James Buttler looks ahead to the Friday evening's kick-off in the Championship as The Hatters host The Rams and finds the very best bets.
Both Luton Town and Derby County play at Kenilworth Road on Friday evening with both sides having only won one of their last five Championship matches.
Derby County beat Portsmouth last time out in the Championship to end a six-match run without a win and put them in 14th in the table. Luton are down in 19th, which is neither good for them or me as I tipped them to finish top of the table and bounce straight back into the top tier. They lost their last league match 2-0 at Blackburn Rovers, but they have beaten Derby three times in the last five H2Hs (W3, D1, L1), with the last encounter ending 1-0 at Kenilworth Road in February 2022.
Despite their early season struggles, Luton will not have given up on their promotion dreams. They find themselves a whopping 20 points behind second-placed Leeds United for automatic promotion, but the 12 points separating them from the playoff spots is not insurmountable. Their home form is strong with no defeats in their last five (W3, D2) and that makes me lean towards a home win against a Derby side that has only one win in 11 away matches this season. Luton are 6/5 with StarSports.
Elijah Adebayo and Carlton Morris are predictably The Hatters top scorers this season but will be disappointed with five apiece, but Adebayo has bagged two-in-two homes matches, which means I like the price on him to score again of 13/5 with Betfair. If Luton are to climb the table, they need their leading marksman to continue this hot streak. They certainly need a strong Christmas period.
There has been at least one first half goal scored in each of Luton's last 7 games and Luton have only been behind at half-time in two of their 11 home games. Add in that Derby have not scored in their last two away games and have only scored three first half goals in 11 away matches this season, I’m very tempted to take Luton at 19/10 to be ahead by the break and also to take a Luton win at HT/FT at 11/4.
James’ Championship Tips
Luton to win at 6/5
Elijah Adebayo to score anytime at 13/5
Luton to be winning at HT at 19/10
Luton to win HT/FT at 11/4
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