Nottingham Forest vs Bristol City Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

You have to go back to the first weekend in December for the last time either of these sides won in the Championship, so picking a more likely winner here isn’t easy. Forest have sacked their manager while Bristol City have kept faith with theirs and they did at least record an FA Cup win in midweek to stop the rot.

Lee Johnson will be hoping that the Robins’ 1-0 win at Fleetwood, in an FA Cup tie that had ‘upset’ written all over it, will prove a key turning point in their season. They’ve played some good football at times in recent weeks and have been scoring goals with Tammy Abraham looking once again in very good touch in front of goal. He has scored 5 goals in 4 games in the Championship and against a dodgy Forest defence, backing Abraham to score anytime at 6/5 could be well worth a punt here.

However, time and time again, they’ve let leads slip and have conceded late goals. They’ve conceded three goals in the last 20 minutes in each of their last 2 Championship games, to end up losing games 3-2 when they looked on course for maximum points. That could either be a fitness issue or more of a mental problem but either way they clearly have a major problem seeing games out and confidence will still be fragile despite that win in midweek with just 3 points now separating them from the relegation zone.

Forest aren’t in any better shape but their return of 2 points from their last 7 Championship games is still 2 more than Bristol City have managed over the same period. Both teams have scored in a massive 83% of their home games this term and the priority for whoever they appoint as their new boss will be improving a defence that is yet to keep a clean sheet at the City Ground.

They do score goals though and have bagged plenty in the 2nd Half of their home games this term. 67% of their home goals have come after the interval and they’ve netted 12 times in the final 15 minutes of Championship games this term which suggests they are well equipped to deal with Bristol City’s problems late on.

Given their opponents tendency to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, backing Nottingham Forest to score more goals in the 2nd Half than the 1st Half at 7/5 looks like a cracking bet here.