The third set of fixtures in little over a week take place in League Two on Saturday and at the end of it we will be almost 25% of the way through the season.
Tuesday night saw Wycombe hit the front in a league table which is starting to take shape now. Plymouth and Portsmouth are locked in behind with the likes of Oxford and Leyton Orient chasing them.
At the bottom of the table Newport sit at the foot of it but they have Dagenham and Redbridge and Yeovil in their sights. Crawley, Stevenage and York are all looking over their shoulder after poor starts to the season. They will all be hoping for wins on Saturday.
Saturday’s fixtures are as follows:
Accrington v Oxford Utd
Wimbledon v Barnet
Dag & Red v Mansfield
Hartlepool v Luton
Leyton Orient v Notts County
Morecambe v Bristol Rovers
Newport v Exeter
Plymouth v Crawley
Portsmouth v Yeovil
Stevenage v Carlisle
Wycombe v Northampton
York v Cambridge
After a couple of fixtures close together this looks like a tricky card to me. A couple of sides are making their second long journey in the space of a few days and others are struggling with injuries so their squads will be tested to the full.
I considered a few bets particularly Wycombe and Wimbledon but Wycombe don’t have the biggest squad and that is a concern and Wimbledon don’t look to be firing on all cylinders at the minute so I’ll pass those two over and go with just one on this card to hopefully consolidate a decent week in League Two.
Stevenage had high hopes for the season when they appointed Teddy Sheringham in the summer but their start has been woeful. Only they will know if that is down to a playoff hangover or if Sheringham’s efforts to change their style is taking a bit longer than hopes to come to fruition.
One thing we do know is their opponents Carlisle aren’t struggling. They won at Leyton Orient in midweek and are the leading scorers in the division. They have only lost once in recent times which was a surprise given it was at home to a woeful Newport side but it did come less than 72hrs after they took Liverpool to penalties so I’m willing to forgive them that.
In Jabo Ibehre and Derek Asamoah, Carlisle have two men in wonderful form in front of goal and with Stevenage struggling to see matches out and finding it tough to get any sort of result at the minute I’ll side with the Cumbrians here.
Back Carlisle to beat Stevenage (DNB) for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Paddy Power
Blog football YTD: -29.04pts
