Nottingham Forest vs Middlesbrough Betting Tips

Forest have won both games since the international break and they weren’t easy ones by any stretch of the imagination. A win at promotion contenders QPR was followed up by another away win against Birmingham in midweek. It was an impressive response to a poor start to the campaign and all of a sudden there should be some real positive energy around Nottingham on Saturday for the visit of title favourites Middlesbrough.

Although Brighton are 5 points clear at the top currently, you sense if anyone is going to run away with this league it is Middlesbrough. They have built on a side that very narrowly missed out on promotion last year by adding Stewart Downing and Christian Stuani, two players who were impressive in the top tier in England and Spain respectively last season so should excel in the Championship.

Stuani netted a brace in the win over Brentford in midweek, which took his tally for the season to 7 goals, impressive given he has only actually started 4 times. It also extended Middlesbrough’s winning run to 4 matches in all competitions and unlike some sides they have the squad to cope with weeks like this where there are 3 games in 8 days.

This will be a big test for Nottingham Forest, who have won only one of their last 8 home games. There are usually goals at the City Ground though, and both teams have scored in 6 of those 8 matches. Boro will come looking for the win to close the gap on the leaders so it should an open game and it looks good value at 5/6 that both clubs will be on target here.

The visitors are just odds on to the win the game, which is pretty rare in the Championship but they won’t have it all their own way. Nottingham Forest are a streaky sort of side who go on excellent long runs before long runs where they barely look like picking up anything. Having won their last two, they’ll feel confident and as though they’ve turned a corner and that lift should help them get something from the game but they’re unlikely to have enough quality to win it.

Therefore consider backing it to finish 1-1 at 11/2, a result which wouldn’t be seen as a disaster by either camp.