GW 32 – Ones To Watch

Ally: This is another of those tricky looking weeks lacking in too many immediately obvious stand out fixtures. I’m kicking things off in South Yorkshire, where League One’s Doncaster Rovers face improving Northampton Town. The hosts boast the division’s second best home record, averaging more than two points per game and almost 2 goals per game, registering 32 times in 17 matches – a feat bettered only by prolific rivals Peterborough United. They are pretty consistent scorers at the Keepmoat Stadium too, only drawing a blank on 2 occasions since January 2020, a run of some 23 games. Just to add further weight to their cause, they have only failed to find the net in 3 of the 26 TUG Gameweeks in which they’ve featured (home or away) this season. The Cobblers make the journey up the M1 with 3 successive defeats to their name on the road, in which they’ve shipped 8 goals, including a 2-1 defeat at Charlton on Tuesday night. They are capable of upsets though, evidenced by the superb 4-1 victory against Portsmouth at Sixfields last weekend, and they did manage three 0-0 scorelines in 4 away games through January and February. In spite of all this, and the recent loss of manager Darren Moore to Sheffield Wednesday, I fully expect Rovers to at least get on the scoresheet and continue their promotion push.

I’m heading north of the border for my next tip, for one of the country’s form teams. No, I’m not talking about the newly crowned Premiership champions Rangers as we all know how good they’ve been, but going down a division Dumfries side Queen of South have been making waves in the Championship of late. They are top of the form chart over the last 10 games, accumulating 23 points and scoring 20 goals, which is in stark contrast to the first 9 games of the season where they registered just 4 points and scored 10 goals! Despite gaining 5 more points than runaway leaders Hearts in the past 10 games, the Doonhammers are incredibly still 15 points behind the Edinburgh side but they are at least firmly in the mix for a play-off spot. Saturday sees an ideal opportunity to cement that position as Queens welcome basement side Alloa Athletic to Palmerston Park, who have conceded 20 times in 9 away trips and have just a solitary clean sheet to their name on the road. Given the relative form of each side there should only be one possible result here and hopefully plenty of goals too! Good luck with your selections.