Football – England – League Two
Saturday 29th December 2012 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
Ninth placed Chesterfield take on lower half club Morecambe at their Proact Stadium on Saturday afternoon with the hosts looking to take the points that could lift them into play-off reckoning.
Chesterfield have lost just once in their last seven matches which was a 0-3 defeat away at Southend United but the Essex side are currently in fourth place and pressing Cheltenham Town hard for an automatic promotion berth. Aside from that defeat The Spireites have recorded wins over Oxford United 2-1, Cheltenham Town 4-1, away wins at Plymouth Argyle and Port Vale 1-0 and 2-0 respectively and a Boxing Day win over York City 3-0 to set them up nicely for this tussle.
Chesterfield’s home record stands at 5-4-3 22/15 and they’ve been unbeaten in their last four following three straight defeats which the Derbyshire outfit seem to have put behind them. The dangermen to look out for Chesterfield are Darwickwa (4 goals, 5 assists), Lester (6 goals) and Whitaker who is a scoring midfielder.
Morecambe currently sit in 17th place following a run of their last six matches with only one win which was a 3-1 home win over relegation-threatened AFC Wimbledon but losses against Gillingham 1-2 away and away defeats at Northampton Town 0-3 and Fleetwood Town 0-1 has resulted in them not making any upward progression up the table.
Indeed, Morecambe’s away record isn’t great which stands at 3-2-7 13/17 and only Barnet (8 defeats) have lost more away matches than The Shrimpers. Morecambe have also won just once on their travels in their last ten trips which must surely haunt them again for this encounter.
Ellison (8 goals), Brodie (5 goals) and Redshaw (7 goals) are the dangermen up front for the visitors here, but very rarely do they all fire at once in the same match.
Chesterfield’s strong home form should see them home against a poor travelling Morecambe side who despite their threats up front have been very poor on the road so far this season. I’ll back Chesterfield for a straight home win here perhaps a high-scoring 3-2 win.
Pick: Chesterfield straight win @ 1.91 Blue Square
