With all the rumours swirling around Tom Cleverley’s position as Watford head coach, it is becoming harder to believe in their chances of reaching the play-offs. However, it doesn’t seem to affect Cleverley’s approach too much.

Watford have scored in their last 12 matches in all competitions, which is a great record for a team that is apparently in crisis and sliding away from the play-off places. All of which indicates that Watford also concede a lot of goals, which is indeed the case, 11 of the 12 matches in which Watford have scored in since the 0-0 with QPR in November, have been BTTS matches.

Alongside the most BTTS team in the Championship, we have Norwich, who, under Johannes Hoff Thorup, have a very goals-first mentality.

The Canaries are getting back towards full strength, and the major return of the Sargent is a big plus in the potential goals column. Josh Sargent scored twice in a big 5-1 win last weekend, which were the first goals that Norwich had scored in 3 matches.

They are in the top 6 for almost all of the attacking metrics though. 2nd for goals scored, 4th for attacking xG, 6th for shots on target, and 3rd for big chances missed, a stat which could be helped by Sargent’s return.

The good news for this bet is that Norwich are also poor at the back. They have kept only 4 clean sheets in the league all season, the 3rd worst record, and they are 18th for goals conceded.

7 of Norwich’s last 9 Championship matches have finished with BTTS Yes, and combining that with Watford’s record as mentioned above, suggests that this price looks good for both teams scoring here.

Leeds continue to be one of the safest bets in the Championship when they play at Elland Road.

Monday night’s promotion clash at Burnley was a total snooze-fest but it kept the chasing pack at arm’s length, and the Whites know that if they keep up their home record, their chances of Premier League football next season look very strong.

To dig into that form a little bit more, they have won 12 out of their 15 home matches, losing only once, scoring 35 goals and conceding 7. In those 15 matches, not once have they allowed the opposition to even create 1 xG in the 90 minutes, which is an incredible record.

This bet would have collected in all 12 of Leeds’ home wins, which is 80% of all home matches.

Cardiff have shown signs of improvement of late. They are unbeaten in 8 matches in all competitions and are up to 18th in the table. However, they lost 0-2 to Leeds at home earlier in the league, and they have still only won once away from home all campaign.

Despite investing in Yousef Salech and Sivert Mannsverk, it is still a very tough ask to go to Leeds and create much, as was mentioned above. However, Cardiff do pose a big set piece threat, having scored 8 times from set pieces this season, and they have increased their height with the signing of Salech in particular.

The Bluebirds have scored in their last 9 matches in all competitions, so they could contribute to the over 1.5 goal line, avoiding a potential 1-0 Leeds win, which is the only way that Leeds could win and the bet fails.

There are still only 3 points between Leeds and the 3rd-placed team, Burnley, so they know that the pressure needs to continue to be applied by Daniel Farke’s men.

Rotherham are in their best run of form all season having lost only 1 of their previous 8 in all competitions. However, there is still a major nagging doubt regarding their away record. Yes, they did defeat Lincoln 1-0 on the road in that run, but they also lost 4-2 to relegation-threatened Burton Albion on their most recent away assignment, too.

It has been a problem for a few seasons now and a sheer lack of away victories over this time places big doubts on them causing a big shock travelling to top of the table Birmingham. The Millers are the 2nd-lowest away scorers in the division, with their away return itself ranked 20th out of 24.

Speaking of Birmingham, they are just going from strength to strength right now. The Blues extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 16, of which 13 have been wins, when winning 1-0 away at promotion rivals Huddersfield in midweek. It was also yet another clean sheet for Chris Davies’ side, their 7th in their last 11 contests.

This team has achieved 7 clean sheets over their last 10 at home in all competitions. They also occupy the only remaining unbeaten home record in League One. Davies is relentless in his demands of his players and will ensure they don’t suddenly rest on their laurels now they are a few points clear at the top of the table with a few games in hand.

Pete Wild has made a solid start to his reign as Fleetwood manager since his Christmas Eve appointment. In 7 matches since Wild taking charge Fleetwood have won 4, drawn once and lost twice – the 4 victories have come against top half of the table sides Chesterfield, Salford, MK Dons and Walsall.

Fleetwood’s improvement under Wild is evidenced by looking at the 5, 10 and 15 game form tables. Over the last 15 matches Fleetwood are 15th, over the last 10 matches they place 12th and over the last 5 matches they place 7th.

Wild has prioritised tightening Fleetwood up defensively. This season they average 1.36 xGA per game but in the 7 matches under Wild, Fleetwood’s x GA read 1.49-0.70-1.04-0.87-0.47-2.78-0.51. They are averaging 0.85 goals against per game under Wild, compared to 1.19 goals against per game across the League Two season.

Fleetwood have scored in each of Wild’s matches in charge too, averaging 1.28 goals per game – marginally lower than their season average of 1.35 goals per game. They’ve been weakened by the news that striker Ronan Coughlan will be out for the next 9 months with injury, although they seemed unaffected by this when dismantling table toppers Walsall 2-0 on Tuesday night.

Morecambe have lost their last 3 league matches 1-0, to Crewe, Colchester and Bradford. The Shrimps are rooted to the bottom of the table with survival from relegation looking increasingly unlikely, with off the pitch problems even more bleak than on the pitch performance.

Morecambe have won just once at home this season and have scored only 10 goals in their 12 matches at The Mazuna Stadium. Morecambe have managed just 9 shots on target over the last 3 games with xG reading 0.83-0.70-0.36.

Fleetwood win-to-nil appeals here, but taking the Coughlan news into consideration, a conservative double chance approach is the best play.

Tranmere have the look of a team imploding and are showing signs of a real lack of discipline. Since the start of December, they have received 6 red cards in matches, including 2 v Swindon on Tuesday where they threw away a lead to lose 2-1.

Tranmere have won just twice in the same time period. They only have Carlisle and Morecambe below them in the table and relegation back to non-league is becoming increasingly possible. Tranmere are bottom of the 15 game form table, 22nd in the 10 game form table and 19th in the 5 game form table. Their poor performance level has been evident for a while and shows no sign of improving.

Tranmere have drawn or lost 9/13 home matches this season with matches at Prenton Park often low scoring. Tranmere have scored 11 goals and conceded 12 in their home matches this term.

Colchester matches are also low scoring. Their League Two games this season average just 2.14 goals per game. No team has lost fewer away matches than Colchester this season, who have been beaten just 3 times on the road. Their issue has been turning draws into victories, having had 8 away draws and just 2 wins.

Colchester come into Saturday’s game off the back of 3 low scoring games, a 1-0 win v Bromley, a 0-0 draw with Harrogate and another 1-0 win v Morecambe. It looks like being a season of ‘what if’ for Colchester. They are placed firmly in mid-table and have more draws than anyone else in the league – a couple more wins instead of draws would see them on the cusp of the play-off places.

There’s a couple of different ways you could approach this game. Betting the goal unders is one, but with Tranmere’s vulnerability and selection problems caused by suspensions, we prefer to oppose them and back Colchester double chance.