After Notts County played Mansfield on Friday night there are 11 fixtures to complete the second round of matches in League 2 on Saturday afternoon. The fixtures are as follows:
Barnet v Wycombe
Carlisle United v Cambridge United
Crawley Town v AFC Wimbledon
Dag + Red v Leyton Orient
Luton Town v Oxford United
Morecambe v Accrington
Newport v Stevenage
Northampton Town v Exeter City
Plymouth Argyle v Portsmouth
Yeovil Town v Bristol Rovers
York City v Hartlepool
The pick of the matches are the ones between Luton and Oxford at Kenilworth Road and Plymouth vs Portsmouth at Home Park. Luton and Oxford were right up in the betting before a ball was kicked this season while Portsmouth have started the season well and will be aiming to build on a good midweek win.
Barnet play their first home match back in the Football League and they will be looking to crown it with a win against a solid Wycombe side who saw off York comfortably last week. That will be a good test for the Bees. Carlisle and Cambridge look fairly evenly matched particularly when you take into contention the journey Cambridge have to make.
Crawley and AFC Wimbledon could go either way and while I would expect Leyton Orient to beat Dagenham I’m in no rush to back them at a shortish price in a derby. Luton and Oxford both had good wins in midweek and will aim to lay an early title marker down against each other while Morecambe and Accrington could be looking to do the same in the battle for survival.
Stevenage haven’t really shown us how they are going to go under Teddy Sheringham yet which is a shame because Newport look there for the taking but I’ll resist that and I’ll tentatively resist Portsmouth too even though I think they will get a result. The final two matches look pretty close ones to call this early in the season too.
There is one bet I like on the card though and it comes at Sixfields where two sides who’ve begun the season well meet each other. Northampton won at Bristol Rovers on the opening day before disposing of Blackpool in the cup in midweek. Exeter saw off Yeovil last week and beat Swindon on Tuesday night so the confidence will be high in both camps.
I like over 2.5 goals here. Both sides know where the back of the net and in Marc Richards, Will Hoskins and Tom Nichols there are three of the better marksmen in the division on show in this game. Both of Exeter’s matches this season have had three or more goals as did Northampton’s game in midweek so an early trend is forming.
The last three matches between these two sides have been tight but prior to that there were 7 out of 8 that went over 2.5 goals and I fancy this to be another. These are two of the better attacking sides in the division, Northampton are missing a couple of defenders and are prone to the odd mistake at the back while Exeter’s expansive passing game leaves them open at the back so we should see three or more goals here.
Back Northampton vs Exeter – Over 2.5 goals for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Skybet
