West Ham-Gillingham, English Division 1

2004-03-27 16.00 CET

Pick: West Ham

Stake: 4%

Odds: 1,55

Final reason for bet

· West Ham is in good form at home.

· Gillingham has only taken 2 points from the last 21 on the road.

· Gillingham still has major injury troubles.

General comment about the game

Play off hopefuls West Ham will be visited by struggling Gillingham on Saturday. West Ham has currently dropped out of the play off zone since they have lost their two recent away matches. These matches ended a very long unbeaten run on the road; prior defeat came in September. However, we must bear in mind that they have met very good opposition; Sunderland and Millwall. At home they have collected many points lately. They have four victories and one draw from their five latest games at home on Upton Park. Last home game was against Crewe and they were 4-0 up before half time. In the second half the slowed things down and Crewe managed to score two goals and set the final result to 4-2. To the game on Saturday the team will get boosted by the return of striker David Connelly (31(1) apps, 8 goals) who has recovered from his injury.

Gillingham is struggling near the relegation zone. Their recent away form is really bad; they have not won on the road during 2004 and only collected two points from seven matches. In midweek they lost away to Sunderland with 2-1.

Sunderland was the better team and they had the best killer instinct in front of goal, while Gillingham looked nervous and didn’t really create any good play although they fought hard and had 1-1 at half time. Ahead of this game Gillingham has signed striker Gary Wales from Hearts, where he made one first team game in December. After that Gary Wales was loaned out to Walsall where he made one goal on seven appearances. Another good thing is that central defender Chris Hope (28 apps, 0 goals) has been included in the squad after suffering with injury. But still there are up to nine first team players missing through injuries.

West Ham is a very attacking minded team that on occasions scores a lot. We believe that they will do so on Saturday when they face an injury plagued Gillingham side. Therefore we believe in a home victory, and we stake 4%.

Recent games for home team

2004-03-21	Millwall-West Ham	4-1
2004-03-17	West Ham-Crewe	4-2
2004-03-13	Sunderland-West Ham	2-0
2004-03-09	West Ham-Wimbledon	5-0
2004-03-06	West Ham-Walsall	0-0

Recent games for away team

2004-03-23	Sunderland-Gillingham	2-1
2004-03-20	Gillingham-Rotherham	2-0
2004-03-16	Norwich-Gillingham	3-0
2004-03-13	Preston-Gillingham	0-0
2004-02-06	Gillingham-Nottingham	2-1

Home table

West Ham

34-19

Away table

Gillingham

17-29

Links for this game

West Ham:	www.whufc.com
Gillingham:	www.gillinghamfootballclub.premiumtv.co.uk

Livescore:	www.livescore.com/default.dll?page=england

League:	www.football-league.premiumtv.co.uk

// SportsObserver 040326