FLEETWOOD v SOUTHEND – Pick: 2 AH0 – 08 December 2012

Football – England – League Two

Saturday 8^th December 2012 – Kickoff:  1500hrs

It’s a clash between two clubs in the League Two play-off positions next up as seventh placed Fleetwood Town take on fifth placed Southend United at Highbury Stadium on Saturday afternoon with a valuable three points up for grabs; Southend could leapfrog Cheltenham, while Fleetwood will be looking to consolidate their position and hold off the challengers such as Torquay United and Rochdale.

Fleetwood have won just two league matches in their last ten which were victories over Chesterfield away and Plymouth Argyle at home mingled in with five draws and they’ve suffered back-to-back defeats against Accrington Stanley and Dagenham & Redbridge in their last two matches.

Fleetwood’s home record stands at  4-3-3  15/13 and they’ve won just once in their last five home matches. Recent defeats against Wycombe and Accrington suggest that a serious tilt at promotion may well have to wait until next season despite all good intentions.

Fleetwood’s leading scorer is Junior Brown (6 goals, 3 assists) along with David Ball (3 goals, 3 assists) and Andrew Mangan (2 goals, 6 assists).

Visitors Southend United are unbeaten in their last six matches which includes four straight wins over Bristol Rovers 3-2, Torquay United 4-1, AFC Wimbledon 4-0 and Rochdale 3-1. More importantly, is that three of those four recent wins came in away matches and they’ll no doubt fancy their chances up in Lancashire this weekend on the back of this momentum.

Southend’s away record stands at a healthy  5-2-3  21/12 and have lost just once in their last six away matches with four straight wins. The recent away wins also show that The Shrimpers don’t mind scoring goals on their travels and are in fact the league’s highest scorers on the road. With firepower consisting of striker and leading scorer Britt Assombalonga (11 goals, 2 assists), Gavin Tomlin (6 goals, 2 assists), Ryan Cresswell (4 goals, 2 assists) and creativity supplied by Kevan Hurst (2 goals, 11 assists) and Sean Clohessy (1 goal, 4 assists) you can see why.

Fleetwood have faltered at home in recent weeks and given Southend’s good recent run of form away from home and their ability to score goals along with their attacking personnel, I’ll take the visitors to score a 2-1 win here today but take the round ball for insurance.

Pick:  Southend United AH0 (Draw No Bet) @ 1.99 Pinnacle