CONFERENCE SOUTH
Bath City – Basingstoke 1 (1.75 @Betway) 8 units
Bath City are currently 3rd in the Conference South and they're doing great at home. They've won all of their home matches with keeping the clean sheat except against 4th Newport (1:1) a month and a half ago, but they had a sweet revenge last Saturday, in the FA Cup 3rd qualifying round. They were playing away at Newport and managed to win 2:1. They face a tough but attractive tie in the 4th qualifying round – they'll be playing at home against Conference leaders Torquay.
2:0 vs 11th Eastleigh, 2:0 against 10th Hampton & Richmond, 1:0 against 5th Weston-super-Mare, 1:1 against 4th Newport, 3:0 against 20th St Albans. These are the Bath City's home matches so far – impressive. They also have two cup wins in a row (2:1 at Newport in the FA Cup and 3:2 at home against Weston-super-Mare in the less important Setanta Cup this Tuesday). Bath City should have more than enough for Basingstoke.
From September 18th untill now, Bath City played seven games – won six of them and lost only at mighty Havant & Waterloovile (0:1). Today they signed another player, midfielder McKay from Swindon.
Basingstoke are currently 12th but they're much better at home than away. Away from home, they lost three times (1:4 at Fisher, 0:2 at Newport, 2:3 at Bromley – all promotion candidates just like Bath City) and shared points twice (1:1 at Thurrock, 1:1 at Hayes & Yeading, both relegation candidates). After beating two relegation candidates a month ago at home (Thurrock and Dorchester), they now have four defeats in a row – away at Bromley (league), at home to Newport (FA Cup 2nd round) and then twice at home against mid-table Hampton & Richmond (Setanta Cup and then league).
They didn't have a match last Saturday so maybe they're a bit rusty too. Basingstoke will be without suspended midfielder Laidler who played in every league match so far and they still have some injury problems. Their biggest problem is central midfield at this moment (it will be even worse now without Laidler) and that's probably why their best scorer Fitzgerald scored 5 goals in first 4 matches of the season, but then (after Harkness and Gibbs, both scorers, also left the club) just one single goal in next 7 league matches. They're trying to bring in a couple of new players, but untill now, they've only managed to bring in a 17 year old goalkeeper. I expect a strong home win here – 8 units for the 5th time this season.
(Blue Square is offering 1.73, Stanleybet, Bet365 and Paddy Power are offering 1.67 – anything above 1.65 looks good to me...)
FT 0:1
CONF SOUTH DOUBLE: Bath City – Basingstoke 1 @1.73 & Eastbourne – Sutton 1 @1.44 (2.49 @Blue Square) 4 units
Eastbourne have five home wins in a row, they're playing great football this season and some players are coming back after their injuries. Sutton are a mess, they don't have a good enough striker, they don't even have a manager in this moment. If odds were only above 1.55, it would probably be my first 9/10 bet of the season. But, we can have this lovely Conference South double at Blue Square – Eastbourne and Bath City home wins combined make 2.49 and that sounds absolutely great.
(2.26 @StanJames for this double... Stanleybet offers 2.22...)
FT 0:1 / FT 3:0
CONF NORTH DOUBLE: Hyde – Barrow 1 @1.57 & Burscough – Hinckley 1 @1.57 (2.46 @StanJames) 4 units
Hyde (currently 4th) faced all the other top-6 sides untill now and they did fine winning against Telford, Burscough and Kettering, and losing only to Harrogate and Southport. They're very good at home (4-0-1, goal-difference 13:5) – in fact, they lost only to on/off Tamworth (their incredible scorer Seddon wasn't in the team back then) way back in the 3rd round. Now they have three league home wins in a row (4:0 vs 17th Redditch, 1:0 vs 6th Burscough, 1:0 vs 5th Telford) and this month they have two away league wins in a row (2:0 at 2nd Kettering and then, last Saturday, 3:0 at 16th Alfreton).
Seddon weren't allowed to play in the first 5 league matches for them due to suspension, but he came back in style and is probably the most dangerous (he scored once and assisted for other two goals against Alfreton a week ago) player in the Conference North right now. Kettering players also didn't manage to stop him – Seddon scored twice and Hyde took those valuable three away points off direct rivals. Before that, Seddon also scored a winner at home against Telford so that makes it four goals in last three league fixtures.
