There are four matches in League 2 on Tuesday night with the battle for the playoffs really under the microscope. In fact all four sides currently occupying the playoff places meet each other on a night when some will put distance between themselves and the chasing pack and some will drop back into the group with everyone else.
Tuesday’s fixtures are as follows:
Accrington v Portsmouth
Bristol Rovers v Wimbledon
Dag & Red v Carlisle
Newport v Barnet
The match between Accrington and Portsmouth is a battle between the two sides immediately below the automatic promotion places. Accrington will still be smarting from the decision the referee made to blow for half time at the exact moment they scored at Wimbledon on Saturday and I’m sure there will be a reaction from that.
Portsmouth finally got back to winning ways on the road on Saturday but I’m not so sure a win over Stevenage is anything to write home about. Prior to that they hadn’t won away from Fratton Park since the turn of the year so that isn’t a form line which inspires a punt here. If I’m honest I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends all square so I’ll leave this one alone.
It took them a while but Dagenham finally won their first home game of the season on Saturday, albeit against a wretched York side who I suspect might already know their fate, and they will be looking to build on that against Carlisle.
They might be able to as well. Carlisle aren’t the best on the road. They did win their last away game at a bang out of form Morecambe but that was their first win away from home since their 4-3 win over Luton back in November, a match they were 3-1 down in at one stage against the manager they face here.
There’s enough doubts in Carlisle’s road form to merit a bet on Dagenham in this one but you’d be a brave man to back the basement side at home even accounting for Saturday’s win.
Newport against Barnet is a match between two sides who are going to be safe this season. Newport could probably do with the points slightly more than Barnet but it does have one of those late in the season matches with nothing riding on it feel to it so I’ll leave that one alone.
Bristol Rovers and Wimbledon are the two sides lowest in the playoff places and with a significant sized group beginning to form behind them losing this match will not be a good idea for either.
Bristol Rovers go into the match having won three of their last four but if you look at the sides they have beaten we shouldn’t get carried away. Perhaps more interesting is that they have three defeats in their last six and they’ve all come to sides in or around the playoff places in Wycombe, Portsmouth and Accrington.
Wimbledon’s fantastic winning run throughout late January and February has just tailed off in the last week or so but they’ve had it tough fixture wise and actually draws with Northampton and Accrington are no bad results at all.
Rovers have one or two injuries starting to mount up with Liam Lawrence and Stuart Sinclair missing this match and Ellis Harrison being monitored closely and that isn’t good at this stage of the season where these two will be playing a fourth match in 10 days so maybe Wimbledon will be the stronger of the two here and I fancy they can find a much needed result.
Back AFC Wimbledon (+0.25AH) to beat Bristol Rovers for a 4/10 stake at 1.95 with Bet365
Back them here:
