League Two
Friday 30th December 2011 – Kickoff: 1945hrs
Cheltenham Town entertain Rotherham United at their Abbey Business Stadium on Friday night as they look to extend their unbeaten run to eight matches and consolidate their position in the automatic promotion places.
The Robins are in good shape at the moment having posted some decent results such as a 3-0 home win over Southend United and a 3-1 away win at Oxford United, and indeed have lost just once in their last thirteen League Two matches, whilst on a four match unbeaten run at home.
Their home record stands at 7-2-2 16/6, and aside from Shrewsbury Town (5 goals), possess the tightest defence at home in the league. At the business end, goals are coming from various areas of the team with strikers Daryl Duffy (7 goals, 2 assists) and James Spencer (6 goals) heading the list. Forward Kaid Mohamed (5 goals, 1 assist) has also scored, along with another forward Jeff Goulding (4 goals, 2 assists).
The ammunition is supplied predominantly by midfielder Marlon Pack (2 goals, 6 assists) and Luke Garbett (4 assists).
Tonight’s visitors Rotherham United go into this match on the back of a hard-earned point at Macclesfield Town in which they drew 0-0, and whilst I tipped them for the draw no bet, it’s horses for courses, and I don’t have the same confidence in them at Cheltenham who possess greater quality.
That said, The Millers are unbeaten on the road in five matches now, and their away record stands at a reasonable 4-5-3 24/24, but what does let them down is the number of goals they concede on the road; only bottom club Plymouth Argyle (27) have conceded more than them away from home so far.
In fact, the 0-0 draw at Macclesfield on Boxing Day was their first away clean sheet, and I’m expecting them to revert to type at Cheltenham who have more attacking outlets. Up front though, they do have a few players that can cause real problems like striker Lewis Grabban (10 goals, 3 assists), Alex Revell (5 goals, 3 assists) and midfielder Gareth Evans (6 goals, 5 assists) while the creativity has been supplied by Danny Schofield (7 assists), Danny Harrison (6 assists) and of course Evans.
There’s no question that Rotherham have goals in them, but their generous defence may well let them down again here at a Cheltenham outfit who are disciplined at the back and are gunning for automatic promotion up to League One – a 2-1 home win for Cheltenham Town here.
Main Pick: Cheltenham Town straight win @ 2.10 Stan James
Value Pick: Cheltenham Town AH-1 @ 3.11 Pinnacle
