Rochdale v Port Vale
Football : England : Coca Cola League Two
Tuesday 26th January 2010 - Kickoff 7:45pm

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My objective of providing tips in the lower leagues is to maximize winning bets along with maximum returns, so, upon first glance, you’d probably go for a straight Rochdale win here, but as the odds are around 1.60 at best I’m taking a different tact and I fancy there’s a few goals in this one, along with better odds.

Rochdale (1st) Home : 9-0-3 28:11

Runaway leaders Rochdale, who are now nine points clear at the top, have a very good record of scoring (and conceding) goals at their Spotland ground.

In total, there has been 39 goals scored in their 12 home fixtures so far, at a goal-per-game average of 3.25.

And if you dig a little deeper, they have been involved in games of 3 goals or more a total of 10 times out of 12 matches – not a bad ratio.

The Rochdale home record reads 9-0-3 28/11, and at the weekend they destroyed Cheltenham Town away from home 4-1.

Strikers Chris Dagnall (14 goals, 10 assists) & Chris O'Grady (15 goals,6 assists) are on fire at the moment with O`Grady bagging a hat-trick at Cheltenham. They also have goals provided by defender Craig Dawson (8 goals), while Tom Kennedy and Will Buckley also make valuable contributions.

Port Value (12th) Away : 4-6-2 13:13

Now, onto Port Vale and the reason why I didn’t go for a straight Rochdale win; they have a pretty good record on the road with stats of 4-6-2 13/13 ..

But it’s the fact they have failed to score on only three occasions out of 12 away games that leads me to believe they are good enough to score at least one goal, and leave the rest to Rochdale.

Vale strikers Marc Richards (9 goals) & Louis Dodds (5 goals) are more than capable of scoring, while Port Vale have also signed Brighton striker Craig Davies who scored 5 goals in 9 games whilst at Stockport County last season in League One.

Midfielder Tommy Fraser (2 goals) also knows where the goal is.

The Betting Verdict

Anyway, I’m confident there’ll be more goals on offer tonight at Spotland.

If I had to pick a scoreline, I’d go for 2-1 to Rochdale, but don’t quote me on that!

The Pick :

Rochdale 2-1 Port Vale

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Over 2.5 Total Goals @ 1.80+