Championship: Bournemouth cherry ripe for promotion

Michael Lintorn
09 April 2014

Lewis Grabban has fired 20 Championship goals this season

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Michael Lintorn explains why Bournemouth are incredible value to earn a spot in the Premier League...

"Bournemouth are by some distance the form team in the Championship since the start of March, winning eight and drawing one of their ten games."
Recommended Bet: Back Bournemouth to be promoted @ 12.011/1

Ridiculously rapid three-division climbs into the Premier League are surprisingly common: Blackpool made the leap from fourth tier to top tier in a decade, Wigan took nine years, Swindon did it eight, Swansea only required seven and Hull managed it in a mere five.

However, all of those remarkable feats would be toppled if Bournemouth complete their rise by securing promotion to the Premier League this term.

Though they would be matching Hull's five-season pace, it is arguable that they have travelled from even further back given that they started 2008/09 in administration with a 17-point deduction. They were ten points from safety in mid-January, but rallied supremely to survive by a nine-point margin.

It would also be pretty special to have the same boss oversee all three ascensions. Despite spending nearly two years at Burnley in between stints, Eddie Howe was the one who led them up from both League Two and League One - amazing progress from a 36-year-old tactician.

The Cherries remain a chunky 12.011/1 to join Leicester and almost certainly Burnley in the Premier League, yet it is looking likelier by the week, which is why they have steadily slid in from massive odds of 350.0 earlier in the campaign.

Howe's men are by some distance the form team in the Championship since the start of March, winning eight and drawing one of their ten games, keeping five clean sheets and firing four or more goals on three occasions.

While initially they were punishing sides worse off like Doncaster, Blackpool and Barnsley, the confidence that those victories produced has enabled them to start slaying giants, with fallen top-flight duo QPR and Reading their latest victims.

By securing five successive wins, during a run in which forward Lewis Grabban has scored five goals, they have moved to within two points of Reading in sixth and six behind Wigan in fifth, with five matches left to pass one of the pair.

None of their remaining fixtures - away to Yeovil, Ipswich and Millwall and at home to Sheffield Wednesday and freefalling Nottingham Forest - provokes fear. They didn't lose to any of those opponents in the first half of the season, collecting 11 points.

If they reach the play-offs, which given all their rivals' reluctance to seize control of sixth place is a strong possibility, they will fancy their chances against a gang of more illustrious but less convincing contenders. Derby have won three of their last nine, QPR just four in 14 and Wigan two in seven.

Recommended Bet: Back Bournemouth to be promoted @ 12.011/1