Sheffield Wednesday and Blackpool played in the Carling Cup last night, with the home side going through the tie on penlaties following extra time.
The Owls will be making a long trip to the South Coast today, to play a League 1 fixture with Bournemouth tomorrow, a match that will kick off just about 40 hours after they finished work yesterday. That is far from ideal, but only Gary Madine started last night and also in the opening league game with Rochdale, having said that, twelve players were involved in both squads to one degree or another and would have warmed up, sat on the bench, been at least mentally involved and will now face five hours on a bus today, with greatly reduced preparation time.
Do not underestimate this time spent on the motorway, Bournemouth made the short journey to London last Friday and ended up stuck in traffic for eight hours, their preparation was so disrupted that they tried to get their match with Charlton delayed. This was refused and they were never in the game, this is a result you can dismiss from your calculations and the Cherries showed much more what they are capable of in a 5-0 rout of Dagenham in midweek, back on home soil where they are far more comfortable and where they collected 62% of all their points last season, the third best record in the division.
The Cherries had a decent pre season, beating Crystal Palace and Cardiff here and might once again have been underestimated by people, the club have to continually sell players to stay afloat, but also continue to unearth some gems, they are short of striking options, but Lyle Taylor snatched from non league football last season scored six in pre season and another two against the Daggers and I have just seen that Ryan Doble, another young striker signed a short term loan from Southampton yesterday, both will be looking to get involved on saturday.
I cannot quite make Bournemouth an official bet, but given the two extra days rest and lack of travel, plus my huge doubts about Owls boss Gary Megson, which are well documented, I think the home side look solid with the level ball/ draw no bet option at or close to 1.80.
Good Luck.
Contact: stencelwade@btinternet.com
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