It’s a top(ish) versus bottom(ish) tale in the Championship tonight, as Bristol City visit Cardiff at 7.45pm on Sky Sports 1.

It won’t take much for Cardiff to turn their solid start to the season into a push for promotion. Lurking just outside of the play-offs places in 8th with 20 points the Bluebirds have only lost twice; however, 5 draws has prevented Cardiff from nabbing some play-off promising points, with especially frustrating 1-1 ties against Blackburn and league-leaders Brighton as Russell Slade’s side gave up 5th minute leads in both.

Yet a win against 4th place Middlesbrough last weekend was better, even if the Welsh side had to rely on an 86th minute own goal from George Friend for the victory. A continuation in form for Joe Mason, who seems to have settled at Cardiff after a semi-successful loan stint at Bolton, will be key, with his 5 Championship goals leaving him at a Super Mega PGM spread of 5/1. An improvement, meanwhile, will be needed from the perpetually exasperating, if talented, Newcastle loanee Sammy Ameobi, who, with a solitary goal this season, is at 13/2 fixed odds to score first.



If Cardiff are tentatively ascendant (or at least improving) then Bristol City have had an ugly welcome back to the Championship. Last season’s League One winners are sitting just above the relegation zone with 10 points after 12 games; a win tonight, however, would help put some distance between them and the bottom three (Charlton, Rotherham and Bolton).

Things were looking up for Bristol just shy of a fortnight ago, as they managed their 2nd win of the season after a brace from Aaron Wilbraham gave the side a 2-0 victory over Nottingham Forest. Yet any nascent momentum was quickly ended 4 days later, with the Robins relinquishing their their 17th minute lead against Brighton to an early second half goal from Sam Baldock and a late winner from Bobby Zamora. Not that it has been all bad for Bristol; Jonathan Kodija, signed from French club Angers for £2 million over the summer, has been a nice little find, scoring 6 league goals to go into Monday night at 5/1 to score first with a Super Mega PGM spread of 27-32.

Despite there being 13 places between them there likely isn’t going to be too much between the 2 Championship sides when they meet on Monday night. Our Spreadex traders, however, are going with the mild momentum found in Wales, offering a Cardiff/Bristol Goal Supremacy spread of 0-0.2 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.5-2.7.