NUNEATON TOWN v TAMWORTH
Football – England – Blue Square Premier
Wednesday 26th December 2012 – Kickoff; 1300hrs
It’s off to the midlands now as I focus on a battle in the lower half of the non-league top tier with Nuneaton Town taking on fellow midlands club Tamworth at Liberty Way on Boxing Day.
Nuneaton Town currently sit second from bottom in the BSP and despite some indifferent results lately with losses against Kidderminster, Forest Green Rovers and a 1-6 dumping at Wrexham, most of their poor results have come away from home and the fact remains that they’ve lost just twice all season on home turf.
There are reasons for optimism for this pick as Nuneaton return to familiar surroundings where they’ve put together an unbeaten run of eight league matches and their pathetic away form is off-set by their obstinate home record of 3-6-2 17/14 with notable results such as 3-1 v Telford, points against Macclesfield, Hereford United and Wrexham and have recently posted back-to-back league wins over Stockport County and Dartford respectively.
Despite being placed eight places above today’s opponents and six points ahead, Tamorth have endured a difficult few weeks in the BSP which has culminated in them winning just once in their last nine matches; the 3-2 win over Dartford at the beginning of this month was the solitary highlight mixed in with straight defeats against Hyde, Ebbsfleet, Grimsby, Macclesfield, Kidderminster and Grimsby again while they have taken just one point from the last 12 away from home.
A point at Cambridge United was scant return for losses at Hyde, Macclesfield and Grimsby and the Lambs’ away record now stands at 5-1-5 16/16 which is disappointing considering they won four of their first six away matches this season.
Another factor worth considering is the fact that they’ve kept just two clean sheets in their last fourteen away matches and a trip to a Nuneaton side who are very hard to break down at home may well present Tamworth with problems in getting anything from this match, particularly when Nuneaton have kept four clean sheets in 11 home matches.
I have to back Nuneaton here with the round ball given their strong home form so far this season, and they might even nick this one perhaps 1-0, but even if it ends up in a draw we get our stake refunded.
Pick: Nuneaton Town AH0 (Draw No Bet) @ 1.79 Bet Victor
