Mick McCarthy’s team lost 3-1 at Swansea and 5-2 at Norwich in October, prompting some to suggest that the wheels had started to fall off for Wolverhampton Wanderers. However, since their thrashing at Carrow Road, the Midlands team have embarked on an outstanding seven-match winning run, taking them six points clear at the top of the Championship. Its little wonder that they are 5/4 (Paddy Power) to win the league.
Wolves have an opportunity to make the gap even bigger on Saturday afternoon, when Birmingham visit Molineux for the televised clash. Many might regard the 11/8 (Boylesports) about the team in old gold recording an eighth successive win as a value bet, especially with their two strikers in cracking form. Chris Iwelumo has bagged a brace in his past two matches and the Scot is 6/1 (Betfred) to open the scoring, while team-mate Sylvan Ebanks-Blake is 6/1 (Coral) to beat him to it.
Nevertheless, City will provide a stern test of their promotion credentials, especially as Alex McLeish’s men have only lost once away from home this season. Birmingham are 11/5 (bet365) to win this west Midlands derby, although it’s worth noting that they haven’t kept a clean sheet in the past seven outings. Therefore, we might expect a high-scoring encounter between the two sides, and Blue Square offer 4/5 that there are three goals or more.
The visitors also have some quality strikers on their books, with Kevin Phillips in particularly good form for the Blues in recent weeks. The former Baggies striker has four goals in his past three games, and would like nothing better than to score the winning goal in front of the home supporters. He is 13/2 (Coral) to score first or last, while William Hill go 9/4 that he manages to get on the scoresheet. Nevertheless, I’m expecting Wolves to go marching on, winning this match by a 2-1 scoreline (9/1 William Hill).