GW 10 – Ones to Watch

Jamie: Back to the troublesome international breaks for this gameweek!

Firstly I’m looking at Ross County, who aren’t involved in league action, but instead are playing in the Third Round of the Scottish Challenge Cup. The Dingwall side are currently sitting in second place in the Scottish Championship and are pushing to get back into the top flight after last season’s relegation. Their opponents Montrose are currently sitting bottom of Scottish League 1 and their main problem lately has been conceding more than they score. Although Ross County have recently had a couple of 0-0 draws, when they do score they seem to net a few and I fancy them to do exactly that on Saturday.

Likewise, my second prediction also comes from The Scottish Challenge Cup as I look towards Welsh side Connah’s Quay Nomads. The Quay side are currently sitting top of the Welsh Premier League and have scored an impressive 14 goals in their last five league games. Their opponents are Coleraine, who are from the Northern Irish Premiership and currently occupy fifth place. This is more of a ‘gut feeling’ tip than anything, so hopefully Wales v Northern Ireland won’t turn out to be a drab affair with no goals!

Matt: GW 10 brings with it our second International Week of the season, meaning teams from the National League North & South are involved (with the Third Round of the Scottish Challenge Cup thrown in for good measure!) Traditionally, these weekends have resulted in some weird and wonderful scores being recorded and i have no reason to believe that this one will be any different!

Given my pretty awful track record on these international weekends (-20 in GW 5 for example!), i’m going to make no apologies for playing it as safe as possible and that includes my tips. I simply can’t look past Salford City in their home game against Braintree Town in the National League. This is a classic top v bottom fixture, with City absolutely flying in their bid for back to back promotions and a place in the Football League for the first time in their short history. They’ve won seven matches on the bounce and are the league’s joint top scorers on 30. Braintree on the other hand, are rock bottom after four consecutive defeats and worryingly their defence has really begun to leak goals recently; 10 have been shipped in their previous three games, including a 5-1 home mauling by Leyton Orient. Salford must be firm favourites to retain their place at the top of the table and you’ve got to fancy they’ll score a few in the process.

In another City v Town encounter, i’m swapping allegiances for my second pick and going with the Town outfit……….Billericay Town to be precise. Like Salford, they also sit top of their league, the National League South in this case, with a home match against Gloucester City next on their agenda. Now without wanting to give this fixture the kiss of death, the last four games for both sides have resulted in a whopping 38 goals being scored, including Billericay’s 9-1 victory against Whitehawk in the FA Cup last weekend. Gloucester have also been among the goals themselves, they’re averaging nearly 3 per game over the last month or so, but crucially they’re also conceding plenty and it’s on that basis that i’m backing the home side to once again find the net at least a couple of times. Good luck to you all.