Daggers And Robins To Go For Goals

The best bet on Saturday’s abbreviated football program is not on a specific team but on two sides combining for more than two and a half goals in a lower-league English game.

The match is question is Dagenham & Redbridge against Cheltenham and 188bet is offering quite bewildering odds of 2.02 that the Daggers and the Robins shoot out the lights on the outskirts of London. Surely the English League Two game is more likely to go over the general total than under it.

Dagenham & Redbridge is in a purple patch of form by its standards, with the Daggers unbeaten in seven matches across all competitions, including five wins. That sounds terrific but one has to acknowledge that Dagenham & Redbridge has had a soft schedule in recent weeks, with its victims including Accrington, Bristol Rovers and Bury. Also, Dagenham & Redbridge has kept only one clean sheet in its last seven games, going unbeaten because of its own goal scoring.

Cheltenham’s form is nowhere near as bad as 22nd position on the English League Two suggests, with the Robins having had an extremely difficult draw in the first quarter of the season. Cheltenham will turn the corner sooner rather than later, especially as it has managed to rustle the onion bag in 11 of its 13 matches across all competitions. Cheltenham games in English League Two are averaging 3.30 goals and Dagenham & Redbridge matches in the same tournament are averaging 2.70 goals. Cheltenham has yet to feature in a goalless draw, while no Dagenham & Redbridge game in the English fourth tier has produced fewer than two goals.

Both teams to score is trading at odds of 1.78 with 888sport but one can be a bit greedier than that and take the 2.02 about Dagenham & Redbridge and Cheltenham combining for three or more goals. The statistics support both plays.

Staying in English League Two, Wimbledon is a cracking bet at odds of 1.70 with BetVictor to beat the worst team in England’s top four divisions, Accrington. One should not allow Wimbledon’s back-to-back losses to the two sides immediately above Accrington on the ladder put one off backing the Dons because both Cheltenham and Northampton will escape the lower reaches before the year is through. Wimbledon had won four home matches on the spin before its supposedly shock 0-2 loss to Northampton, with its scalps including promotion contenders Fleetwood and Scunthorpe. Accrington’s two points from 10 games says all that needs saying about the Lancashire minnow. However, it is worth noting that Accrington is the division’s lowest scorer.

Moving up a level to English League One, Preston catches the eye at odds of 1.53 with 888sport, to bounce back to winning ways at the expense of Crewe. Preston had won five English League One matches in a row before going down 0-2 away to Peterborough, which while disappointing for North End fans was a result that does not look all that bad because the Posh are second on the ladder. Also, Preston probably did not lose too much sleep about losing 0-2 at home to Oldham in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. Promotion means everything to Preston this term given its large financial investment.

Crewe is in the English League One relegation zone 10 rounds into the season, with its only divisional victory coming at the expense of bottom-of-the-ladder Tranmere. Crewe defeated Tranmere 2-1 at home but the Alex were only up 1-0 with five minutes remaining even though Rovers had played with 10 men for the best part of an hour. Crewe has copped a few hidings already this term and Preston could hand it another one.

Still the majority of bookmakers are not buying into Leyton Orient being English League One title contenders, which is why the Os are trading at odds of 2.50 with BetVictor to beat Milton Keynes and make it nine wins and two draws from their first 11 divisional games. Milton Keynes has lost four of its last five road matches across all competitions, including losses to Gillingham, Peterborough and Stevenage. Leyton Orient is the real deal and it should be trading at no bigger than 2.20 to get the better of Milton Keynes.