The Iron make the trip to the Ricoh Arena on Tuesday night two places above hosts Coventry City, however are priced as the outsiders in this fixture at 2/1.
The hosts are without a win in their last five league games, with their most recent home victory coming all the way back in October when they defeated Peterborough United 3-2, however are placed as favourites in this game, with odds of a home win at 13/10 with SkyBet, the sponsors of the Football League. The price for a draw is at 13/10, with the Sky Blues finishing two of their last three games on level terms.Steven Pressley’s men currently lie two places below the Iron in 20th, just one place above the relegation zone, while Scunthorpe United have three games in hand over their opponents, as they sit 18th. The Iron are unbeaten in their last eight league away games, however both sides lost by a single goal at the weekend, with United falling to single Carl Winchester goal as Oldham Athletic emerged victorious at Glanford Park, while Coventry were defeated by promotion hunting Preston North End at Deepdale, with veteran forward Kevin Davies rolling back the years with the winner.
The Iron emerged victorious at the Ricoh the last time the two sides met back in 2012, as Leon Clarke scored twice to cancel out Carl Baker’s opener for City. The odds of a repeat result have been priced at 9/1, while the same result was produced earlier this campaign when the teams met in the reverse fixture in North Lincolnshire. Another Tuesday night fixture saw Paddy Madden and Lyle Taylor grab the goals to overcome Frank Nouble’s solitary strike. The odds of Madden nicking the Iron a lead on Tuesday night has been priced at 6/1, while 7/4 would be the odds of the Irishman netting at any point during the 90 minutes.
Dutch centre forward Kevin van Veen made his debut for Scunthorpe on Saturday against Oldham when he came on to replace Tom Hopper during the second half. It remains to be seen if the former FC Oss striker will start the game on Tuesday, but if he is given the nod by Mark Robins, he’s at 7/1 to score the opener. Another 7/1 first goal scorer odds come in for Leicester City loanee Hopper. Hopper scored four goals in four games during the month of January, resulting in a League One Player of the Month nomination, could he break the deadlock?
Match day captain Neal Bishop came within a whisker of scoring the first goal of the game against Oldham, after his acrobatic effort narrowly slipped past the post, but the odds of him going one closer and finding the back of the net this time round are a very healthy 16/1 for first goal scorer, 11/2 to score anytime. Defender Niall Canavan has managed to cement a fairly permanent place in the Iron defence after starting the last three games after returning from a long injury lay-off. Standing at 6ft 3” tall, he’s a constant threat from set pieces, and the odds of him producing the game’s first goal stands at 28/1, while he’s at 9/1 to scoring at any point during the game.
Sky Bet are also offering match specials for this fixture. They have Scunthorpe to score two or more in the first half at 8/1, as well as Scunthorpe to score in the first ten minutes at 15/2. On the other side they have Coventry to score two or more in the first half at 6/1 and for the visitors to score in the first 10 minutes also at 13/2.
With the Iron so strong on the road as of late, the odds of 2/1 for Robins’ men to take the win may seem a tad generous, with United’s unbeaten run in the league on the road stretching back to November 1st, while Coventry’s winless home league game streak even tops that, with the last victory at home coming on October 25th.
Get betting now by visiting www.skybet.com/scunthorpe.