Coventry City vs Hull City: Betting Odds & Prediction

(Featured image: Alamy Images)

Written by: Rob Norcup

Coventry City host Hull City in a vital Championship encounter at the Coventry Building Society Arena on Wednesday night.

Both are looking to cut the gap on those sides currently in the play-off zone. With games fast running out, dropped points could spell disaster for either team. The match kicks off at 7.45pm UK time. 

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Coventry City

Coventry must regroup and refocus quickly after suffering a heartbreaking FA Cup semi-final exit on penalties against Man Utd at Wembley on Sunday. The Sky Blues have an outside shot of making the play-offs, but will need near enough maximum points from their final four league matches to stay in the hunt. 

Unfortunately, Coventry’s heroic FA Cup run may have diminished their play-off chances. They’ve lost three of their last four league games, which is their worst run of the season since losing four on the bounce at the end of October/beginning of November. Mark Robin’s side are currently nine points off the play-off zone with four games remaining, all of which must be played within the space of eleven days thanks to fixture congestion caused by their cup run. 

Coventry have much to thank the dynamic duo of Ellis Simms & Haji Wright for, especially in recent times. They have netted a combined total of 20 goals in the Sky Blues’ last eleven games. Simms particularly enjoys playing at home, scoring eight goals in his last four home matches. Goals have been a significant feature of Coventry games of late. Over 2.5 goals have been scored in each of their last 12 matches, with that occurring in eleven straight Coventry home matches too.

Continuing on the scoring theme, there’s been an average of 4.27 match goals netted in Coventry’s last eleven home games, with the Sky Blues averaging 3.18 team goals during those particular encounters. Mark Robins’ side have found it hard keeping goals out of their own net, too. Sunday’s FA Cup clash was the eighth successive match Coventry have conceded in.

Hull City

Hull remain on the road following Saturday’s goalless draw with Watford. It extended the Tigers’ unbeaten run to four games, but it’s wins they desperately need at the moment, as they look to close the gap on the top six and keep their play-off dreams alive. Fortunately for Hull, the teams in fifth and sixth both dropped points too (West Brom lost and Norwich drew). Fellow play-off chasing rivals, Middlesbrough and Preston, also failed to win and are now out of the reckoning. 

Saturday’s draw may have been a bit of a downer for the Tigers, but they have got their campaign back on track just in time to give themselves a shot at making the play-offs. Hull had been on a winless streak of six games (four draws and two losses) prior to the 3-1 win at Cardiff on April 6th. Including that win against the Bluebirds, Liam Rosenior’s men have averaged two points per game since. They’ve averaged only 1.53 points per game during the season as a whole.

The Tigers like to roar out of the blocks early. Of the 15 goals they’ve scored in their last eleven games, 12 of them came in the first half. Hull have been strong during the opening period in general. Of the eleven goals conceded in their last nine games, only three of those were netted in the first half.

That latter stat reads even more impressively if you just take Hull’s away games into account. They’ve only conceded a single first half goal in their last six games on the road. It’s on their travels where Hull have been more impressive this season, winning an average of 1.62 points per game away from home. That figure drops to 1.45 at the MKM Stadium.

Prediction

The sides produced a 1-1 draw at Hull in the reverse fixture back in September, with the Tigers grabbing a late equaliser. I’m expecting both sides to net again, but with a higher goal tally on this occasion. There’s never a dull moment at the Coventry Building Society Arena these days and both teams must go for broke with time running out in the hunt for play-off spots. We could be in for a thrilling second half and some late drama.

OddsNow's Pick: Over 3.5+ goals scored (9/5 @ BetVictor)

 

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