Football – England – League One
Saturday 31st January 2015 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
Crawley Town face a difficult task on Saturday to try and contain fourth placed Preston North End despite having home advantage.
Their job is made that much harder by the fact that they’ve lost their last three league matches on the trot with defeats to Rochdale, Fleetwood Town and a midweek loss at Chesterfield. In fact, Crawley have now gone thirteen matches without a win overall as they sit bottom of the division and five points adrift of Crewe Alexandra and safety.
At home, Crawley have a record of 4-5-4 14/19 and they’ve gone six matches without a win on home turf although five of these last six have ended up in stalemates. The Red Devils’ confidence though must be at a low ebb, particularly having lost their last three league matches on the trot.
Visitors Preston North End have lost just once in their last nine matches but too many draws recently have held up their charge for an automatic promotion place and they find themselves in fourth place as a result.
The defeat came at Bramall Lane in a 2-1 loss against fellow promotion candidates Sheffield United, but before that loss, Preston had strung together wins at Bristol City, Yeovil Town and Peterborough United, while their overall record on the road stands at 7-2-4 17/11.
In addition, Preston have kept seven clean sheets so far on their travels, and their solid defence could again be key this afternoon as they look to take all three points back to Deepdale.
Crawley low on confidence may need to score first if they’re to have any hope of getting something against Preston, but with Preston’s good defensive record away from home, I’ll back the visitors to edge this perhaps 1-0.
Pick: Preston North End straight win @ 1.67 Ladbrokes
