Football – England – League One
Friday 15th February 2013 – Kickoff: 1945hrs
Tranmere Rovers will be looking to bounce back up to the top of League One when they take on lowly Shrewsbury Town after being ousted by Bournemouth who have claimed top spot thanks to a 2-1 win at Crewe last night.
However, a win tonight for Tranmere at Prenton Park will ensure a swift return to the summit of the division as this is the sole fixture being played in League One tonight and they will no doubt be keen to reclaim their position which they’ve held for some weeks now. Tranmere have struggled to string together any sort of consistency though in recent matches with wins over Crawley Town 2-0 and Brentford 2-1 away being spoilt by defeats against Coventry City 0-1, Carlisle United 0-1 and Leyton Orient 1-2.
Two of these recent losses were on the road though and they have a perfect opportunity to get back to winning ways on familiar territory against a Shrewsbury side who have won just two away matches all season so far. Tranmere’s home record stands at 8-4-3 25/12 and they’ve lost just once in their last six on home turf (v Carlisle).
These two clubs shared a 1-1 draw in the previous fixture at Greenhous Meadow back in August and Tranmere will be hoping to go one better in their own back-yard tonight.
Onto Shrewsbury then, and they too have experienced indifferent results of late with frustrating home draws against Hartlepool United and Bury and an understandable away defeat at Swindon Town. They did beat Preston NE 2-1 in the first week of February but it should be noted that Preston have won just three home matches all season.
Shrewsbury have lost just once in their last six away from home and they also nicked a 1-0 win at Coventry City on New Years Day but they will face a tough task up north on Friday night against a Tranmere side wanting to set the record straight.
Shrewsbury’s away record stands at a modest 2-6-8 15/23 and they’ve failed to score on six occasions to date. Let’s also not forget that Shrewsbury have won just twice in their last sixteen away matches too!
With this last statistic still ringing in my ears, I’ll back the hosts here tonight for a no-nonsense win with Rovers grabbing all the points with a possible 2-0 scoreline.
Pick: Tranmere Rovers straight win @ 1.80 Bet Victor
