Football Bet of the Day: 9/2 shout for Sky Blue goal-fest

The Championship season gets underway this weekend, and our focus has turned to the second tier for our Football Bet of the Day. Coventry City travel to the Potteries for a 12:30 kick-off, where they will try to put Stoke City to the sword, live on Sky Sports +. 

Below you can find my take on this encounter, as well as some decent value for Saturday’s Football Bet of the Day. 

Forgive me for indulging in my own club for a moment, but there is an awful lot to be excited about for Coventry as we approach the new season. It feels like there has been steady progression over the past 24 months, and even though the table showed a drop off four places last year, an FA Cup semi-final more than made up for that. 

This time around however, with more sensible additions, I’m expecting the Sky Blues to have a very successful season. Automatic promotion will be the dream, but a top-six finish has to be seen as the absolute minimum for a squad that has been carefully crafted over the past two transfer windows. 

This summer, Brandon Thomas-Asante, Jack Rudoni, Luis Binks and Oliver Dovin have joined the party, and the latter in particular looks to be a big upgrade in goal. However, it is Coventry’s attack which catches the eye for me, and the reason why our Football Bet of the Day is for them to score over 2.5 goals on Saturday afternoon. 

Stoke vs Coventry Odds

Thomas-Asante joins a front-line that had quality, but not enough depth last term. Haji Wright and Ellis Simms were slow starters, but when they caught fire, the Sky Blues rocketed up the table and went deep into the FA Cup. Wright found his form playing from the left-hand side, while Simms looks like a number nine who should hit 20 goals across this campaign. 

Mark Robins is a tactically astute manager, but he’s got far more weapons to his armoury this season. He was planning on playing a back five last term, switched to a 4-2-3-1, but had just one natural winger at his disposal. When that man, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto was ruled out for the season in February, Cov were seriously hampered. 

However, he is now back fully fit to start, possibly alongside Simms in the middle and Ephron Mason-Clark, who signed in January but was loaned back to Peterborough for the remainder of the 23/24 campaign. That’s a phenomenal front three, with Wright and Thomas-Asante available to come off the bench when needed. 

Football Odds

Meanwhile, Rudoni should start in an advanced midfield role, and he has looked impressive in pre-season, scoring against Werder Bremen. He is set to fill the boots of the departed Callum O’Hare and could add further goals to this side. Stoke meanwhile have a couple of defensive injuries, with Michael Rose out of this one, and are on paper going to be second-best, even at home.

I think we can take advantage of the odds on offer for Coventry to score at least three in their opening match.

Offers

Acca Flex: Place a pre-match 5+ leg Football accumulator and get a CASH bonus up to 50% if all of your selections win or your money back as CASH if one leg lets you down.

You can read all our latest Football Betting Tips at our dedicated Betfred Insights content hub.