Saturday: Charlton Athletic vs Blackpool
The Addicks welcome the Tangerines to the Valley having been unbeaten in the league in four games. While they’re on a four game winning run in the league, they’ll be wanting to strike back with a victory following last weekends FA Cup defeat at home to Doncaster Rovers against a Blackpool side who’ve won five of their last 10 games.
Blackpool have done very well against the southern sides this season with points picked up at Wycombe, Plymouth, Peterborough, Gillingham and Southend of which the latter three resulted in wins.
But they have Oxford United, Solihull and Barnsley all coming up in the run-up to Xmas. The 2nd game is the massive FA Cup 2nd Round replay where the winners will be hosting Arsenal in the 3rd round.
Manager Terry McPhillips might be keen to come away with the full three points where possible whilst potentially looking at resting one or two players in preparation for the next few games which are crucial to bringing a lot of income from tv rights, ticket sales and much more.
A win for Charlton would surely consolidate their place in the play-offs while a win for Blackpool could mean Charlton leave the play-off places and as long as Bristol Rovers defeat Doncaster, they could end up in Charlton’s spot which is 6th place.
Saturday: Plymouth Argyle vs Bradford City
This relegation battle comes at a crucial time for both teams who have both only won 4 games this season so far. In fact, two defeats separate the hosts from their basement visitors. Plymouth come into this having won four of their last 10 and having lost 2-1 at Home Park to Oxford United in the FA Cup on Saturday whilst Bradford were held 2-2 at Peterborough in the FA Cup 2nd round so a replay is required to separate the two sides on Tuesday night.
Plymouth have got the easier run into Christmas with games against midtable sides in Rochdale away and Accrington Stanley at home whilst Bradford have got the chance to get points themselves with games against Walsall and Scunthorpe coming up at Valley Parade.
A win for Plymouth would close the gap between them and 20th place Scunthorpe to to points however a win for Bradford could make them leapfrog into 21st place.
Saturday: Peterborough United vs Oxford United
Yet again, its another scenario of two teams who need the points for different reasons. Peterborough welcome Oxford to London Road with the hosts unbeaten in their last three games and they’re looking to push into 2nd place if Sunderland or Luton fail to win their games against Accrington and Fleetwood this weekend.
The visitors on the other hand need the three points to start steering clear of the relegation places entirely once again and before losing to Bradford City last month, they had been unbeaten in 7 games.
They come into this game unbeaten in 2 games and off the good news that they’ll be travelling to Championship side Brentford next month in the FA Cup 3rd Round. Three points could take them up as high as 15th depending on other results elsewhere.