Saturday Football Accumulator Tips: 11/ 1 fourfold for the 3PM matches

The perils of publishing on a Friday morning as our Acca last week included Manchester United beating Fulham. That match would not have been chosen had we known about the Rasmus Hojlund injury, which was announced later that day, but what can you do? United failed to win and down we went.

This week we pick out a game from all four of the professional leagues in the English football pyramid for our Saturday Football Accumulator Tips, which pays out just over 11/1 as of the time of publication...

Leg 1 - Everton vs West Ham United - Home Win @ 21/20

We start off in the Premier League and we are betting on Everton to get their first three-point haul since December 16. That feels like an awfully long time to go without a victory in league play but the feel-good factor around having their ten-point deduction reduced to six cannot be understated.

In that time period, Sean Dyche’s side actually haven’t lost too many and have become draw specialists. If they had a striker who could score goals, they would be comfortable but it has not been a pretty season for Dominic Calvert-Lewin. The former England striker has only found the back of the net three times in 23 matches played. That isn’t great.

The reason I’m rolling with the Toffees here though is that West Ham are just not a team you can rely on. The return of Lucas Paqueta has certainly been most welcome for David Moyes, with the Brazilian playmaker dazzling at home to Brentford on Monday night. The Hammers return to European action in the week and it would not shock me if that was the focus for the rest of this campaign. Everton will want it more and just about win the game, despite their woeful form up front.

Leg 2 - Birmingham City vs Southampton - Away Win @ 5/6

For a brief moment, it looked as if Southampton were seriously going to challenge for automatic promotion back to the Premier League. However, three defeats in four has curtailed that momentum and boss Russell Martin will need to get his side back on track if they are to make up that five-point gap to both Ipswich Town and Leeds United.

Last week, the boss surprisingly rested star striker Adam Armstrong. The 27-year-old found himself on the bench despite his 16 goals so far this campaign. The afternoon was a frustrating one as despite having 81% possession and a pass accuracy of 92%, the home side went down 1-2 against relegation-threatened Millwall. Sometimes games just go against you.

Saturday sees them with a great chance to arrest this current slide. Birmingham played tough at Portman Road last week before two late goals saw them go down 3-1 to Ipswich Town. Relegation is still very much in-play for the Blues and the Tony Mowbray situation is going to cause at least some uncertainty among the squad. 

The Saints are having a wobble but the quality in their squad is significantly better than what the home side have available. They put up a more than solid performance at Anfield in the cup on Wednesday night and gave the home side some issues at the back. This is a decent price for the away win.

Leg 3 - Portsmouth vs Oxford United - Home Win @ 8/11

It isn’t very often that a team has a quite brilliant night when the players are all at home resting on their sofas, yet that is exactly what happened for Portsmouth on Tuesday as their two immediate rivals for automatic promotion both lost. John Mousinho’s side are now seven-points clear of both and Bolton have just the one game in-hand.

Oxford make the journey to the south coast on Saturday with a spot in the play-offs still very much in their cross-hairs. The recent form however of Des Buckingham’s side has been pretty ordinary and you have to go back in the middle of January to see them grab all three-points on the road. In the month of February, they won one, lost one and drew four times.

Not many teams have fared well from a trip to Fratton Park this campaign, with the home side having the joint-best record in front of their own fans in the division. Only two sides have won and four have drawn, whilst 11 have gone home with nothing more than the joy of having played at the greatest ground in the world. I maybe a little bit biased there.

Still, this isn’t my fandom talking when I say Pompey are an excellent price to get the win at home. Since a tough period over Christmas and into January, the injection of squad depth has kept the wide-players fresh, with both Paddy Lane and Abu Kamara being in fine form. Those odds of 8/11 feel generous and this will be a game featured-heavily in many a Saturday acca.

Leg 4 - Crewe Alexandra vs Morecambe - Home Win @ 10/11

Lee Bell’s side have been on a roll in recent weeks and have dispatched several other promotion-hopefuls in recent weeks. Last Saturday, it was Notts County who were on the receiving end as Crewe scored with each of their three shots on target. Not a bad ratio that.

They went through the whole of February unbeaten, winning three and drawing two. The last time they lost was at home to Salford back in late January, which was of course, the last time I put them in this particular accumulator. So I have a bit of trepidation here but they are one of the form teams in the division.

Morecambe make the relatively short trek down to Gresty Road having only picked up just two points from the past nine available. The last time they played away from home, they didn’t even have a shot on target against Walsall.

EFL League 2 is pretty wild with everyone down to 16th placed Bradford City within two positive results of the play-off places. I do like the way Crewe have been picking up results recently and form-wise, this is a strong leg.

You can check out all of our Football Accumulator Tips on our Acca hub page...