Football – England – League One
Tuesday 1st January 2013 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
Gresty Road in Crewe is my next destination as I follow the fortunes of two northern clubs in League one for their clash on New Years Day as the hosts look to record a fourth successive home win.
Crewe have won four of their last five overall with wins over Crawley Town 2-0, Preston NE 3-1 away, 1-0 at home v Bury and a 2-1 away win at Oldham Athletic on the weekend which has consolidated their mid-table position, and another three points here today could actually lift them into play-off contention such is the competitive nature of League One!
Crewe’s home record stands at 6-2-3 13/10 and they’ve won five of their last six at home with the other match a surprise defeat to Yeovil Town 0-1 back at the end of October. The five wins were over Hartlepool United, Swindon Town, Colchester United, Crawley Town and Bury. The Railwaymen have kept four clean sheets in the process with only Swindon Town (8 goals conceded) boasting a meaner defensive record at home in League One.
Visitors Carlisle United will be looking to post a third successive league win when they make the trip to Crewe on Tuesday following wins over Hartlepool United and Bury, but these were both on home ground and quite frankly they were expected to win (no disrespect to Hartlepool or Bury).
However, it’s just three league wins from the last ten played for The Cumbrians having suffered defeats against Bournemouth, Brentford, Leyton Orient, Doncaster Rovers, Sheffield United and Shrewsbury Town which was a tough run but any sort of return against this opposition might have given me more confidence in them.
Away from home, Carlisle have chalked up just one win from their last six which was a 3-1 win at Yeovil Town but defeats against Colchester, Brentford and Shrewsbury have set them back again. Carlisle’s away record stands at 4-3-4 14/15 which isn’t too bad but a startling statistic is that they’ve conceded in their last 25 away matches consecutively which is not a record they will want to continue!
To sum up then, Crewe have tended to deal in straight wins at home lately and with Carlisle’s inability to keep a clean sheet, I’ll back the hosts giving away the quarter ball as strange things sometimes happen on New Years Day fixtures. Could be a 2-1 win for Crewe here though.
Pick: Crewe AH-0.25 @ 1.79 Pinnacle
