Another Saturday comes and with it is another full round of matches in League Two, the fourth matchday in 15 days which is going to test squads a little even at this relatively early stage in the season.
Saturday’s fixture list is as follows: (all 3pm kick offs)
Bristol Rovers vs Barnet
Cambridge United vs Crawley Town
Carlisle United vs AFC Wimbledon
Exeter City vs York City
Mansfield Town vs Oxford United
Newport County AFC vs Leyton Orient
Northampton Town vs Plymouth Argyle
Notts County vs Accrington Stanley
Portsmouth vs Morecambe
Stevenage vs Hartlepool United
Wycombe Wanderers vs Dagenham & Redbridge
Yeovil Town vs Luton Town
On the face of it this isn’t the easiest set of fixtures to find bets on largely because of the volume of football these sides have played over the first two weeks of the season but we have seen a couple of sides show good form and they could well be worth following on Saturday.
Just like with Tuesday night there are a lot of sides making long journeys which isn’t ideal and I’m a little reluctant to back any of those sides. I will take a couple of them on though.
One side who have a long trip to make is York City. They do so off the back of a hard fought win over Yeovil on Tuesday night but I’m not so sure that is the form guide they might like it to be. Yeovil haven’t really got going yet this season so it can’t be much use that York needed a deflected effort to beat them.
Exeter saw off Dagenham and Redbridge away on Tuesday night for their second league win of the season and a third win overall. It doesn’t surprise me that they’ve started the season well. They have a good forward line and they keep the ball about as well as any side in the division so the excellent playing surfaces are right up their street at the minute.
I remain unconvinced by York and I’m quite surprised that they are rated so highly in this match but at the prices I’m happy to get on Exeter there.
My other bet is going to be a double on a couple of sides who have begun the season well at home to sides who have struggled in the early stages.
Cambridge have two wins and a draw from their three matches with the only time they dropped points being on a long journey to Carlisle but even then they scored four goals and would have expected to win. They have started very strongly and face a Crawley side yet to register a win.
Crawley did hold Portsmouth in Sussex on Tuesday night but the vibes I get were that Portsmouth should have won that match. It might help that Crawley have got Izale McLeod out of the way as he seems a bit of a disruptive influence but the way Cambridge are going I fancy them.
The other side I like are Portsmouth. They’ve begun the season well and it was only poor finishing which denied them at Crawley on Tuesday night. To be fair to Morecambe they love punching above their weight and taking points of the big sides but they’ve got a small squad and have only scored one goal in the four matches they have played this season. They’re probably going to need more than that here if they are to get something but I don’t see it happening. I’m happy to double Portsmouth up with Cambridge this weekend.
In the other matches Luton have the chance to redeem themselves for a poor performance on Tuesday night when they head to a Yeovil side struggling for form and hampered by injuries but that performance was so bad that even 11/10 looks a little short on the Hatters.
I’m also fairly keen on Oxford away at Mansfield but I’m a little concerned they’ll get kicked all over the shop in that one so I’ll keep my powder dry and just take the two bets in this set of matches.
Back Exeter (0AH) vs York for a 4/10 stake at 1.80 with BetVictor
Back Cambridge to beat Crawley x Portsmouth to beat Morecambe for a 3/10 stake at 2.80 with William Hill
Blog football YTD: -18.44pts
