The Sky Bet League 1 weekend began on Thursday night and concludes on Saturday afternoon when the 10 remaining matches take place on a day where the chasing pack will look to make their move at the top of the table.
Usually we would have two TV matches on offer but one of those was cancelled after the fire which damaged the Exeter City ground so that leaves us with just one. The other matches will all have updates in the usual places.
Saturday’s fixtures are as follows: (3pm unless stated; UK TV in brackets)
Port Vale vs Plymouth Argyle (12.30pm – Sky Sports+)
AFC Wimbledon vs Wigan Athletic
Barnsley vs Luton Town
Bolton Wanderers vs Bradford City
Leyton Orient vs Blackpool
Mansfield Town vs Huddersfield Town
Northampton Town vs Cardiff City
Reading vs Rotherham United
Stevenage vs Doncaster Rovers
Wycombe Wanderers vs Lincoln City
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Big Matches
There are just one set of TV cameras in action on Saturday now and it heads to Vale Park where the bottom two collide when Port Vale play host to Plymouth Argyle in a match you get the impression could be a defining one for the two managers involved. At the other end of the table Lincoln City went top of the pile without playing on Thursday night and they will be looking to go clear at the summit when they make the trip to Buckinghamshire to take on the form horses of Wycombe Wanderers. Fourth host third in another big game in League 1 on Saturday when Bolton Wanderers welcome Bradford City to the Toughsheet.
Best of the Rest
Cardiff City and Stevenage are the other two teams who are in the top six at the start of play and both are in action. The Bluebirds have a trip to Northampton Town to negotiate while Stevenage are at home to Doncaster Rovers. Two teams who will be wanting to kick on and launch a promotion challenge meet at Oakwell when Jack Wilshere takes his Luton Town side to Yorkshire to face Barnsley. AFC Wimbledon, Mansfield Town and Huddersfield Town complete the top 10. The latter two meet at the One Call Stadium while Wimbledon host Wigan Athletic. Blackpool will be looking to come out of the bottom three when they head to the capital to go up against Leyton Orient.
Betting
Not a huge amount stands out to me over the course of the day but having had a winner in the division on Thursday night I’m just going to go with one bet which will hopefully top up the profit from the game earlier in the week. It comes in the match between Reading and Rotherham United where under 2.5 goals appeals to me. I saw Rotherham with my own eyes last week and their low block was so low if it was any lower it would have been backed onto the back of the stand.
That is because of injuries. They lost two strikers during that game and ran out of forward players so they went with the move to bunker down and give nothing away and a Luton side with lots of pace couldn’t break them down so I’m not sure Reading are going to fare a great deal better. Reading home games average 1.9 goals per game and they are 6-2 on under 2.5 goals landing on their own patch and 10-5 overall. With the injury problems Rotherham have likely to cause their approach to be incredibly defensive and Reading not really free scoring at the best of times, under 2.5 goals appeals here.
Tips
Back Reading vs Rotherham United – Under 2.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.95 with Bet365
