English League One
2013-01-12 - Shrewsbury Town vs Hartlepool United
A Sports Betting Pick by ArmchairPunter
Football – England – League One
Saturday 12th January 2013 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
SHREWSBURY TOWN
In the bottom half of League One this weekend I now turn my attention to Shrewsbury Town who take on basement dwellers Hartlepool United on Saturday afternoon.
Shrewsbury are currently on a seven match unbeaten run which includes five draws and two wins; the draws were against Crawley Town 2-2, Bury 2-2, Notts County 2-2, Brentford 0-0 and a 0-0 away at Scunthorpe United. Their two wins during this sequence were against Carlisle United 2-1 at home and an impressive 1-0 win at Coventry City on New Years Day.
Shrewsbury’s home form continues much along the same vein with wins over Crewe and Carlisle but four draws make up the six matches unbeaten on home soil in recent weeks. Shrewsbury’s home record now stands at 5-5-3 17/14 and they’ve kept four clean sheets to date.
Morgan (7 goals, 7 assists) is Shrewsbury’s stand-out danger man, but he also has important support from Richards, Parry and Taylor (all 5 goals each) with Taylor also providing 3 assists.
HARTLEPOOL UNITED
Visiting Hartlepool United recently pulled off the upset of League One so far this season when they beat mighty Sheffield United 3-2 away a couple of weeks ago, but sadly this appears to have been a freak result for Polls as they then followed that up with a 0-1 defeat at home to Preston North End on New Years Day.
Indeed, that unlikely win at Sheffield United has been their only success in their last twenty-two (yes 22) League One matches and they still remain firmly rooted to the bottom of the league some 9 points adrift of closest rivals Bury, and 11 points from safety and Colchester United which you’d tend to think would be an unassailable deficit to reduce.
Hartlepool’s away form stands at a woeful 1-3-9 10/26 and they’ve failed to score on six separate occasions whilst failing to keep a clean sheet in their last sixteen away matches. This sort of form surely hands Shrewsbury the advantage here in this match, and with their poor defensive record on the road (only Portsmouth 27 goals conceded have a worst away record in terms of goals conceded), there can only be one winner here.
THE BETTING VERDICT:
Hartlepool’s reluctance in front of goal is reflected in their goalscoring charts; leading scorer is striker Steve Howard (3 goals) while Evan Horwood (2 goals, 6 assists) has been the main provider.
Given home advantage and their unbeaten run I have to give Shrewsbury the edge here in what will probably be a tight affair, but it could end up 1-0 to The Shrews.
The Pick :
Shrewsbury Town 1 Hartlepool United 0
