Festive football has always been important for a number of reasons....

First, it tends to produce a number of tight, pivotal fixtures; second, as we’ve reached the notional halfway stage of the season, teams know what they have to do between now and May to consider their campaign successful and finally, it provides supporters with an opportunity to escape truly dire television schedules.

Huddersfield Town welcome Nottingham Forest on Boxing Day for a fixture the match stats team at bettingexpert.com tell us has yielded them a surfeit of points in recent seasons: Town have won three and drawn one of their last four contests against Forest which means the Yorkshiremen have won 19 (and Forest 14) of the pair’s 46 league duels.

As the home team, Town start the fixture priced as BetVictor’s 5/6 favourites, whereas Forest are offered at 19/5 (William Hill) to take three points; Betway mark the draw at 14/5.

LOOK: Last Time Out - Huddersfield Town 1 Nottingham Forest 1, 24.09.15

Given the propensity of festive fixtures to be close, Skybet’s 5/4 posted about the opening 45 minutes finishing level offers decent value. And as tempers tend to flare at this time of the year, punters might think the same of Paddy Power’s 2/1 for the match to produce a penalty.

Bookies report a lack of appetite amongst punters for wagers based upon the fixture yielding a hatful of goals.

Instead, few successful strikes are expected, hence the appeal of Marathonbet’s 5/6 for the match to produce fewer than 2.5 goals, and of bet365’s 6/5 for it to yield fewer than 11 corners.

For punters anticipating a laboured, Christmas pud-influenced affair, Ladbrokes chalk 4/1 against both halves finishing on level terms while 888sport post 6/1 against a 1-1 outcome.

However, Town look attractively priced at 8/1 (188bet) to register a 2-0 win while they’re 6/1 with Bwin to win 1-0.

Odds supplied by SmartBets , the customisable odds comparison site - make sure you’re getting the best free tips for Huddersfield online via the bettingexpert website .