Football – England – League One
Tuesday 6th November 2012 – Kickoff: 1945hrs
Hosts Doncaster Rovers take on lowly Crewe at the Keepmoat Stadium on Tuesday night as they bid to climb up to third place with a win tonight.
Doncaster v Crewe on a Tuesday night might not necessarily conjure up the prospect of mouth-watering football fare, but it represents possible value for money nonetheless!
Doncaster Rovers have emerged out of their relegation gloom from the Championship last season as potential play-off material, if not automatic promotion candidates following some strong results recently.
Rovers are unbeaten in their last five matches in League One with wins over Shrewsbury Town, Brentford and away wins at leaders Tranmere Rovers and Notts County. At the weekend, they shrugged off Bradford Park Avenue of the Blue Square North in the first round of the FA Cup 3-1 and now once again turn their attentions to the priority mission of promotion from League One.
The Keepmoat has traditionally been a hard ground to get results if you’re the away side but this wasn’t the case at the start of this season with defeats to Crawley Town and Preston NE and a draw against Stevenage. However, they’ve turned things around with back-to-back home wins over Shrewsbury and Brentford and they go for the hat-trick on Tuesday night.
David Cotterill (5 goals) leads the way but Rovers also have former Tranmere marksman Iain Hume, Billy Paynter (4 goals), Chris Brown (4 goals, 2 assists) and Dave Syers (3 assists) in their ranks, and it’s interesting to note that they’ve failed to score just twice so far this season in 14 League One matches.
Visitors Crewe Alexandra have produced a mixed bag of results recently with wins over Hartlepool United and hard-to-predict Swindon Town, but then have tasted defeat to Portsmouth and Yeovil Town along with a 2-2 draw at Walsall; this inconsistency has resulted in The Railwaymen occupying a lower half position of 18th place for the time being. However, it should be noted that Crewe’s successes have largely been at home.
Their away form has been ordinary since their opening away match at Scnthorpe United where they won 2-1, but a six match run without further success and just a further three points earned doesn’t set them up for getting anything at the Keepmoat on Tuesday. Overall their record away from home stands at 1-3-3 7/13, with defeats at Brentford, MK Dons and Portsmouth.
Crewe do have individual players capable of upsetting the apple cart such as Mathias Pogba, Chuks Aneke and Byron Moore, but sadly the sum of the parts don’t necessarily equal a winning team at the moment and despite beating Wycombe Wanderers 4-1 on Saturday in the FA Cup, again this was a home victory and their away form is still in question.
Doncaster Rovers are on the rise and they should account for a Crewe side who continue to struggle on their travels; I’d go for a 2-1 scoreline to Rovers here if choosing a result.
Pick: Doncaster Rovers straight win @ 1.83 Pinnacle looks a no-brainer
