5 League Two Tips to Watch This Weekend - Gameweek 8

Exeter City return to their fortress of St James Park after a 2-1 victory of Crawley Town during midweek.

The Grecians have had a decent start this season, following a disappointing defeat in the play-off final last campaign, and are unbeaten in six games. Matt Taylor’s side lost just once at home during the 2019/20 regular season but lost their first home game of this season to Port Vale, however, we expect them to take advantage of a wounded Scunthorpe United in the early kick-off this weekend.

The Iron find themselves in the relegation zone after seven games and there are fears that they may fall into the fifth tier for the first time in the club’s history. Scunthorpe have lost their last five games, with four of these defeats coming by more than one goal and have also lost their last five away games, failing to score in their last four away league fixtures.

We are tipping the odds of 7/4 for Exeter to win with a (-1) goal handicap.

After being winless in their first five games, Oldham Athletic have had a brilliant couple of matches, picking up four points in the last seven days. Meanwhile, Port Vale, were impressive as they beat one of the league favourites, Salford City, last Saturday but failed to follow it up as they lost 3-1 to Cambridge United in midweek.

Oldham have failed to beat Vale at Boundary Park in their last five attempts and have not scored in their last three home games against Saturday’s opponents. Harry Kewell’s side go into the game as favourites and their games have seen 25 goals this season, which is the highest in the league, but we believe their goal drought against Vale will continue on Saturday.

Vale’s last three wins have been to nil and have kept a clean sheet in four of their last five games against Oldham - our tip for this one is Port Vale to win to nil is 7/2.

Salford City have received stick for sacking Graham Alexander and will be looking to silence their critics as they face Crawley Town at the Peninsula Stadium.

Paul Scholes takes charge of his third Salford game, after winning once and losing once in his opening two matches. Salford haven’t lost in their last five home games in League Two and have seen over 2.5 goals in their last two.

Crawley have won just once away from home in 18 months and I don’t see them changing that in a difficult fixture against the league favourites. Their last three games have had over 2.5 goals and they are priced at 7/4 to win and over 2.5 goals.

A few years ago, Cambridge United wouldn’t have dreamed of being favourites against Bolton Wanderers but that’s the reality going into the fixture at the weekend.

High-flying Cambridge are top of the table and have won their last four games and have not only the best defence, conceding just four, but also the best attack as they’ve scored 18 goals in seven games. The U’s last two home games have been wins with both teams scoring and they also have a striker in fine form in Paul Mullin, who scored a hattrick last time out.

Both teams have scored in four of Bolton’s last five games and scored three against Barrow during midweek and Cambridge to win and BTTS is priced at 7/2.

Barrow will be disheartened after conceding a 95th-minute equaliser against Bolton on Tuesday night to deny them their first win in the fourth tier since their controversial relegation in 1972.

David Dunn is chasing his first win as the club's manager but is unbeaten at home with Barrow this season, as the Bluebirds have drawn their opening four games at home in League Two. We think they’ll draw again, as they’ve proven to be hard to beat but may find it difficult to break down Walsall’s tight defence.

Similarly, Walsall are unbeaten but have drawn five games out of seven, the most in the league. One positive is that they’ve conceded just six times so far this season, leading me to believe it will be a low scoring game this weekend and Walsall may well settle for a draw away from home.

We are tipping a draw at 9/4.

By Tom Eaton