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Leicester v Nottingham Forest (Tuesday, 19:30, ESPN)

With Leicester and Nottingham Forest starting the season with former England managers, few would have guessed that Derby would be the east midlands' leading light midway through the campaign, but that reflects how miserable things have been for their neighbours.

Both have changed bosses without any noticeable improvement, Leicester still seven points off the play-off pace under Nigel Pearson and Forest stuck in the bottom three with Steve Cotterill, and they head into this clash on the back of home defeats to Barnsley and Southampton.

Leicester have a better squad, however there are several reasons to believe that laying them is the best option here at 1.8. For starters, they have bowed out at this stage in four of the last five years, with a replay proving their undoing in three of those.

Additionally, the Foxes have won none of their last three meetings with their rivals and are winless in four games as hosts, while the visitors have picked up more points on the road than they have at the City Ground this term.

In terms of goals, under 2.5 goals appears the way to go at 1.74, as in addition to four of Leicester's last five at the King Power Stadium ending in that fashion, Forest have fired blanks in a staggering nine of their last ten encounters.

It is 2.24 that the strugglers are shut out again, with odds of 10.0 available on the goalless draw of the initial tie being replicated. Forest are 3.4 to qualify.

Best Bet: Lay Leicester to win @ 1.8


QPR v MK Dons (Tuesday, 19:45, ITV4)

New QPR chief Mark Hughes may wish that he'd employed the tactic used by many managers hired in mid-season and sat out the tough first away match in the stands, watched his new club lose and then made a triumphant debut in an easier home game.

Most pundits are agreed that Hoops fans could find encouragement in Sunday's 1-0 reverse up at Newcastle though, where they were beaten by the only shot on target that they allowed, and 1.87 is a fairly generous price to see off a team two divisions lower.

One of the reasons why QPR are so far below Norwich and Swansea, who they finished above in the Championship, is a failure to perform at Loftus Road - their one win in 11 achieved against nine-man Chelsea. Hughes' most pressing job therefore will be to fix that, and this is a good starting point.

It might not be his strongest side selected, with Wigan's upcoming visit the priority, but whoever takes to the field will know that this is perhaps their one chance to impress before the anticipated influx of new signings.

MK Dons are formidable travellers, the second best in League One behind dominant Charlton in fact, yet haven't carried that form into the more high-profile encounters, losing away to Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United and recently blowing a 3-0 lead at Brentford.

Karl Robinson's men have struck in all bar one of their 16 away fixtures though, so 1.8 on both teams to score has to be fancied, while 2-1 [8.6] and 3-1 [16.5] look the pick of the correct score bets.

Best Bet: Back QPR to win @ 1.87

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