Football Tips: Our 3 best bets for Sunderland v Millwall includes 9/1 punt

Our tipster Colin Harvey celebrates the tentative return of The Championship.

Short-priced punt: Millwall to Win Either Half
Value Play: Millwall and Over 1.5 Goals
Long Shot: Millwall to Win 2-1

WELCOME TO PADDY POWER NEWS!

As the World Cup rumbles into the knockout stages The Championship emerges bleary eyed from it’s brief mid-season hiatus on Saturday lunch time with it’s sole game this weekend. It’s Sunderland hosting Millwall in a timeslot that might appeal to fans of football who were just getting used to daily 10am kick offs.

Saturday 12.30pm: Sunderland v Millwall
TV: Sky Sports Football 

Sunderland are going okay on their return to the second tier but they’re 15th, just four points clear of the drop zone, so they can’t afford to let up in the second half of the season. Millwall are going great guns and they’re in the final playoff spot with a game in hand on most which they’ll make up here with the rest of the league back in action next weekend. Let’s have three best bets to get our eye in.

Short-priced punt: Millwall to Win either Half

This is a proper toss up, this game. A lot will depend on who emerges from the international break in the better shape. Of course, at this stage, that’s something we simply cannot know. Before the break both were in okay form with Sunderland picking up two wins, two losses and a draw in their last five.

Millwall have won five of their last eight, drawing two and losing just one so we have to have them onside here. Sunderland’s home form is pretty poor, they’re third bottom in the league in that respect, and they’ve won one, lost their two most recent matches, and drawn two of their last five. For our short-priced punt we’ll have Millwall to Win Either Half.

Value Play: Millwall and Over 1.5 Goals

While Millwall’s away form is middling, that Sunderland home form of just 10 points taken from nine games really catches the eye so it might well pay to back Millwall to Win this. We might be able to add a little bit of value by bolting on a few goals as well.

The goals had tried up for The Lions before the World Cup, though they did sign off with a 6-goal thriller against Preston the last time they played. Seven of The Black Cats’ last eight have seen over 1.5 Goals, with Millwall going 10 games clearing this benchmark before failing three consecutive times until that PNE thriller. I think Millwall to Win and Over 1.5 Goals could have a great chance at a nice price.

Long Shot: Millwall to Win 2-1

Doubling down on all of this, we’ll have a small flutter on Millwall to Win 2-1. Bearing in mind everything mentioned above I’ll throw a few more stats into the mix with regards to each team’s defending and attacking prowess.

Both of these are good going forward, with both averaging well over a goal a game (26 scored in 20 games each). Defensively they’re giving up over a goal a game each with Millwall conceding 22 and Sunderland a goal more. Both are likely to score so we’ll back The Lions to edge it 2-1.

Sunderland v Millwall betting tips

Short-priced punt: Millwall to Win Either Half
Value Play: Millwall and Over 1.5 Goals
Long Shot: Millwall to Win 2-1

All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.

The latest football odds are on PaddyPower.com right now

The Paddy Power Guide To Safer Gambling – Everything You Need To Know