Barrow are currently 15th and still with no win away from home (0-3-2). They lost at home to 11th Nuneaton earlier this month and then managed to beat an opponent from league below Conference North (Fleetwood) in the FA Cup last Saturday. Barrow played three away matches in September – they lost at 9th Boston and 2nd Kettering and managed to steal a point at 13th Tamworth (it was a goalless draw). Still, can't see them doing much at Hyde. Even if he'll have a bad day, I'm sure Seddon can score a winner just to make those three points feel safe.
Promotion candidates Burscough play against struggling and demotivated Hinckley outfit that will also be without Love due to suspension. Burscough playing great recently, three home wins in a row, their only home defeat happened in their first home match of the season, two months ago. Great away at Hucknall last Saturday, won 2:0. Hinckley second to bottom, 0-3-2 away, 9th Boston defeated them 4:1 in the FA Cup a week ago and they're having some injury problems too.
(Skybet also offers 2.46 for this double, Stanleybet is offering 2.29...)
FT 2:1 / FT 1:1
FA TROPHY DOUBLE: Billericay – Ilford 1 @1.33 & Team Bath – Taunton 1 @1.43 (1.90 @10Bet) 3 units
Both of the home teams are title candidates from the higher leagues and should have more than enough to win these FA Trophy matches even if the managers decide to rest a couple of standard players.
The Team Bath – Taunton match is being played on Sunday.
(Bwin offers 1.82 for this double, I personally wouldn't go below 1.80...)
FT 2:1 / FT 1:0
CONFERENCE SOUTH
Dorchester – Bromley 2 (2.40 @Betway) 1 unit
Bromley are one of the promotion candidates in the Conference South. They're currently 8th (just a point less than Weston-super-Mare who are 5th) and they had probably the hardest schedule up untill now. They've already played against almost all of the play-off candidates and they now face three opponents that are very beatable (after playing against Havant, Bishop's Stortford, Lewes and Eastbourne in a month). Away from home they're not the best team, but they're improving – after they lost at 18th Braintree and shared points at bottom of the table Sutton, they were great at 7th Fisher's (won 3:0). Then they lost again at Havant (one of the best home teams in the non-league world) and shared points at league leaders Lewes.
Bromley also managed to get in the FA Cup 4th qualifying round, after beating Dartford (one of the best outfits from Ryman North, two leagues below) 1:0 at home and they also won at home against league rivals Sutton in the Setanta Cup earlier this month. They've also recently signed a couple of new players – experienced defender Judge (250 appearances for the Conference outfit Crawley), scorer Gibbs (came from Woking, been at Basingstoke at the start of the season), midfielder Hughes, defender Harney (both of them had already played for Bromley in the past) and defender Sobers. Corneille and Osborn are finally fit too.
Their best scorer Hockton (arrived this summer from Margate – and Margate still miss him) is playing great lately – he scored four times in his last four matches (didn't play against Eastbourne), including a winner this Saturday in the FA Cup. It could've easily been more than just 1:0 but a win is a win is a win.
Dorchester are currently 17th – they're out of the FA Cup (they played against Paulton Rovers, a mid-table team from Southern One, two leagues below – it was 1:1 at Dorchester, but never-heard Paulton Rovers won 2:0 in the replay and shocked Dorchester's supporters) and doing well in the Setanta Cup that no one else is taking very seriously. They managed to beat a solid Eastleigh (league rivals, currently 11th) outfit, but Eastleigh weren't as agressive as they could've be been, knowing they had a FA Cup match in a few days and that is always more important (Eastleigh managed to win their FA Cup match that was played four days later, in case you're wondering). Eastleigh even played without their No1 goalkeeper.
Dorchester are traditionally terrible at home – this season they've lost to Havant, Lewes, Eastleigh and Weston-super-Mare and won only against on/off Fisher outfit. But it's not just this season, last season they had 6-2-12. This season, it's 1-0-4 after first five home matches so they're being consistent.
Dorchester's manager is currently trying to find a scorer he could sign (they desperately need one, supporters think), but no luck yet...
(Primebet are also offering 2.40, Skybet, Coral and Blue Square all offer 2.38, Stanleybet is offering only 2.30...)
FT 2:3
Post je objavljen 22.10.2007. u 00:32 sati.