Peterborough ready to hit form

The midweek League Cup games were interesting  –  some top clubs more interested than others and a couple of surprises, notably Preston at Bournemouth and Norwich at Everton.

The two beaten Premier league teams meet on Saturday and this will be a test of Everton’s improvement under Ronald Koeman. In this crazy game, some writers were even speculating on their chances of finishing in the top four. Such speculation is premature, to say the least and, in all probability, this will be a season of consolidation more than anything else.

Eddie Howe is one of our best young managers and looking after Bournemouth is a labour of love for him. Whether that feeling will last more than another year or so remains to be seen and there will come a time when he needs to coach a club unlikely to be looking over its shoulder from August to May. He has done a fine job, of course, and sometimes BOURNEMOUTH look more than capable of a mid-table slot. It will be hard but I think they can take all three points against Everton, who are a little flattered by their lofty position. They benefited from a very poor refereeing decision when accounting for a hapless Stoke 1-0 and you will seldom see a defence fall apart the way Sunderland’s did soon afterwards.

Bristol Rovers will consolidate in League One after two promotions and the away win at Swindon improved their position considerably. I thought they’d beat Walsall in their last home match but it ended 1-1 and I’m not quite confident enough to suggest they’ll beat Port Vale, who have started well. But Walsall are not the force of last term and face a tricky visit to PETERBOROUGH, who habitually score goals at home.

Finally, all the signs are that Garry Monk is settling in well at LEEDS, who are having their best run for quite a while. We don’t know whether he will be allowed to do things his own way, needless to say, because the Elland Road job can be a poisoned chalice. But maybe it’s worth staying with them while things are going well and the 7/5 against Ipswich is fair enough.

3 x 15 unit doubles and a 1 x 15 unit treble: BOURNEMOUTH, LEEDS and PETERBOROUGH.