Form Sides to be Followed in Midweek Flutter

With yet another successful weekend of football tipping behind us (Lay of Liverpool, Ipswich to win, Pogrebnyak to score first & Fulham to win by 2+ goals) we're now onto our favourite type of bets of games outside of the top flight with a full set of midweek matches. We're looking for value as always & have studied recent form & overall season form to come up with three selections for Tuesday night's games with two picks from League Two & one from the notoriously tough to get winners Championship.

(Ex-QPR player, defender Lee Brown has popped up with a few goals for Bristol Rovers)

Northampton Town are the side in 92nd place of the 92 sides in the 4 professional divisions & they host Bristol Rovers side at Sixfields in a game they'll feel they must win as their struggle against relegation from League Two gets more desperate. Both sides are improved recently although Northampton couldn't get worse after waiting 3 months between league wins & they've still only won 2 from their last 7 after allowing a 2 goal lead to drop against Cheltenham at the weekend where their in form striker Adebayo Akinfenwa scored again. Rovers dominated Macclesfield on Saturday but just couldn't break the deadlock & ended with a goalless draw, their strikers Matt Harrold & the veteran Scott McGleish are serviceable but could do with more support from midfield, a positive has been their young defender Lee Brown coming up with 6 goals so far in his first season at the club. With just one loss in 9 league games & 5 wins Bristol Rovers are a great bet at 2/1 to beat Aidy Bothroyd's men & to illustrate how good a price that is, they are as short as 11/8 with Coral!

(Port Vale manager Micky Adams has his players focussed despite the team's off-field problems)

Again in League Two Port Vale host Burton Albion at Vale Park, the hosts are just four points outside the playoff places whilst Burton are down in 15th position. Port Vale maybe facing financial difficulties off the pitch but on it they are in good form & unbeaten in their last seven league games with four wins & three draws, importantly their home record excluding those in the top six is very good with 7 wins from 10 games & only one defeat. Visitors Burton are having a poor second half of the season & haven't seen a victory since 26th December against bottom of the table Northampton. In 2012 they have lost 7 matches out of 10 & their last three games have all ended in 2-0 defeats. We expect Port Vale to be too strong for a Burton side who have a fragile confidence at odds of Evens with Paddy Power & Bet365.

(Jason Roberts has been getting his career back on track with new club Reading)

To finish off our selections we're going for a bet that might not be original but should be as certain a result as you can get in the Championship with high flying Reading taking on the barely in existence Portsmouth at the Madejski Stadium. Reading had to travel to Millwall at the weekend & endure the hostile New Den atmosphere but picked up another win to make it 6 in a row & 11 from 13 league games & if they can keep going like this they'll have a genuine chance of automatic promotion. Reading tend to share their goals around but January signing from Blackburn, Jason Roberts has come in & made an impact with 3 in his first 6 & they've only conceded once in their last 6 meaning they'd be tough to beat for anyone let alone a struggling Portsmouth side. Pompey have lost 6 from their last 9 with just one win in that sequence & the noises from the administrators are not sounding great with a genuine possibility of them going out of business before the end of the season. With all that's hanging over them any team would want to be playing Portsmouth at the moment & we expect a thoroughly professional performance from Reading & they should be confidently backed at 1/2 to win here.

Selections:
Bristol Rovers to beat Northampton Town at 2/1 (Bet365 & BetVictor)
Port Vale to beat Burton Albion at Evens (Paddy Power/bet365)
Reading to beat Portsmouth at 1/2 (various)