Lays of the Weekend: MK Dons a no-no as top two meet

Karl Robinson was January's League One manager of the month

Expect FA Cup exertions to blunt Fulham and Sheffield United, and MK Dons to drop points against League One's leaders...

Lay Fulham to beat Birmingham @ 2.447/5

The previously porous Blues have become curmudgeonly customers since former St Andrew's defender Gary Rowett took over, losing just three of 16 games. Eight road games have been negotiated since then with all but one yielding at least a point and four bringing maximum reward.

Fulham, meanwhile, should have had the edge taken off them by an FA Cup replay defeat against Sunderland in midweek. That marked the sixth time in ten matches that visitors to Craven Cottage have avoided defeat.

Lay Sheffield United to win at Gillingham @ 2.0421/20

Much like the Cottagers, Nigel Clough's men return to their bread and butter with a midweek defeat in the world's oldest knockout competition weighing heavily on their hearts and legs.

Unlike the west London outfit, it was the third successive squad-stretching seven days in which the Blades had been involved in a tussle under the midweek lights.

Yet surprisingly they are priced at around the evens mark to turn over a Gills outfit enjoying a resurgence of late after suffering four straight defeats in the aftermath of Boxing Day.

Gillingham's four-man caretaker delegation are now unbeaten in four matches, winning both of their Priestfield outings during that sequence. They can stretch that loss-free run to five against fatigued visitors who have won a mere two of their last nine road games.

Lay MK Dons to beat Bristol City @ 2.166/5

MK Dons have been coping pretty well without manager Karl Robinson during his four-match touchline ban, however the lure of laying them in this League One table-top encounter is impossible to resist.

The opponents they have beaten, Barnsley and Crewe, are no great shakes - sitting 13th and 20th respectively - while an away draw at Scunthorpe (17th) was hardly their finest result of the campaign.

Playing against Bristol City is big boy stuff and the Robins should relish an opportunity to pinch points off their closest League One pursuers while their puppet master is consigned to the stands.

They beat the boys from the home of Britain's first multiplex cinema at Ashton Gate earlier this campaign and should be confident of avoiding defeat, having lost the joint-fewest away games of any side in the division in 2014/15.