Football – England – League Two Play-Off Semi Final 2nd Leg
Saturday 17th May 2014 – Kickoff: 1200hrs
Southend United and Burton Albion do battle once again at high noon on Saturday at Roots Hall in the second leg of this play-off semi final to decide who goes through to the final at Wembley.
Southend United will be looking to overhaul a 1 goal deficit following their first leg loss at the Pirelli Stadium, but the stats support The Shrimps in their bid to score at least two goals against their visitors this afternoon. Southend have failed to score at Roots Hall on just five occasions all season and they’ve scored 2 goals or more on home soil eight times during an overall home record of 11-7-5 29/16.
In addition, Southend kept a total of 11 clean sheets (only York City with 13 at Bootham Crescent bettered them), and they lost just once in their last eight home matches of the regular season. Forwards Corr (12 goals, 5 assists) and Hurst (11 goals, 15 assists) along with Eastwood off the bench look their most likely anytime goalscorers today.
Visitors Burton Albion are within 90 minutes of making a Wembley appearance following last season’s play-off heartache against Bradford City who eventually went up to League One. The Brewers will be hoping they can go at least one step closer to promotion this time around although they do face a very difficult hurdle in the shape of Southend on home turf.
Burton hold a slender one goal advantage and they’ll need to be careful to try and stick to their normal game tempting though it is to ‘park the bus’. Burton’s away form deteriorated quite rapidly towards the end of their League Two campaign with just one win (at a confused Oxford United after manager Chris Wilder left to join Northampton Town, they were never the same after that) – after ten away matches where they also failed to score in six of those.
Burton depended heavily on their home form at the Pirelli to see them through, which has been the case thus far, but with an away record that finished up on an indifferent 8-9-6 20/20, they’ll be hard pushed to repeat their first leg scoreline I fancy.
Southend at Roots Hall is a tough assignment to overcome and with a boisterous crowd roaring them on, I reckon we could see the hosts overturn The Brewers here tonight in what could be a tense 2-1 win after the 90 minutes to extend the game into extra time.
Pick: Southend United straight win @ 2.15 Bet Victor
