Boxing Day Lays: Fulham to fluster flying Bournemouth

Four teams have earned more home Championship points than table-topping Bournemouth

Michael Lintorn has found three Football League clubs to lay on Boxing Day: Bournemouth, Oldham and York...

Lay Bournemouth to beat Fulham @ 1.75/7

The final weekend before Christmas went delightfully for Bournemouth, as they thrashed Blackpool 6-1 away and their Championship co-leaders Middlesbrough were beaten by Ipswich. However, their recent home form is a concern: they have won just one in four in front of their fans, even suffering the indignity of a loss to Liverpool in the Capital One Cup! They conceded ten goals in that sequence.

Only Bournemouth and Brentford have collected more points than Fulham over the past 14 games, with the relegated west Londoners recovering from an abject start by winning eight and drawing three in that period. They have also prevailed on successive road trips in the same season for the first time since May 2011.

Lay Oldham to beat Crewe @ 1.695/7

Hands up if you're gagging to back the club who shipped 11 goals without a response in their past two games at odds-on. At home to bottom of the league is supposedly the easiest fixture on the list, but do you really want to side with an Oldham team who were thrashed 0-4 when hosting 22nd-placed Yeovil and then surrendered 0-7 at MK Dons?

Despite being a point off the play-offs, the Latics lost to both of the two drop-zone dwellers that they entertained and have failed in four attempts to defeat a bottom-six side at SportsDirect.com Park. Crewe meanwhile are fresh from conquering pacesetting Bristol City and have endured a mere three League One reverses in ten.

Lay York to beat Accrington @ 2.111/10

York boss Russ Wilcox likely asked Santa for a home league win, with his team the only one in the top seven divisions of English football yet to achieve one. Even absolute masters of low-point accumulation like Leicester, Blackpool and Hartlepool have earned at least one, whereas York have flopped ten times, plus twice more in cup competition.

Worse still, they are regressing rather than improving, losing consecutive Bootham Crescent clashes for the first time all campaign this month. Accrington are 11 places and ten points better off, so the extent of their outsider-dom is bizarre, particularly as they have won in 12 against clubs below them.