.

Apart from Huddersfield Town, Bristol City are arguably the surprise package of the Championship so far and currently sit in a very lofty fifth position. Manager Lee Johnson has done a fantastic job at Ashton Gate which led to him being linked to the recently vacant post at Aston Villa before Steve Bruce was appointed.

Johnson has got his team well organised and they are the mould of an almost perfect Championship side who score enough to be a threat whilst being a solid unit at the back having conceded just the 12 goals in 11 league games so far this season.

Bristol City are in excellent form and have won their last three matches with a total aggregate score of 7-1, although their away record this campaign has been patchy and unpredictable with two wins, two losses and a draw. Despite the fact that they are doing well, it is hard to say for definite that City will win this match as it really depends on which team shows up on Friday night.

The player catching all the attention for The Robins is on-loan Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham. Considering he had only played two senior matches before his move to Bristol, the 19-year-old has adapted astonishingly well to the rigours of the Championship and is currently the division’s top-scorer with eight goals to his name.

Abraham carried on his good form with the England U21 side in the recent international break and scored twice in their 5-0 routing of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is certainly a player filled with confidence right now.

The odds on him scoring are actually very favourable at 17/10 and this is one bet I would certainly advise. Additionally, if you are a new customer with 888Sport, who are actually offering the best odds on this market – even without bonuses, you can treble those odds to make a very handsome profit on Friday night.

In terms of this match going one way or the other, I think we might actually see a bit of a surprise. Whilst Bristol City are the overwhelming favourites, the Warnock factor should not be underestimated. The former Crystal Palace (who he also saved from Championship relegation) manager will have had his side well drilled over the last couple of days and they will subsequently be hard for Bristol City to break down.

It would not surprise me in the slightest if Cardiff got a very creditable draw in front of what should be a more positive home crowd on Friday. In fact, this looks a very likely outcome and, at odds of 23/10, this is a bet worth placing.

See all of Friday’s tips here.