TUESDAY ....

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 28TH

Dartford saw off Basingstoke Town 4-1 last night courtesy of a Danny Harris hat-trick, that closes the gap at the top to "just" nine points, if they can win their game in hand and continue to play at their current level, there might still be some life left in the BSS title race, with the Darts playing the better football right now and Woking showing signs of feeling the pressure, anyway, something to keep our eye on.

Busy midweek and tomorrow's email will be of special interest with four previews and selections at odds of circa 8.0, 5.50 and 3.75.

Today, I am going to concentrate solely on League 1, where three of the four fixtures offer betting opportunities, but first, a few words about the title and playoff race. Despite Charlton Athletic having a ten point lead at the top of the table, I still do not feel that anything is decided yet, with almost a third of the season remaining. There is very little to split the top five teams IMO, it is just that the South East London side have yet to hit the kind of blip that almost every team has, but it doesn't mean that it isn't coming !

I have been through all the remaining fixtures and feel that xxxx xxx xxx xxx ( rest of this part of my notes is restricted)

LEAGUE 1 :

ROCHDALE - NOTTS COUNTY
CHESTERFIELD - CHARLTON ATHLETIC
STEVENAGE - HUDDERSFIELD TOWN

Three hugely interesting match ups.

Rochdale are rejuventated under John Coleman, a talented coach who performed miracles in over a decade at Accrington Stanley, on what, to describe as a shoestring budget would be a major understatement, probably the lowest in the Football League. Not only did he keep them afloat financially, got them into the FL and challenging, but did so, selling all the time and playing an attractive brand of football.

Dale will not be too worried about the style of football they play for the time being, last year was their first season in the third tier, after 41 years in the "fourth" division and Coleman's mission is just to keep them in League 1.

He immediately endeared himself to supporters, by winning the derby game with Bury 3-0 on his debut, the two clubs are huge rivals and that was really a dream start. They didn't have the chance to build on that as the weather interfered and after a 17 day break, they were rusty in a narrow loss at Scunthorpe United, but have since beating promotion hopefuls Bournemouth 1-0 here and taken road points at leaders Charlton, where they were close to a famous win and Colchester United, so just one defeat and eight points from five very tough fixtures. Things do not get any easier after tonight, they host 3rd placed Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend and they then travel to Carlisle United (6th) and Huddersfield Town ( 4th), both strong home teams, so this is as good as it is going to get for the time being.

County also have a new boss, Keith Curle replacing Martin Allen recently and he started with consecutive home wins against Stevenage Borough and Chesterfield last week, fantastic way to start, but good fortune in that they met a Boro side running on empty, just three days after they chased Tottenham Hotspur all over the pitch for 90 minutes and then found a late winner against the run of play, against Field, who were having an off day after a good run of form. County also made the most of home advantage and basically flooded an already heavy pitch at the half time break to suit their style of play. The visitors are far less effective on the road, where they have already lost ten times, the most of any team outide the bottom eight and after two very gruelling games in the last six days and however tired Boro were, they will work you very hard, I give the hungry hosts the clear edge today. Rochdale -0.25 ball 2.25 asian line.

xxx xx xxxx x x x ..... Other League 1 previews are also "restricted".

Good Luck.

contact : gowi8@btinternet.com