GW 31 – Ones to Watch

Matt: Last weekend proved to be a bit of a letdown for many players and although there were rewards for some of you who tried think ‘outside the box’, the vast majority of players didn’t benefit from the highest scoring teams of the round. However, for those of you who prefer to remain loyal to the more prominent sides shall we say, you’re probably enjoying a decent spell of form recently, even if your favourites aren’t returning you huge points. Consistency is a key factor in TUG, so if you’re hitting the 60-70 mark week in, week out, you’re on to a good thing! I’m certainly not on to that in this section over the past couple of weeks, but that needs to be rectified this weekend…..

• Airdrieonians v Clyde. Airdrie’s excellent form has seen them rise up to second place in the Scottish League One table, becoming long-time leaders Cover Rangers’ closest challengers in the race for automatic promotion. It’s also prompted me to both select them in my own seven picks AND tip them in this section……so I’d prefer them to keep that excellent run going for at least one more match! Back-to-back wins have set The Diamonds up very nicely heading into this fixture, one of which being a convincing 4-1 beating of fellow high fliers Montrose, and their home form is second to none this season; ten wins in their last eleven matches at the Excelsior Stadium is ample proof that this is no easy place to visit! Encouragingly, Airdrie have netted no less than 27 times in those games, just the sort of statistic we love to see here at TUG! Clyde are fairly comfortable in mid-table and have a decent record on the road, so this is unlikely to be a walkover for the home side, but The Wee Bully have only managed one solitary clean sheet in the past three months…….and that was against bottom of the table East Fife. On that basis, I’m backing Airdrie to get among the goals once more.
• Wrexham v Aldershot Town. I suspect this isn’t going to be the easiest gameweek to navigate, so straying too far away from the ‘obvious’ might not be the wisest move! I’ve previously backed Wrexham here before, on two occasions indeed, and they’ve raked in the points both times, so I’m hoping for more of the same here. The Dragons are in good spirits ahead of another key league fixture, following three consecutive wins – two in the NL and an impressive 3-0 victory over Boreham Wood in the FA Trophy – and this game against a stuttering Aldershot side offers a big opportunity to really stake a claim on the promotion front, indeed Wrexham could move up to second in the standings if they win and other results go their way. After an outstanding 2-0 success at Chesterfield, who currently hold that second spot, on Tuesday evening, the Welshmen will be absolutely determined not to undo all that good work by slipping up here. Visitors Aldershot are quickly going in the other direction and, having failed to beat (or even score past!) bottom of the pile Dover Athletic in midweek, they may well head to the Racecourse Ground fearing the worst! Prior to that bitterly disappointing result, The Shots had suffered consecutive 3-1 defeats, at Grimsby Town and at home to Barnet, so it’s fair to say Mark Molesley’s lads aren’t in the best frame of mind right now. This could well be another very testing afternoon as they make the long journey to North Wales. Good luck to you all.