English League Two
2013-01-26 - Rotherham United vs Bristol Rovers
A Sports Betting Pick by Auls
Football: English League Two
Saturday 26 January 2013 - Kick Off 3pm
Rotherham United
Steve Evans will be all too aware that his Rotherham United side have to improve their performances at home if they are to find themselves living up to expectations and earn promotion to League One. They have lost a number of games here in recent weeks to just drop off the pace a little, but they are still very much in contention for automatic promotion.
Rotherham are 6th in the League Two table at the moment, but they are just 2 points off an automatic promotion spot, although have slipped to 10 points behind the leaders Port Vale. At home they have an 8-0-6 record this season, scoring 28 goals and conceding 20 in those games.
It hasn't been a good couple of weeks for the team as they were beaten 3-1 at Aldershot Town in the FA Cup and followed that up with a very surprising 0-2 home loss against struggling Barnet. Rotherham have actually lost 4 of their last 5 League games at the New York Stadium, the one exception being a 4-1 win over Accrington Stanley.
Bristol Rovers
It has been a steady decline for Bristol Rovers over the last few seasons and now they are fighting for their very future in the football League. There is little doubt that relegation would be a catastrophe for the club as a whole, but they have a tough four months ahead of them to avoid that indignation of being relegated into non-League football.
Current standings show the Gasmen are bottom of League Two with 25 points and that leaves them 2 points from safety although Bristol Rovers have 2 games in hand over a number of their rivals. They have a 2-4-7 away record so far this season, scoring 13 goals and conceding 26 in those games.
Bristol Rovers have actually won 2 of their last 3 League games to give themselves a chance of moving out of the relegation zone and that includes an impressive 0-3 win at Fleetwood Town last time out. They had previously failed to win any of 8 away games in the League, losing 6 of those games, before the win over Fleetwood.
Head to Head
This will be the first time they are meeting this season following Bristol Rovers doing the double over Rotherham United last season, including a 0-1 win here.
Rotherham have only won 1 of their last 4 home games against Bristol Rovers although those have come over a 16 season period.
Prediction
I like Rotherham United's chances in this game- they seem to be a team that either wins easily or gets beaten at the moment and I think they will be a little too powerful in attack for a Bristol Rovers side that concedes a lot of goals on their travels.
At odds against, I'll take Rotherham to win this one by at least a couple of goals.
The Pick :
Rotherham United 3-1 Bristol Rovers
