Coventry vs Tranmere Predictions

Coventry take on Tranmere live on Sky Sports early on Sunday afternoon, as they look to extend their unbeaten record at St Andrew’s. In contrast, the visitors will be hoping to register their first travelling win of the season.

It’s been an excellent start to the new campaign for the Sky Blues, who come into this match in a pleasing 5^th position and are only three points off the automatic promotion places. Being turfed out of Ricoh Arena could’ve easily hindered Coventry’s progress this term, but Mark Robins’ men have not let off-field issue get in the way, as they’ve made their temporary home a fortress.

Six games at St Andrew’s have yielded five wins and a draw for Robins’ side, who during that spell have scored ten and conceded only four. Three clean sheets in six games is impressive, as is the fact that Coventry have conceded an average of just 1.83 shots on target and 0.69 expected goals at their temporary home. At the other end of proceedings, they’ve scored in six out of six, scoring at least twice in three of those.

While Coventry have been solid at “home”, Tranmere have found it very difficult to get going away from home. In fact, problems on the road are why Rovers find themselves only three points above the drop-zone.

On their own patch, Micky Mellon’s men haven’t done too badly, losing just one of their last five at Prenton Park, though a single point from five away games just won’t do. Failing to pick up regular points away from home is one thing, but being abysmal at both ends of the pitch, scoring just two and conceding 12, is another thing altogether. On their travels, Mellon’s men are second lowest scorers in the league, while they rank inside the bottom six in terms of goals conceded, shots on target for and shots on target conceded. They also offer up a rather dismal average expected goal difference of -1.29, which suggests that they’re finding it tough to match teams in terms of creativity.

The visitors may come into this match with renewed confidence after recently beating Aston Villa’s youngsters in the EFL Trophy, though that victory came at home. Quite frankly, the shocking away-day efforts of Tranmere this term make it very tough to go against the Sky Blues, who look very tough to get the better of, especially at St Andrew’s.

At the prices, ‘Coventry to Win & Over 1.5 Goals’ catches the eye. The Sky Blues haven’t exactly gone mad in terms of goals scored at St Andrew’s but ten in six is still a respectable total. Moreover, they’ve posted solid expected goals figures of 1.63 and 1.98 in recent “home” matches and are up against a side that has given an awful lot away on the road. Add in that Coventry have done a good job of restricting teams at home, shipping an average of only 0.67 goals and 0.69 expected goals, and that Tranmere are averaging just 0.4 goals for and 0.73 expected goals for on their travels and it’s easy to feel that there is value to be had by also supporting ‘Both Teams to Score – NO’ at the current prices.