Lays of the Weekend: Rising Terriers to deny Blackburn

Chris Powell is helping Huddersfield to ascend the Championship

Michael Lintorn has Blackburn, Middlesbrough and Coventry on his lay radar this weekend...

Lay Blackburn to beat Huddersfield @ 2.0421/20

Amidst all the discussion this week about the lack of black managers in English football and the possible introduction of NFL's Rooney Rule to address that, it has been brilliant to see the most high-profile black boss currently employed, Huddersfield's Chris Powell, engineer a magnificent week.

His Terriers escaped the relegation zone and burst four points clear of it courtesy of a 2-1 victory over Millwall and an even more impressive 3-1 triumph away to Wolves, who had boasted a 100% record at Molineux in the Championship since promotion.

They appear to be catching Blackburn, who this writer expects to find in a play-off place come May, at the right time too, with Rovers - who have won just two of their five 2014/15 fixtures at Ewood Park - enduring a two-match winless streak. Their only one in four was over ten-man Fulham.

Lay Middlesbrough to beat Fulham @ 1.9210/11

Middlesbrough remain on a six-game unbeaten sequence, but they haven't won any of their most recent three and the midweek home draw against then-bottom side Blackpool in particular allowed an unwelcome amount of wind to abscond from their sails.

If Boro were unfortunate to catch Blackpool at a point in the season where they were finally settling upon some form and consistency, they are in the same position again four days on against Fulham.

The Cottagers have achieved three successive wins across all competitions to aid Kit Symons' 2.265/4-rated prospects of being given the manager's job on a permanent basis.

Lay Coventry to beat Crawley @ 2.0621/20

Crawley have been a tad erratic this term, with results ranging from a 1-0 success against otherwise undefeated Swindon to a 0-4 thrashing when hosting then-20th Rochdale. They have gone from four straight League One losses in which they conceded ten goals, to one in four with three clean sheets.

The reason for trusting them at Coventry, besides their improving form, is that one recurrent theme of the visitors' campaign has been their performances against teams tenth or lower: three wins and a draw in four and not a single goal against.

The Sky Blues are a point below them in 15th, have won only one of their six meetings with clubs who have more points than them and are presently on a run of three reverses in a row.