The Co-Operative Championship


Whitehaven v Widnes



7th May 19:30 BST
Sky Sports Xtra (19:30-21:30)

Perhaps this is a difficult game to handicap for some as both teams seem to have lost some form in recent weeks. I was at Widnes last week to watch them outclassed by Barrow and, despite pre-season favouritism; they are simply not as good as the very top teams. Their performances have been disguised to a degree as they have scraped victories at the likes of Sheffield and Doncaster and I would say they would be bottom of a handicap league. The layers are pricing Widnes on reputation rather than results.

They go in to this fixture with a few absentees. Gaskell, Koe-Love, Yates, Fletcher, Morrison and Hartley all miss out for the Vikings.

It is true that Whitehaven's form has been patchy but the Rec is never an easy place to go and Haven's home form invariably is far superior to when on their travels. Halifax and Barrow, the top two, have only scraped victories against them. I guess the worry would be that Featherstone came away with a biggish victory but again, on current form, I would have Rovers ahead of Widnes.

Co-operative Championship table

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	BP	PTS
1	Halifax	7	7	0	0	301	122	0	21
2	Barrow	7	6	0	1	218	88	1	19
3	Widnes	8	5	0	3	212	137	2	17
4	Featherstone	7	5	0	2	203	145	0	15
5	Leigh	8	4	0	4	145	199	2	14
6	Toulouse	7	4	0	3	230	190	1	13
7	Whitehaven	7	3	0	4	190	194	2	11
8	Sheffield	7	1	0	6	150	169	6	9
9	Gateshead	7	2	1	4	168	271	0	8
10	Doncaster	7	1	0	6	145	241	3	6
11	Batley	8	1	1	6	118	324	1	6

Whitehaven have one or two injuries themselves with Craig Benson the latest absentee when he picked up a broken jaw in Toulouse.

I was thinking that with home advantage Haven would have been around 4pt favourites and I am pleasantly surprised to see some layers take the opposite view. Any sort of start and I would be with Haven and the 4pts is a nice insurance for a decent wager. For the braver, the 2.25 on match odds is also decent though the 4pts start is the better option. For a 4pt favourite I would have expected match odds around 2.4.

Pick: Whitehaven +4 3pts @ 2 with Sportingbet
 
The man