ALFRETON v WOKING – Pick: 1 AH0 – 09 February 2013

Alfreton to score one more than Woking

National League Tips

Football – England – Blue Square Premier

Saturday 9th February 2013 – Kickoff:  1500hrs

Alfreton Town entertain the Blue Square Premier version of Northampton Town on Saturday at their Impact Arena as they look to put more space between them and the teams situated in the relegation zone.

Alfreton are just below halfway in the division and have obviously struggled against the better teams in the league such as losing to Hereford United 0-3, Grimsby Town 0-2, Mansfield Town 0-3 and second placed Wrexham 1-2 but they have beaten the likes of Luton Town 3-0, Newport County 4-3 and Dartford 3-2.

Points taken off Kidderminster and Cambridge United prove they are no push-overs at home and their visitors today definitely do not fall under the same category as the aforementioned teams, particularly away from home. Alfreton’s home record stands at  3-5-5  18/25 which doesn’t sound great but their losses have been understandable if we’re being realistic and they’ve recorded some good results otherwise.

If you’re looking for anytime goalscorer opportunities you can try leading scorer Clayton (11 goals), Bradley (7 goals, 3 assists) who is also the penalty-taker while Arnold (3 goals, 8 assists) and Law (5 assists) have provided the ammo.

When I mentioned that Woking are the Northampton Town of the division, compare the home & away records; at home  9-1-4  29/20, away from home  3-1-9  16/34. Woking have recently recorded some good wins over Stockport County 1-0, Luton Town 3-1, Ebbsfleet United 1-0 and Hyde 2-1 (but these were all at home).

Drilling down to their away form and you’ll see a dramatic difference where they’ve won once in their last five matches, losing the other four; 1-2 at Gateshead, 1-5 at Grimsby Town, 0-7 at Hyde and the 1-3 at Luton Town. Their defensive record on the road is also a major concern as they’ve kept just one clean sheet from their last fourteen away matches.

Not even Nuneaton Town (33 goals conceded) have a worse record than Woking in terms of conceding goals away from home, and Alfreton could well take advantage of this today. Striker Bubb (10 goals), Betsy (7 goals, 7 assists) and McCallum (4 goals, 6 assists) along with Sawyer (6 assists) are the main attacking threats but you can almost rely on them conceding more than they score.

This could be another high-scoring match with the hosts just about edging it, but even if it ends up as a draw my selection means we get our stake refunded. Draw no bet on Alfreton but they might nick it 3-2.

Pick:  Alfreton Town AH0 (Draw No Bet) @ 1.72 Pinnacle