YEOVIL v HARTLEPOOL – Pick: 1 – 10 November 2012

Home win like a Glove-r

League One/Two Tips

Football – England – League One

Saturday 10th November 2012 – Kickoff:  1500hrs

Mid-table Yeovil Town take on beleaguered Hartlepool United who are propping up League One at Huish Park on Saturday as Gary Johnson’s men look to pile on further misery on the north-east club.

Yeovil Town currently sit in 11th place with a home record of  3-1-4  10/11, and their away form reads  4-0-4  16/13; as you can see, inconsistency has hindered the west country outfit in their pursuit of breaking into the play-off pack, but if they could even just convert a few more home wins, starting with this afternoon, they could well be challenging later on.

The good thing for Yeovil is that they’ve tended to score goals on a regular basis with Paddy Madden (6 goals) leading the way, and striker James Hayter (5 goals, 2 assists), Sam Foley (3 goals, 3 assists) and Ed Upson (5 assists) and Jamie McAllister (3 assists) providing the ammunition.

It’s true that The Glovers have suffered recent defeats in the last few weeks but these losses were against leaders Tranmere Rovers and Stevenage, while they’ve recorded wins over Colchester United, Bury, Shrewsbury Town and Crewe Alexandra and they hold their own against teams around them in the division.

Sadly, the same cannot be said for visitors Hartlepool United as they slumped to their tenth straight defeat in League One following a 0-2 reverse at home to Tranmere Rovers in midweek, and Pools sit rock-bottom of the division with a meagre eight points to their name.

Last weekend they got well and truly dumped out of the Cup in the first round against League Two Chesterfield and in League One, they are yet to chalk up an away win with a third of the season already gone.

Pool’s away record stands at a woeful  0-2-6  6/18, with only Leyton Orient (5 goals) scoring fewer goals on the road than them. They picked up only their second point away from home last time out when they earned a 2-2 draw at Brentford, but it’s been almost one-way traffic in terms of goals scoring on their travels; it’s now eleven matches since they kept a clean sheet away from home, and I fear Yeovil will possess more firepower up front than them on Saturday too.

As mentioned in my previous preview involving Hartlepool, Jonathan Franks has scored 2 goals and is their leading scorer, while Evan Horwood has contributed with 3 assists.

The equation seems simple for this match; Yeovil possess more options in attack while Hartlepool struggle to find the net and have conceded too many on their travels – I’ll therefore back The Glovers at a nice price to bounce back with a home win today.

Pick:  Yeovil Town straight win @ 1.90 Stan James looks a gimme