Football – England – League One
Tuesday 20th November 2012 – Kickoff: 1945hrs
Second placed Sheffield United could claim top spot in League One if they take all three points against visiting Crewe Alexandra on Tuesday night and Tranmere slip up against Walsall.
The Blades remain unbeaten at Bramall Lane and are the only team in League One to have an unblemished record at home in the division. Indeed, the Yorkshire club have lost just the once so far all season and that was away to fourth placed MK Dons 0-1 just over a week ago.
However, Sheffield United responded immediately with a thumping 4-1 win over promotion hopefuls Stevenage at the weekend to open up a three point cushion over rivals Swindon Town, MK Dons and Stevenage, and with a home record of 5-4-0 15/7 which includes straight wins over Shrewsbury Town 1-0, Bournemouth 5-3, Walsall 1-0, Portsmouth 1-0 and Stevenage 4-1, they look a very solid outfit on home turf and should take the points against Crewe tonight.
Forward Nick Blackman (7 goals), Neill Collins (3 goals) along with creativity supplied by Tony McMahon (4 assists) and Ryan Flynn (2 goals, 6 assists) represent the dangermen for Sheffield United and I expect them to cause The Railwaymen plenty of problems on Tuesday night.
Onto Crewe then, and they’ve recorded just the one away win in their last eight League One matches on the road which was an eyebrow-raising 2-0 win at Doncaster Rovers who have designs on a play-off place themselves. Aside from that though, they’ve been poor away from Gresty Road with an away record so far of 2-3-4 9/14, and in fact Crewe have won just three away games in their last fifteen.
Crewe have also kept just two clean sheets in their nine away matches so far and have failed to score on four occasions. Former Wrexham forward Mathias Pogba (4 goals, 2 assists) is their leading light up front, but he has support from Murphy and Moore (2 goals, 2 assists each) and Chuks Aneke (2 goals, 3 assists).
Whilst I can see Crewe scoring, I’ll back the hosts in this one as they need to keep tabs on leaders Tranmere and they possess a strong home record; I was tempted with the -1 handicap but instead I’ll take the straight win with The Blades perhaps winning 2-1.
Pick: Sheffield United straight win @ 1.65 BetVictor
