There is yet another full fixture list in Skybet League 2 on Saturday with all 24 sides in action and again all eyes will be on Northampton to see if they can continue blazing a trail at the top of the division.
Saturday’s fixtures are as follows:
Accrington v Barnet
Wimbledon v Oxford Utd
Dag & Red v Yeovil
Hartlepool v Northampton
Leyton Orient v Crawley
Morecambe v Carlisle
Newport v Mansfield
Plymouth v Notts County
Portsmouth v Cambridge
Stevenage v Exeter
Wycombe v Bristol Rovers
York v Luton
This is another set of competitive fixtures where out of form sides who you want to take on are facing sides who show little in the way of consistency or in the case of Leyton Orient their opponent has just delved into the loan market which makes betting on Crawley matches difficult for a week or two.
I was very close to taking Yeovil at Dagenham. Amazingly the Londoners are still looking for their first home win of the season but Yeovil aren’t a whole lot better on the road and they might take a draw to keep the Daggers at arm’s length so I’ve passed them over.
Plymouth were another side who tempted me but they’ve stopped winning all of a sudden so that isn’t ideal while annoyingly two of the form sides meet when AFC Wimbledon host Oxford. That isn’t a match I want to pick the winner of.
Something in the back of my mind tells me that Luton will win at York but you won’t need to search very far for a Luton fan who will tell you their record at Bootham Crescent is rubbish. While I think they’ll win I can’t be backing a side who’ve not scored in six matches at this venue and who defended like a bunch of clowns in their last away game.
There are two that I’m going with though. The first of those is on an Accrington side who continue to defy belief in this division. One of the reasons why they are going so well in the league is their home form.
Accrington have the fourth best home record in the league this season despite playing two home matches less than most sides and they have only dropped two points in their last five games at the Wham Stadium so clearly they are going very well at the present time.
Barnet are awful on the road. Only York are worse away from their own patch than Martin Allen’s men who have just nine points in 15 matches away from home and three of them came at Dagenham last week which really isn’t saying too much.
Accrington isn’t an easy place to play at the best of times let alone when you don’t travel well and while Barnet have back to back wins under their belts I think their mini run is going to come to a pretty emphatic end here.
I’m also going to continue to ride the wave of momentum that is Northampton’s season. A win at York in midweek gave the Cobblers a 12pt lead at the top and it is only a matter of time before they convert such a lead into both promotion and then the title.
Northampton head to Hartlepool on Saturday and having seen Pool with my own eyes last weekend I can’t believe Chris Wilder’s men will end their winning run here. Hartlepool looked very weak defensively and only now and then did they offer anything going forward.
As I said in midweek Northampton are scoring loads of goals away from home and not conceding very many which is a perfect combination. Hartlepool have conceded too many all season and I think they’ll concede more than the leaders here.
Back Accrington (-0.75AH) to beat Barnet for a 4/10 stake at 1.90 with Bet365
Back them here:
Back Northampton to beat Hartlepool for a 4/10 stake at 1.85 with William Hill
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