Nottingham Forest v Birmingham City Betting Tips

This Friday night match sees a team who have only lost one match at home go up against a side who are unbeaten on the road this season – naturally, not the easiest match to call, although there is certainly some good value to be had.

Despite their impressive home record, Nottingham Forest have actually had a pretty dire campaign so far and are currently in 18th place – their form at the City Ground has been their saving grace this season.

The problems for Philippe Montanier’s (who has a touchline ban and thus will not lead his team on Friday) side certainly stem from the defence where they have one of the worst records in the league – letting in 22 goals – only bottom of the table Rotherham United have conceded more. Additionally, Forest have not kept a clean sheet at any point this season.

The positive thing for the Reds is that they look good going forward, something that is justified by the fact that they have scored in every game bar one this season. Perhaps the most positive part of this is that they score goals from all areas and do not just rely on one single goalscorer – their top scorer is still winger Oliver Burke who left in August.

Unfortunately, I see them in the same mould as Fulham, a team who were lucky to escape relegation, last season. Whilst they may score a lot of goals, a solid defence is the way to do well in the Championship.

Forest had not won in six matches before the recent international break and so it will be interesting to see how much they have managed to regroup in that time.

However, problems have still been unavoidable over the last couple of weeks with the continued chaos at boardroom level under the leadership of Fawaz Al Hasawi once again coming to light.

Right now, Birmingham City are the embodiment of the consistency required to succeed in the Championship. Gary Rowett’s side do the basics incredibly well which means their solid team has a habit of pulling off good results – despite being the less glamorous underdog in most matches.

The Blues have only lost one league fixture this season – fewer than any other team in the division – and are currently on a seven match unbeaten run with most of those games bringing maximum points.

Gary Rowett’s side are arguably better away from home where their counter attacking style allows them to prosper. This game against Forest, who like to keep the ball, means Birmingham probably face their most ideal type of opposition.

Despite their turnaround under Rowett over the last couple of years, Birmingham have often had a problem with scoring goals and are heavily reliant on lone front man Clayton Donaldson to provide the goals. However, this season they have brought in exciting youngster Che Adams, who has had a fine start to his Blues career, from Sheffield United and target man Lukas Jutkiewicz on loan from Burnley to take the load of the afore-mentioned Donaldson. Although many fans questioned the signing of Jutkiewicz, given the fact he had not scored since netting against Birmingham back in summer 2014, the former Bolton Wanderers man has gone some way to proving his doubters wrong by playing well and netting himself a couple of goals.

Although Forest have a decent home record and are favourites for this match, I would edge towards Birmingham here. As I have said, the style of this game should be perfect for them and they are generally in better form at the moment.

Having said that, it would not surprise me if the two sides shared the spoils here and a point would probably be a good result for either side. With this in mind, I would still look at backing Birmingham on the ‘Draw No Bet’ market.

The bookmaker who will gain most (and possibly lose the most) on this match is 888Sport. The Gibraltan bookmaker are shirt sponsors for both of these teams and so the publicity they will get on Friday’s televised game will be huge.

888Sport have an excellent bonus scheme for new customers at the moment (which both Nottingham Forest and Birmingham City are pushing on social media) which allows them to treble their odds. If you are a new customer you can use this bonus to your advantage and I would certainly advise to make the most of it by backing the visitors on the ‘Double Chance’ market too. The 9/5 available here is quite astounding, as this match really should suit Birmingham.

See more tips here.