Matt Jones gives us his picks in the EFL for Saturday 23rd December
Let’s start in the Championship.
It’s top v bottom and it’s pretty straight forward I know this might be a fairly straightforward pick if you're looking at it and thinking it's going to be a Leicester win, but I think it could be a Leicester win with a -, 1 handicap as well, Leicester top of the table with 55 points so far this season, it really has been record-breaking stuff, hasn't it? They've only dropped 11 points all season and they've won their last four matches, scoring at least two. Goals in each of those victories at the Kingpower, they have been superb 11 games played in the league, nine of them won, keeping 6 clean sheets in the process. With two of their last three at home won by two or more goals, a 4-0 hammering of Plymouth, and also 2-0 defeat of Watford.
On top of that, they've got the best defence in the division by the way. They've only conceded 16 home and away only six of those goals have come at the Kingpower Stadium, so it's. A pretty formidable task anyway for Rotherham, but Rotherham arrived there with the worst away record in the entire championship played, 11, drawn 2 lost 9 absolutely horrendous stuff from them on the road this season.
No team has conceded more than their 28 away goals. The stats are bleak and seven of their away losses have been by at least a two goal margin. So Leicester, against Rotherham, I'm going for Leicester with a -1 handicap
League 1
Charlton versus Burton is the game that I've picked out in the third tier and I'm going for Charlton to win with three or more goals across the 90 minutes. Charlton have been pretty good at home under Michael Appleton. They are edging themselves into playoff contention and most of their winning this season has been done at the Valley
Infact they've picked up 28 points over the duration of the campaign, 20 of them have come on home soil and you'd expect them to continue that run against the Burton side, who, like Rotherham, have changed manager in recent weeks. Gary Mills is in caretaker charge of the Brewers.
He's replaced at Dino Mammria, who was sacked after the 2-1 defeat to Stevenage two weeks ago. But things didn't necessarily improve. With the new manager last week, a drubbing away to Oxford, so that shows just how tough things have been on the road for Burton this season.
So you'd expect goals in this one. Charlton to win three or more goals across the 90 minutes is the pick in this one.
Into League 2, Morecambe against MK Dons and I fancy Morecambe could pick up a victory they were kind of derided when they appointed Jed Brannon as their new manager especially when it came on the back of a six nil hammering out the hands of Wrexham. But they pretty much wiped out that deficit by beating Doncaster 5 nil in their last home game. And their two of their last three games under the new boss, they have managed to pick up a victory.
Now their visitors, MK Dons, aren't actually that far behind them in the table, only a point below Morecambe.
MK Dons have only three away wins from 10 attempts in the league.
So I do fancy that Morecambe could keep their decent form going in this one by picking up a victory.
So that's my treble going into Christmas. For the EFL Leicester to win with a -1 handicap Charlton to win and three or more goals in their game against Burton and then Morecambe against MK Dons and back a home win.