3-3 to bring monster payday when draw-specialists Watford meet Forest

Giuseppe Sannino has certainly tightened up Watford defensively in little over a month as manager at Vicarage Road, but the one thing he is still working on is how to turn an away draw into victory.

Watford have only conceded three times across their five Championship games with Sannino at the helm, having kept just a single clean sheet in the 11 league fixtures previous, where 19 goals were shipped.

Despite this improved defensive resoluteness, Watford’s draw streak in away games had grown to seven games before the expected defeat at Premier League table-toppers Manchester City, where they led 2-0 against a relatively full-strength line-up.

Although Watford eventually succumbed to defeat, their performance for the best part of 80 minutes should still be applauded and provide confidence, ahead of visiting a Nottingham Forest team that are unbeaten in nine league games and have won three on the bounce at home.

Looking at Forest’s home advantage and their 13-point lead over their opponents in the Championship standings, 19/20 is more than a fair price on victory for Billy Davies’ men.

Watford haven’t won away since October and so are hard to fancy at 11/4 to bag the three points, with the draw on offer at 5/2.

It is interesting that the shortest price in the correct score market is the 1-1 and this fits in with Watford’s love of an away draw and their improved defensive record.

The 1-1 draw is available at 11/2, while there are worse 60/1 bets to be had than the 3-3 on offer here. Watford have already been involved in two on the road and Forest have scored 10 goals in their last three home Championship victories.

Meanwhile, between them in the league, in over half of the draws they have been involved in, the scores have also been level at the break.

The draw/draw in the half-time/full-time market has some appeal at 17/4.