GW 37 – Ones to Watch

Matt: Quite a tricky weekend in GW 36, with just one solitary player managing to book a table at ‘Club 100’ – well done to Tony Rawson for that achievement. ‘International Weeks’ have a longstanding reputation for being particularly difficult to navigate, a reputation that definitely remained very much intact going on the overall results last weekend! We’re into the home straight now, with April being our last full month of action, so it’s time to step it up – especially if you’re planning on launching a title challenge! Here’s some options for GW 37…..

• Forest Green Rovers v Scunthorpe Utd. This pick is something of a ‘no brainer’ in terms of league positions – top v bottom! Even though Rovers haven’t been anywhere near their best recently, poor old Scunny simply cannot buy a win – you have to go back to the 8th of February to locate one, their only one of 2022 indeed – and the beleaguered Lincolnshire club now look absolutely nailed on to be playing National League football next season. Four consecutive defeats, seven losses in the last nine and a woeful 2 points picked up in that time, mean Keith Hill’s appointment looks like backfiring in spectacular fashion and with 8 goals conceded in their previous two matches, 3-0 at home to Harrogate Town last Saturday & a 5-1 thumping at Salford City the week before, a trip to The New Lawn to face a side almost certainly heading in the opposite direction is the last thing The Iron need right now. Forest Green themselves have not been in great form recently, but they did return to winning ways at Colchester Utd last time out and The Green Devils could take another huge leap towards automatic promotion with victory here. They’ve got goals in them there’s no doubt about that, with a league high 66 to their name so far, plus Scunthorpe’s horrific concession of 71 – also a league high, so it would be a major surprise if neither of those tallies were added to on Saturday afternoon.
• Sheffield Wednesday v AFC Wimbledon. In a somewhat unusual move, I’m tipping the very same side who let me down in this section only a couple of rounds ago! I believe in second chances though and in this case Wednesday are certainly worthy of one, especially as they raked in some very valuable points for me last weekend when they bashed Cheltenham Town 4-1. And let’s not forget that it was only a few weeks ago that they also annihilated Cambridge Utd, with a mighty 6-0 victory at Hillsborough that afternoon. With 30000 or so supporters roaring The Owls on and a play-off place very much at stake, the home side will be expected to take the game to a Wimbledon team who are suffering from an utterly horrendous run of form; The Dons have lost five games on the bounce and haven’t tasted victory in a fixture of any nature since way back on the 7th of December!! Their appalling set of results since that date has seen them plummet into the League One relegation zone and experienced manager Mark Bowen now has his work well and truly cut out to keep The Wombles in the division. Fairly hefty losses at Cheltenham Town, Plymouth Argyle and Bolton Wanderers recently indicate that a trip to in-form and high-scoring Sheffield Wednesday does not appear to be appetising to the South Londoners, but strange things happen in football so let’s take nothing for granted. What would be a big shock though, is if the visitors held Wednesday at bay for 90 minutes – I’m banking on that not happening! Good luck to you all.