Monday's Bet Of The Day: Collecting cards in the Championship

JACK Wright's (@JackWright_BSB) Bet of the Day returns for Sunday as we head to the Championship.

Coventry vs Bournemouth | Monday 18^th April 2022, 15:00

After falling two goals behind to Midlands rivals Birmingham on Good Friday, the Sky Blues staged a remarkable recovery to resurrect their play-off hopes with a 4-2 win at St. Andrews, closing the gap on sixth place to just three points.

It’s back-to-back wins for Mark Robins’ side who previously defeated Fulham 3-1 at Craven Cottage last Sunday to complete a league double over the Champions elect, by an impressive aggregate of 7-2 over the two games so on that basis an Easter Monday visit from second placed Bournemouth will hold little fear.

The Cherries registered a second successive 0-0 draw on Friday but with Nottingham Forest losing, no real damage was done, although they have now gone three games without a win, as they limp towards the finishing line and a return to the Premier League.

Results are hard enough to call at the best of times in the wonderful world of the Championship but at this stage of the season, it becomes even harder as the pressure is cranked up – and it is that pressure cooker environment that leads me to explore the card market in this game with direct implications on approximately ten teams all harboring hopes of automatic or play-off promotion.

Nine of Coventry’s last 11 Championship games have seen four or more cards brandished including all of the last five, while for Scott Parker’s side it’s seven of their last ten road trips where more than three cards have been shown.

Of those eleven games for the Midlands side, they collected a second half card in nine, with both teams being cautioned after the interval in eight, while Bournemouth had at least one player find his way in to the referee’s notebook in the second 45 in all of their last 10 road trips with a name taken of a player from the home side joining them on seven occasions.

The man in charge of this promotion clash at the Coventry Building Society Arena is Matt Donohue, who ranks in the top three this season for average cards issued per game at 4.73 (1 point for a yellow, 2 for a red) amongst regular referees in the second tier and no official has sent off more players at that level this term than his seven.

Over his last 10 Championship appointments, the Greater Manchester based whistle blower is averaging 5.10 cards per game, with a pretty even split of 2.50 for the home teams and 2.60 for the visitors, the bet I have identified would have landed eight times.

This will be his third time in charge of a Coventry game this campaign, showing them second half cards in both previous fixtures with the bet we have in store here landing in one of them and he has also been in the middle for two previous Cherries games once again issuing second half cards to them in both games with the proposed bet landing on both occasions.

I’m not sure Scott Parker will be overly excited about renewing acquaintances with Mr. Donohue, given the last time they met he labelled the refereeing decision not to award his side a free kick in the build-up to what proved to be the winning goal for Preston in injury time as “criminal” and “unforgivable”, leading to the 41-year-old manager and substituted defender Adam Smith both being sent off.

We can ask for no more!

So, via Bet 365’s Bet Builder the selection is: Over 3 Cards in the Match for Both Teams Combined, Over 0 Cards in the 2nd Half for Coventry AND for Bournemouth.