Football – England – League Two
Tuesday 5th February 2013 – Kickoff: 1945hrs
League Two leaders have a chance to stretch their legs against bottom club AFC Wimbledon at Vale Park on Tuesday night and more importantly, a chance to extend their lead at the top over Gillingham who play Wycombe on Monday night.
Port Vale will be looking to post a fourth win in five matches on the back of recent results of 4-0 over Plymouth Argyle, an impressive 2-1 win at promotion rivals Gillingham and a 3-0 win over Accrington Stanley at the weekend. Port Vale and Wimbledon actually met just over a week ago where they shared an entertaining 2-2 draw at the Cherry Reds Stadium, but Vale will be looking for all three points tonight.
Port Vale’s home record stands at 7-4-3 33/15 and they are the highest goalscorers at home in the division; and why wouldn’t they be with the likes of prolific striker Tom Pope (25 goals, 8 assists) who is enjoying a fantastic season and he has support from experienced front-man Lee Hughes who bagged a brace against Stanley, Jennison Myrie-Williams (7 goals, 6 assists), Ashley Vincent (5 goals, 5 assists) and Ben Williamson (6 goals). Providing the creativity is midfielder Doug Loft who has chipped in with 4 assists so far.
Visitors AFC Wimbledon have turned around their form lately following a dismal run of just one league win in nine matches, they’ve now put together a five match unbeaten run which gives them a glimmer of hope of surviving the dreaded drop come May. Wins over Torquay United 3-2 away and Rochdale 1-0 at Spotland followed by taking points off Wycombe Wanderers, Port Vale and fourth placed Burton Albion will give them renewed hope, but tonight will be a severe test of this.
Wimbledon’s away record has also improved lately with another good win at York City back in November and The Wombles have lost just once in their last five away matches which is in stark contrast to the start of their season on their travels where they lost the first three in convincing fashion.
Wimbledon’s away record stands at an improved 5-2-6 18/26 and their main weapon up front is former Oxford United striker Jack Midson (7 goals, 2 assists) and former Millwall and Brentford hit-man Gary Alexander has also recently joined and he scored on his debut against Burton Albion. McCallum (4 goals) and Rashid Yussuf can also be a handful on his day, but the impact of Byron Harrison’s departure to Cheltenham Town could be an important factor.
Port Vale really should be putting this type of opponent to bed and I believe this will be the case tonight as they have numerous attacking outlets and quality in the final third which Pope could really exploit tonight. Could be a 3-0 win for Vale here and I’ll back them to cover the -1 handicap.
Pick: Port Vale AH-1 @ 1.90 Pinnacle still looks value
