Saturday, January 21, 2012

ALLEN IN THE SPOTLIGHT ....


LEAGUE 1 : NOTTS COUNTY - MK DONS

It is very hard not to see goals here, County have won just once in ten starts and conceded 21 goals in the process, with goals at both ends in nine of those. They are in midtable and in a situation where if they retain any lingering playoff dreams, a point is of absolutely no use, so they will surely have to go for it.

They might have one eye on their FA Cup fourth round tie next week, but this is the first of two league games before that and with home boss Martin Allen formerly in charge of Dons, this is probably the one he will be up for.

Allen is something of a "media whore" and will have been feeding on the extra attention that brings to the game, although he will also be looking at that win-able home tie with Stevenage as a route to the 5th round and an opportunity to raise the profile of both himself and his club on a national level, in a competition he loves. Anyway, pretty sure that will not overly change the way they approach today's fixture, but it might the midweek one !

Allen is missing five defenders for various reasons, so is short of options at the back and might have no option but to stick with their attack is the best form of defence policy, under the circumstances.

We saw how good Dons were in midweek at QPR and they really ought to have scored a couple, they have scored two or more in their last five starts on the road in the league , 15 in total at an average of three per game and will come looking for maximum points to keep the pressure on the top two. I think Dons will win but prefer to split my bet on two "over" bets,
1.25 units "over" 2.75 goals 1.99 and 0.5 unit Dons "over" 2.5 goals 4.33 + there is 4.50 on offer. They have already scored three on the road seven times this year ( !) and also achieved that total in the reverse league fixture.

Good Luck.

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