Managers, coaches and punters have forever been trying to work out just why teams are better at home than away. Of course there are one or two exceptions, but generally the comfort blanket of home fans the familiarity of surroundings and warmth of a home team dressing room simply brings out a generally better performance from players.
It really makes little sense especially when the extremes of home and away form become detached from any sense of just a statistical quirk. Say hello to Preston North End.
As the 11 point gap suggests, Leeds and West Brom are the best two teams in the Sky Bet Championship, however they do not own the best home record as that honour goes to Alex Neil's sixth-placed side. Preston have an impressive 8-2-1 home record with an incredible 27 goals scored and their only defeat coming to a high-flying West Brom.
However, I’m sure the manager is scratching his head working out just how away from home his side have only managed six goals in 10 games, with a 2-2-6 record. Just last week, after two awful away performances at Hull and QPR (4-0 and 2-0 defeats), they bounced back in midweek to record an eighth home victory - a 2-1 win over third-placed Fulham. Deepdale is the proverbial fortress.
On Saturday they play 21st-placed Luton, who have a 2-0-9 away record with 11 scored and 28 conceded - 10 of those goals in the last two games. You can back the Preston win at around 4/6 or on -0.75 on the Asian Line which a one-goal margin of victory will give you half your stake as a win and half void or hopefully for us Preston backers a 2+ goal margin for the full win.
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