Sports Blog 30/10/2018: Carabao Cup 4th Round Preview – Burton Albion vs Nottingham Forest, Tuesday 30th October 2018

Can Burton Albion’s surprising Carabao Cup run continue with a win over the visiting Nottingham Forest, at 7.45pm on Sky Sports Football?

The EFL Cup has been something of a distraction for the Brewers. While they’ve stepped up to each challenge in the knockout competition, beating Shrewsbury 2-1 in the 1st round, before besting Aston Villa in the 2nd and Burnley in the 3rd, they’re stuck in the bottom half of the table of League One.



Given that last season they were competing in the Championship – if, admittedly, very poorly – they should really be doing better. Yet so far they’ve struggled for consistency, with 5 draws, 3 wins and 7 losses leaving them in 16th place and well within the pull of the relegation zone.

Liam Boyce, at least, has been a positive. Already on 7 goals in all competitions – the same total as last season’s Burton top scorer Lloyd Dyer – the Northern Irishman heads into Tuesday night at a Super Mega PGM of 22-27, ahead of Marvin Sordell at 14-18 and Lucas Akins at 13-17.

Forest, meanwhile, are lurking outside the play-off zone in the Championship despite too often lacking the bite to kill off a game, drawing more than half of their league fixtures. Like their 4th round opponents, however, they’ve been better in the EFL Cup.

While it took a LOT of penalties to get past Bury after a 1-1 full time draw, the club went on to beat Newcastle 3-1 in the next round, a game that saved all of the good stuff for the very start (Forest opening the scoring in the 2nd minute) and end (3 goals occurred during injury time). Most recently at the end of September they survived a scare against Stoke, seeing a 3-0 lead eroded to 3-2, in part thanks to Diogo Goncalves’ 77th minute red card.

As for their chances going forwards, Lewis Grabban has a respectable 8 goals in 15 appearances and sits at a healthy Super Mega PGM of 37-43, just ahead of Daryl Murphy at 32-38.

The visitors, for a few reasons, have the edge on Tuesday, with Spreadex offering a Nottingham Forest/Burton Albion (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 0.24-0.45 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.45-2.65.