The Championship - 2nd February

January was awful and that's the end of that subject.

We now enter February and this is a big month, the bank needs to be built up again and we need to get some pennies together for Cheltenham in March.

Blackpool v Barnsley  

I advised a lay of Blackpool at 1.72 earlier in the week with a view to trade it out when they drifted. The drift is now in progress but I'm not going to trade out this bet. I've been impressed with with Barnsley in recent weeks. They've won four and drawn one of their last five games, in all competitions. They've also kept four clean sheets in this time.

Blackpool managed to get their 1st win after eight games, all competitions, without one last time out. This win came at Wolves who are bottom of the form table with no wins in their last eight games. Barnsley can continue their run of good form here. With concerns that the Bloomfield Road pitch stops the home side playing their natural game I don't fancy a high scoring game. I would not have Blackpool any lower than 1.90 for this match, they should probably be odds-against.

Lay Blackpool at 1.78 - Betfair


Watford v Bolton

Watford made six changes on Tuesday night and lost 2-0 at Bristol City. They won't be making the same mistakes in this games. I fully expect Vydra and Deeney to start this one and I expect them to score. Watford are still sitting 3rd in the six game form table, 16 places above Bolton.

Bolton have only won away from home twice this season. Their last away game was against Crystal Palace and it was a game they should of lost, with Palace missing several open goals. Dougie Freedman will approach this game with a defensive mindset, I expect to see 4-5-1 with lots of long balls. Vydra and Deeney are the best partnership in this division and I can't see Bolton keeping them quiet all afternoon.

If Watford had beaten Bristol City they would have been priced at 1.9x for this match. The facts are:

• Watford are 13 places above Bolton
• Watford are 15 points better off than Bolton
• Watford are better than Bolton 

The odds suggest that these two sides are not far off equal.

Back Watford at 2.15 - Bet Victor

#ToiletRollAcca

There's only 11 games this weekend but this bet still pays out at over 212,000/1 with BetVictor. There are four odds-on shots this weekend and I want to take three of them on in some form.

• Nottingham Forest
• Bristol City
• Barnsley
• Crystal Palace v Charlton DRAW
• Derby
• Ipswich
• Cardiff
• Millwall v Hull DRAW
• Peterborough
• Brighton
• Watford