League Two
Tuesday 17th April 2012 – Kickoff: 1945hrs
What do League Two Shrewsbury Town and Premier League Manchester City have in common?
They are the only two teams in the English football leagues to remain unbeaten so far at home this season. Shrewsbury will be looking to extend their magnificent home form to another win when they host Port Vale in Tuesday night’s League Two schedule.
Yep, another win for The Shrews and they edge closer to a coveted automatic promotion place into League One where they really belong let’s face it. Unbeaten in their last six matches, losing just once in their last eleven, this is the kind of form that gets the job of promotion done, and I must say I’m impressed by Shrewsbury’s consistency and stamina.
Their home record stands at 16-5-0 35/12, and are second only to Swindon Town both in terms of points and goals conceded, but that’s it. No-one else comes close. Basically, Shrewsbury wholly deserve to go straight up as they’ve beaten all of the top seven teams at home bar Oxford United who they drew 2-2 with. Results of 2-1 over Swindon Town, 2-0 v Torquay United, 2-1 v Southend United, 2-1 v Crawley Town and 2-0 v Cheltenham Town has put them in a fantastic position of attaining League One football next season.
Leading scorer is striker Jim Collins (14 goals, 5 assists) but he’s had great support from midfielder Mark Wright (10 goals, 7 assists), Marvin Morgan (8 goals, 3 assists) and former Accrington Stanley forward Terry Gornell (8 goals, 7 assists) who has a bright future ahead of him I reckon.
Fifteenth placed Port Vale have been fairly inconsistent throughout the whole season and this is reflected in their last six matches as a snapshot example; wins over relegation rivals Hereford United, Macclesfield Town and mid-table Aldershot have been spoiled by losses to Torquay United and Dagenham & Redbridge along with a draw against Morecambe.
You never quite know what you’re going to get with Vale, and this has been a general theme throughout this campaign. Their away record stands at 8-6-7 30/28, and to be fair they’ve performed pretty well against the teams outside of the top seven, but losses at Oxford United, Cheltenham Town, Southend United, Crawley Town, Torquay United as well as at joint bottom Macclesfield Town, you can see they are some way off of making a serious play-off challenge for the time being.
Vale’s key attacking threats come from strikers Marc Richards (14 goals, 3 assists), Sean Rigg (9 goals, 5 assists), Louis Dodds (8 goals) and Tom Pope (5 goals, 9 assists) which is proof that Vale can score goals but can they defend equally as well?
Time will tell, but I’ll back Shrewsbury Town in front of their home fans to take a step closer to automatic promotion with a 3-1 win to remove any doubt.
Pick: Shrewsbury Town AH-1 @ 2.20 bet365 – prices are dropping though so be quick
