Mark Langdon's best bets and free football tips | weekend accas

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Best bets

Nottingham Forest draw no bet
1pt Evs BoyleSports
Oxford United
1pt 11-10 general

Preston v Nottingham Forest

3pm Saturday

There are just four matches remaining in the Sky Bet Championship and it is still living up to the stereotype of being a division of fine margins.

The title race is far from decided and automatic promotion is also tense, while down at the bottom it is all to play for. In terms of the final playoff place it looks set to be a bruising fight until the end.

Cardiff hold on to sixth spot on 64 points, one ahead of Welsh rivals Swansea, although those all the way down to Bristol City in 12th will still believe a place in the playoffs is possible with a perfect finish.

Preston in eighth are firmly in the mix following a dramatic 3-1 win at Sheffield Wednesday on Wednesday, when all three of their goals came in the final 12 minutes.

The result will have been a welcome relief for boss Alex Neil given PNE's wobbles either side of the lockdown, but there could be more frustration to come against Nottingham Forest at Deepdale.

Forest have a five-point buffer in fifth to the chasing pack and will still be focused to ensure a top-six spot is obtained. Their football isn't the most exciting and that does not help their performance data but the Tricky Trees are indeed tricky to see off, particularly away.

Prior to the Hillsborough trip, Preston had collected two points from a possible 21 and their form since the restart reads draws at Luton and Huddersfield with home defeats against Cardiff and Derby.

Neil claimed Preston had been playing better than results had suggested but they were involved in a dreadful 0-0 at Huddersfield where they failed to register a shot on target.

They had one shot on goal against Derby and managed three of the nine shots on target against Cardiff.

A change to a three-man defence may have seen an improvement at Wednesday, but it could equally have been a match against a struggling mid-table side just playing out the season.

Forest, who have not lost away to a top-half team this season and have won at Brentford, Fulham, Cardiff and Swansea, were beaten by a wonder goal against the Cottagers on Tuesday but the extra 24 hours of rest could come in handy.

They have scored in 36 of their 42 Championship matches - only West Brom have a better record in that regard - and their clean-sheet tally of 12 is the third-best in the division.

Oxford United v Wycombe

Sky Sports Football, 8pm Monday

Around 20 miles of motorway separates Oxford and Wycombe but whoever wins Monday's League One playoff final at Wembley will feel like they are in a different world.

The stakes are always high in playoff finals, but given the finances in the EFL the jump in potential revenue from League One to the Championship means much more is at stake than normal.

Wycombe started the season in stunning fashion and lost only one of their first 20 matches but bookmakers have never believed in fairy tales and that 20th match was a win against a Burton side who were favourites to win at Adams Park.

The 21st match was a fiery 1-0 loss at Oxford when Adebayo Akinfenwa was sent off for Wycombe, who already trailed 1-0.

Including that match Wycombe's final 14 regular-season matches saw them collect 16 points and suffer heavy defeats, conceding four to Sunderland, Peterborough and Coventry.

Gareth Ainsworth's small-budget side did the business in the playoff semi-finals against Fleetwood when everything that could go wrong did for the Cod Army, while Oxford came through a tense penalty shootout against a strong Portsmouth outfit.

Oxford went into lockdown with five straight wins and can claim their Championship ticket inside normal time.

Weekend accumulators

Banker
Leicester 7-10
The pressure will be high with Bournemouth battling to avoid relegation but Champions League chasers Leicester are at their best when given space to play and that should be the case in Dorset.

Blowout
Man Utd 1-3
It's like the old days with a betting buzz around United but Saints are difficult customers. Southampton have beaten Spurs, Leicester, Man City, Chelsea and drawn with United, Wolves and Arsenal this term.

Accumulator
Leicester 7-10, Sevilla 2-5, Real Madrid (v Granada on Monday) 9-20, Inter 9-20. £1 accumulator returns £5 with bet365. *Real Madrid are also playing Friday evening.

Both teams to score
Games at Blackburn 10-11, Lazio 4-7, Villarreal 4-6. £1 treble returns £5 with Hills

Thought for the week

The International Football Association Board - Ifab - have already made a mess of the handball rule. Let's hope they don't do likewise with the suggestion of the emergency five-substitution rule being extended to next season too.

The argument is that there will be many more double-game weeks next season too, but if that busy schedule is extended beyond this term, it will eventually just become accepted as part of the game.

Goals are scored late on because there is more space to exploit against tired bodies, although they will be less knackered anyway if these annoying time-outs also become part of the long-term fabric.

They are needed at the moment, if not for the weather in the UK but to disinfect balls and corner flags. If the Derby and Eclipse can take place on the same weekend we know sport is weird at the moment and as a part-time measure just about anything goes.

However, commercial departments will be seeing a chance to sell extra adverts and Brentford boss Thomas Frank took things to a whole new place on Tuesday when he brought out his tactics board during the break.

The flow has already been hampered by VAR and the last thing football needs is more stoppages.

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