Football Tips Saturday 9th August – Take Watford To Sting Trotters

Friday night sees the start of the domestic 2014/15 football season with a live Championship clash between Blackburn Rovers and Cardiff City. I’m going to bypass this game though (although I will be watching with a beer) and look towards Saturday’s games which gives us a full fixture list to play with (except the Premier League of course) and I’m hopeful I can get off to a winning start.

Good luck if you follow any of my selections for the weekend. Let’s do this!
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Watford v Bolton

3.00pm Saturday

I’m fully expecting Watford to get the bit between their teeth and open their account with 3 points and a convincing win against cash strapped Bolton. Hornets boss Beppe Sannino has invested heavily in his squad for this term, bringing in no less than 11 new players which include the return of Matej Vydra on loan from Udinese (he scored 24 goals in 51 games for Watford while on loan in the 2012/13 season), and the signing of former Spurs keeper Heurelho Gomes.

Sannino expects a promotion push this season and will be bitterly disappointed if they don’t improve upon their 13th position last season.

Bolton Wanderers aren’t in an ideal position. They don’t have the available funds to strengthen their squad much so boss Dougie Freedman will have to rely mainly on the loan players he managed to sign from last season. It’s clear that Bolton don’t have much improvement in them at this early stage of the season, and I’m taking Watford to impress with their new found vigour and some fresh players.

The 11/10 about the home win with Coral looks more than fair, and while I’m not going to jump in head first with a large stake at this very early stage of the season, I am very confident that Hornets fans will be going home happy on Saturday evening.

Nottingham Forest v Blackpool

3.00pm Saturday

Stuart Pearce as Nottingham Forest manager excites me, and along with some eyecatching signings I think they are going to push very hard for a promotion spot this season. The signature of Britt Assombalonga from Peterborough is a quality one, and he should guarantee goals at this level.

However, Pearce was a solid and robust defender and that’s exactly what he’s going to expect from his team. Today’s opponents Blackpool haven’t impressed in pre season and I’m not expecting them to start just now. The bet I’m looking at here is for Blackpool to fail to score.

One option would be for Forest to win to nil which is available at a standout 5/4 with SkyBet (it’s odds on in other places). Another would be for both teams to score NO which would also insure against Nottingham Forest having an offday and failing to find the net. This option is available at an eyecatching 4/5 at SkyBet too (it’s 8/13 at Stan James).

As it’s the first day of the season and it may be a bit of a slow burner I’m going to go with the safer option of BTTS NO at 4/5 for the reasons mentioned above.