Peterborough vs. Sheffield Wednesday Betting Tips: Best bets for League One play-off semi-final
The League one play-off semi-finals get underway on Friday night, with Peterborough hosting Sheffield Wednesday live on Sky Sports. The two teams finished 19 points apart after the final round of fixtures and we’ve got Anthony Eadson on hand with two card plays that he likes the look of.
Peterborough managed to beat Barnsley on the last day of the regular campaign to scrape into the final play-off place. That was only down to Sheffield Wednesday getting the better of Derby County in order to prevent the Rams doing so and let Posh in.
Darren Ferguson has improved the hosts dramatically since his return and that win at Barnsley last week is certainly enough to make Sheffield Wednesday incredibly wary about this trip to Cambridgeshire.
Wednesday are the 8/13 favorites to advance to the final which will be played on Monday 29 May, while Peterborough can be backed at 13/10. In terms of the match result prices for this first leg, Wednesday are edging favouritism with most betting sites at 13/8, the draw is chalked up at 11/5, with a win for the hosts at 7/3.
Peterborough vs Sheffield Wednesday Tips
I’ve decided to steer away from having a punt on the match result market in this play-off first leg as I think it looks a rather tricky one to call. Sheffield Wednesday have performed like a promotion winning team for the majority of the season but have been rather worrying when the pressure has really been on, dropping into the play-offs in the final furlong.
Peterborough on the other hand crept into the top-six on the final day, finishing a whopping 19 points behind Wednesday in the League One table. I do believe on their day, Darren Moore’s men have the beating of Posh, but with the fragilities they have shown in key moments in the last two months, I won’t be backing them here.
Instead I’ve picked out two players I like the look of to pick up a card in the match. Referee Anthony Backhouse is the man tasked with taking control of this one which should hopefully be a major positive for cards backers.
Of the 31 officials to have taken control of 10+ League One matches this season, Backhouse ranks second for yellows shown, with a notable average of 4.56 per game.
The first of those I’m backing is Jack Taylor of Peterborough. The 24-year-old has been shown more cards than any other player for his side this term and it’s worth pointing out that 80% of those have arrived in home matches.
Taylor has been shown 10 yellows in total in 2022/2023, with eight of those in just 23 home matches. 11/4 doesn’t sound the most eye-catching of card prices but I think he looks a strong prospect for one in a play-off semi-final.
Sheffield Wednesday’s Liam Palmer is the other player I’m targeting, this time at a bigger price of 9/2 with Paddy Power or the Betfair Sportsbook. Palmer has collected eight yellow cards throughout the course of this campaign, but five of his cautions have been in his last five matches!
Since the end of February, the Scot has averaged 1.5 fouls per game and with plenty on the line here, I think we’ll see a high-foul count for both sides. At 9/2, with a good referee for cards and after being booked in five consecutive games, Palmer looks worth a punt.
For those curious about the double, 20/1 with Betfair, looks to be the best price on show at the time of writing.