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League Two Rovers v Crawley

Sparky

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Next to Prenton Park come Crawley Town this Saturday. The word inconsistent would sum them up with 11 wins, 11 defeats and 8 draws this season with a goal difference of plus 1. Recent results have seen a 3-1 defeat at Morecambe on Tuesday, but a positive 2-0 win the Saturday before at home against a decent Exeter side.

So it would appear you don’t know what you are going to get, but they are capable of causing us problems. In attacking positions they have decent players. Orient loannee Maguire-Drew is a tricky winger and former Fleetwood striker Ashley Nadesan can score at this level. Perhaps fortunately for us, Max Watters who had scored 13 in 15 was sold to Cardiff in January.

To continue our promotion charge this is another game we need to win. Before the last 3 games (Carlisle, Orient, Newport), I thought it would be really difficult to win all 3 – but we have done. Now we have perhaps more types of games we are expected to win, this could change the dynamic and Crawley may look to sit back and play for a point.

Let’s hope we are positive from the off and get another early goal to settle us down. As for team selection and barring any injuries, my guess is it could be the same starting 11 as Tuesday unless Vaughan is 100% ready to come back in. Morris did ok on Tuesday so suspect he’ll keep his place ahead of Lloyd.

Prediction: a fairly routine 2-0 win for us.
 

Ian

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Perhaps fortunately for us, Max Watters who had scored 13 in 15 was sold to Cardiff in January.
They will struggle for goals now which is great for us of course. I'd like to see a few goals against these just for goal difference. Predicting a 3-0 win for the whites.
 

bigmart

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The winning run to carry on home win 2 1
 
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As we saw in the return fixture, Crawley play some decent football and are the sort of 'nice' footballing side that we are generally comfortable playing, similar to Leyton Orient. Their away record is poor and we won't find them as physically awkward as Newport. We owe them one for the hammering we received earlier in the season, another contender for worst Rovers performance under Mike Jackson, and I think we will win the game relatively comfortably.

In terms of selection, I agree with Sparky that we will be unchanged. I doubt we would risk Vaughan for this fixture even if he was available, which seems unlikely.

A victory is likely to move us into the automatic promotion places for only the second time this season, and we could even go top of the league. Exciting times.
 
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You guys are worrying me with your confidence. ;) Crawley beat Leeds not so long ago, but have badly missed Watters since. Nevertheless they have enough quality to give us a good game. What worries me is that we do struggle at home against defensive sides and often win by the odd goal thanks to our ability to see the game out. It only takes a worldy like Stevenage and Oldham to rob us of points, so we need a two goal cushion, which rarely happens. Will we have our minds on Wembley already? I think it will be close and they may share the spoils.
 
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I don't think Crawley will play defensively. They will be relatively open.
 

bigmart

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You guys are worrying me with your confidence. ;) Crawley beat Leeds not so long ago, but have badly missed Watters since. Nevertheless they have enough quality to give us a good game. What worries me is that we do struggle at home against defensive sides and often win by the odd goal thanks to our ability to see the game out. It only takes a worldy like Stevenage and Oldham to rob us of points, so we need a two goal cushion, which rarely happens. Will we have our minds on Wembley already? I think it will be close and they may share the spoils.
The main is promotion the cup final is a nice extra game but will not distract the team
 

Boz

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I've seen us play Crawley at PP 3 times, the last two finished 3-3 and 5-1. While Watters has moved on, the other trio who scored against us are still there and all featured in some part as they lost to The Shrimps on Tuesday. Rather than a dour contest, I'm expecting a game similar to Oldham, so important that we stay alert and don't concede any soft goals.

Due to my technical glitches, was unable to see the full match v Newport, but I'd expect this to be much less stop-start than v Newport, more end to end, so probably less suited to someone like Nugent coming back to full fitness. While I accept that it doesn't make sense to use a recovering Vaughan, were he to be available, there might be a some merit in considering other options up front. Elsewhere, I'd stick with the same line-up, fitness permitting.

Certainly a game we're capable of winning and if we do so, it will ratchet up the pressure against those around us.
 
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I think it is actually a good game for Nugent to get up to speed. A less physical match against a footballing side will suit him, and we need him to play to build up some residual fitness in case Vaughan is out for any length of time.
 
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Kirby replaces Morris who must be injured. Vaughan not in squad.

Picking up a few knocks now. Hopefully not serious for Kieron as he has been playing well.
 

Boz

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It's a shame Morris is unavailable, as there are a few goals in his locker and Crawley the type of opponent who might have suited him. I might have pitched Crawford in rather than Kirby, who doesn't contribute much defensively and in Vaughan's absence we're already getting less of that further up the park.
 
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A journalist at the ground has said Vaughan could just be out as a precautionary measure, or may be out for five weeks.

That has cleared that up then. ☺
 

Ian

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Ohhh, Nugent should have tooked that one away. Bit end to end at the moment.
 
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