Cherries ripe for goals

15Jan 2013

FA Cup

Wigan make the long journey to the south coast for their FA Cup third round replay with Bournemouth and Paul Robinson thinks the goals could flow.

It was plain sailing yesterday as Getafe and Granada gave us the three goals we needed before half time and I'm hoping it will be a similar case tonight as I stick with the same type of bet.

Bournemouth have been revitalised since former boss, Eddie Howe, took the reigns again and they are now 18 matches undefeated. What is even more impressive about that run is that they've won 13 of those fixtures, eight of which came by more than a one goal margin.

The Cherries led at the DW in the original match of this cup tie and it took a Jordi Gomez equaliser to give the Premier League outfit another chance of progressing. Despite being two divisions lower than their opponents, Bournemouth will be confident of getting the win as they are roll at Dean Court.

They have won eight of their last 10, scoring an impressive 24 goals during that period. Nine of their last dozen have gone over 2.5 goals at home, with four going over 3.5, and the 4-1 victory against Oldham going over 4.5.

Wigan are a hard side to predict as they can be mightily impressive or truly dire for no apparent reason. The Latics have shown a bit better form in recent weeks as they beat Aston Villa at the end of the year and drew at Fulham on Saturday.

Arouna Kone is off representing his country at the African Cup Of Nations but Franco Di Santo netted his fourth of the season last time and new loan signing, Ángelo Henríquez, looks like a hugely exciting prospect.

As far as the goals go, Roberto Martinez's side have seen nine of their last 13 go over 2.5, and away from home five of their last half dozen have followed suit. They have kept just three clean sheets on the road this term and only failed to score themselves on four occasions.

I appreciate that it might be a cagey affair as it's a cup replay but the recent statistics are all pointing to a high scoring match. With under 2.5 goals trading as low as 1.92 I have to make it my lay of the day.