The latest round of League 2 matches conclude on Sunday with a double header of televised action on Sky Sports as four sides look to propel themselves up the table.
The first match comes from Victoria Park as Hartlepool host Leyton Orient before the attention switches to Fratton Park as Portsmouth host an AFC Wimbledon side who head south just inside the top half of the table.
Hartlepool are going a lot better at this stage of this season than they were 12 months ago but after a solid start to back up their incredible finish to last season they have tailed off a bit recently.
Ronnie Moore has dipped into the loan market and signed Mikael Mandron from Sunderland and Kai Naismith from Portsmouth and both should be very effective at this level. Perhaps more importantly the veteran manager will have Magnus Okuonghae and Carl Magnay back for this match.
Leyton Orient are just keeping a spot inside the playoff places. They flew out of the traps winning their opening five matches but in truth they’ve not done much since and I remain convinced they are nothing like as good as their position suggests.
Orient make the long journey up north with just one win in their last five matches and that came with a goal which was a clearance that hit an Orient player and flew into the net.
Hartlepool have found keeping the ball out of their net quite difficult this season but at least they’ve reinforced their firepower for this match. Orient have the leading scorer in the division but they’re not watertight themselves so I like both teams to score here.
Portsmouth won’t be happy with their home record going into their match with the Wombles. They edged past Macclesfield in the cup at Fratton Park last week but their best results have been on the road this season.
AFC Wimbledon have been up and down this term but they often take the game to their opponents and find the net and that can make them competitive here especially with Adebayo Akinfenwa fit to play despite a thigh injury.
Portsmouth will be missing Gary Roberts and that is a big loss for them because he is one of the best players in the division never mind their squad. They might just struggle to open up a determined Wimbledon side in his absence so I’ll take Neal Ardley’s men to take a result back to the capital with them here.
Back Hartlepool vs Leyton Orient – Both teams to score for a 4/10 stake at 1.87 with BetVictor
Back AFC Wimbledon (+0.5AH) to beat Portsmouth for a 4/10 stake at 1.93 with Bet365
