Bristol City vs Palace: Playoffs

The lottery that is the Championship playoffs resumes this evening with Bristol City hoping that their 2-1 win at Selhurst Park will be enough to see them past Crystal Palace at Ashton Gate at odds of 1.62. Click here for a free £25 to bet on Bristol City vs Crystal Palace with Betfair City were not fancied by this column to overcome Palace in the first leg, largely because their form had been unconvincing going into the tie, however as Henry Ford once said, history is bunk. Despite looking every bit the side that had won just two of their last 11 matches in the opening half-hour Gary Johnson's men suddenly sprung to life, creating a number of chances before taking a deserved second-half lead with a marvellously well-worked free-kick. Palace played poorly after going behind and created nothing of note until they were gifted a needless penalty after a clumsy challenge by goalscorer Louis Carey with six minutes to go. The last laugh, though, belonged to David Noble whose howitzer of a shot smoked into the net in added time to make for a dramatic finale. So what does all this tell us about the second leg? Well, firstly, City have remembered how to play football again, secondly, their striker Dele Adebola is a handful for even the best defence in the Championship and, thirdly, tonight's hosts are lethal on set-pieces. The match is nonetheless delicately-poised and it very difficult to call. City do have an awesome home record, having lost only once in the league at Ashton Gate since November 24, and they never really looked like conceding to Palace until Carey gave away that clumsy penalty. Palace, on the other hand, struggled all day with the physical presence of Adebola and they lacked bite up front, with Clinton Morrison, Scott Sinclair and Ben Watson each missing presentable chances. City will look to defend what they have and their home record, as well as Saturday's performance, suggests that they will be able to do so. Verdict: 2pts Bristol City @ 1.62 (Betfair); 1pt Dele Adebola first goalscorer @ 17/2 Click here for a free £25 to bet on Bristol City vs Crystal Palace with Betfair Betfair is the world's leading betting exchange and licensed bookmaker in the UK. Over 15 million bets placed a day! Get your Betfair £25 Free bet now!