We're fast approaching the time of year when Billy Davies becomes blessed by the Midas touch and his Nottingham Forest side look overpriced to beat Ipswich at the City Ground on Saturday.

There's not a lot between the two teams in the Championship as things stand and the prices would be about right if we were solely basing our judgement upon that fact.

But you need only cast a glance at the respective home and away records of the two teams over the past 12 months to instantly recognise the value to be found in odds of 6/5 on the home win.

While Ipswich have plodded along as a model of mediocrity on the road, winning just six of their last 23 matches, the Reds have magnificently cornered teams into submission in their own backyard, winning 17 out of 23.

The downer on Forest largely comes about by virtue of too many draws of late, with stalemates accounting for four of their six home matches since the action resumed in August, even though the sequence has helped to stretch their unbeaten home league run to 25 matches in total.

And while we're on a stat attack, check this out for a deal-breaker: in the six years that Davies has been managing at this level, he has won 58 per cent of all his matches (home and away) between the October international break and the end of January.

It's an incredible record that reads W45 D21 L11, which equates to a staggering 156 points from 77 matches - better than two points per game overall.

It's fair to say Forest fans could have wished for a better start to this campaign what with all the political wrangling over the lack of summer transfer activity but those concerns are firmly on hold for now and we should expect the Reds to eat up plenty of ground on the leaders in the coming months.

Meanwhile, another team we're surprised to see on the right side of even money is Burnley ahead of their visit from Reading.

You can watch the games Nottingham Forest v Ipswich, Swansea v Leicester, Doncaster v Sheffield Utdand Bristol City v QPRLIVE and FREE at Bet365. Click here to learn how!

The Clarets are a different proposition to the club that spent the best part of six years treading water at this level until Owen Coyle picked them up by the scruff of the neck at the start of 2008.

Coyle might be a distant memory in the Lancashire town nowadays and their top-flight status has disappeared with him, but Burnley have returned to more familiar surroundings with a spring in their step and players who are much more accomplished for Premier League experience.

It's a fact best underlined by a formidable home record of five wins and a draw from six matches, not to mention 15 goals plundered in the process, and we suspect they might be too strong for a Royals side that went down at bottom-of-the-table Bristol City in midweek.

It was a result that stretched their winless sequence on the road to four matches, even though circumstances or the formbook favoured them in each instance.

The Championship is never so clear cut as to place too much emphasis on these factors in trying to predict the future but when you take everything into account it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that Burnley's chances of stamping their authority on this clash are greater than the toss of a coin.

Finally, we picked up a few quid backing Leicester in midweek and we see plenty of mileage in supporting the Foxes under the charming guidance of Sven-Goran Eriksson, so take some of the 2.50 draw-no-bet price on them prolonging the honeymoon against Swansea at the Liberty Stadium.

The Jacks denied us a clean sweep in midweek when holding leaders QPR to a goalless draw and we suspect this could be another tight encounter, which explains why we're so keen to keep the stalemate onside.

Nonetheless, we firmly believe in Eriksson's ability to get consistency from a team that finished above Swansea last season and we don't expect these kind of prices to come along too often once the layers cotton to the changing mindset in the Walkers dressing room.

PICKS:
Burnley to beat Reading at 2.00 at Bwin
Nottingham Forest to beat Ipswich at 2.10 at Bet365
Leicester to beat Swansea (draw no bet) at 2.50 at Bet365