Coventry City v Northampton Town Betting Tips

These two sides have different priorities in League One this season, newly-promoted Northampton Town are going for a second successive promotion whilst Coventry City are merely looking to survive, especially with their off-field problems.

After Tony Mowbray somewhat honourably resigned from his position of Coventry manager last week after a dreadful start to the season, the Sky Blues managed to somehow win their first match of the season against play-off contenders Port Value. This will at least give the squad a bit of a boost but you feel that until the messy off the field situation with SISU is sorted out (which still looks a long way off), things can only go downhill.

The EFL Trophy has gone better for Coventry and they beat West Ham United U23s in the first round of fixtures. However, despite this positive result, this competition could go one of two ways for Coventry. It could either turn into a useful distraction where they start picking up wins which in turn will translate to better league form, or, in turn they could lose their other matches which means they face a constant losing streaking with no respite – no matter what the competition.

Northampton Town finally lost their 31 match unbeaten run back on September 17th. On the face of it this seems a bad thing but it could actually be a blessing in disguise for the Cobblers. With an unbeaten run comes a pressure to maintain it thay usually leads to rather conservative play and draws. This was evident in Northampton’s start to the season where they played out four successive draws. Although they did win the following two fixtures, the loss against Chesterfield means that the shackles are now off Northampton and they can really go and express themselves, which they did by picking up another two wins on the bounce.

Momentum is key in football and with Rob Page’s team currently sit in the play-off sports, they will surely be eyeing another promotion (just as Burton Albion did last year). Whether this is at the detriment of the EFL Trophy remains to be seen but it does seem that the Cobblers are taking it quite seriously. Although they lost 3-0 to League Two Wycombe Wanderers in the first round, Page fielded a strong team which shows he does value the trophy somewhat. As previously mentioned, momentum is key and Page surely recognises that success in the EFL Trophy should breed success in the league.

Although Coventry will have been boosted by their win against Port Vale, I am not sure they will be able to do a job on Northampton. Even though the Sky Blues are at home, I cannot see many fans turning up for this match, not only in protest against the ownership, but also in protest against the newly-formatted competition which has many fans of Football League teams fuming and so the atmosphere (or lack of) will play next to no part at the Ricoh Arena.

Northampton are undoubtedly the better side and will be looking to keep their good momentum going by beating Coventry and so I would certainly look at backing the Cobblers here at 7/4. 

Although Northampton are on a decent run, they do look a bit shaky at the back and tend to concede in most matches. Additionally, they have not kept an away clean sheet since 16th August and so with Coventry likely to be buoyed by their win against Port Value, I think they could sneak a goal. With this in mind, ‘Both Teams to Score’ at 5/6 is certainly worth looking at.

To see more EFL Cup tips click here.