FRIDAY FOOTBALL .....

DIVISION 1

OLDHAM ATHLETIC- HARTLEPOOL UNITED

Goals have been very hard for these two to come by this season, with just seven between them in ten league starts. Pool can claim only two of those, but have been miserly defensively on the road, where they have claimed four points from extremely tough visits to MK Dons and Gillingham, in addition to a fine 1-0 win at Championship side Coventry in the League Cup. They took EPL side Burnley to extra time in the next round of that competition, before putting in their only really poor performance of the season in a timid home loss to Norwich last weekend, when tiredness might well have played a part.

There will be the odd poor display, with 11 new signings at the club over the summer, it might take time for the side to fully gel, but hopefully that was a blip and they are very eager to get it out of their system and might have the ideal opportunity at Oldham on friday night. It is not like they have not been creating chances in the league, with a tidy 49 attempts on goal, four of which hit the woodwork, something that only Leeds have done more times, so a little more luck would have gone a long way.

The hosts have an extensive injury list, with 15 players (!) unavailable for their visit to Brentford last weekend. They did hold the Bees to a draw, but created little and allowed the out of sorts home side 18 attempts on goal. Oldham are really struggling on home soil, where they have not won in ten starts and they can hardly be looking forward to facing Pools latest signing, Icelandic international striker Armann Bjornsson. The massive "man mountain"former Brann frontman will get stuck in and pose a real threat to the Oldham backline who struggled with high balls into the box against the Bees, something that will not have gone unnoticed by tonight's visitors. Away win.

6 points Hartlepool +1/2 ball 1.85 + asian line.

Good Luck.