League 2: Stevenage FC- Bristol Rovers

Bristol Rovers finally found their way into the top 3 at the weekend and for the third time inside a decade, look to have put together a perfectly timed second half of the campaign promotion push. They are a big club at League 2 level, had some huge gates in the Conference last season, when they took over 30,000 to the play off final and have attracted 10,000 + to two of their last three home games and have an eye on not just League 1, but beyond. What I really liked this last week,when other clubs would have been focused solely on the weekend game with Yeovil, is that Rovers went all out to tie two key players down to extended contracts and are looking to push next season, regardless of what level they are playing at. The Gas have averaged over 2.04 points per game since late November, that is a number that only runaway leaders Northampton town can better and is 6-14 points more than any of the other teams battling for promotion and whilst the Cobblers form and long winning run has collected all the headlines, Rovers have been hardly any less impressive. Now they have their fate in their own hands, win their last four games and they will be in League 1, their last two fixtures are against the bottom two, one of whom are already relegated and the other will be so after this evening, so that leaves tonight and the "derby" game with Exeter City on Saturday, they can worry about that tomorrow morning, but you can see how close they are now and how they should be 100% focused on all three points and nothing else this evening. They will have circa 1,200 supporters at the game tonight, which for a fourth tier club , making a six hour round trip on a midweek night is incredible support and those fans will make up around a third of the attendance and will be really making themselves heard.

Stevenage have just about managed to keep themselves away from the drop zone, but I feel that has more to do with how very poor the bottom two have been and Rovers were actually relegated to the Conference in 2013 with eight more points than the hosts currently have and it would be fair to say that the Boro have been playing at "normal" relegation level this campaign. Anyway, they will be safe and York dropping a point at home to promotion chasing Portmouth would 100% confirm it and even if not , it would need four wins for City, four defeats for Stevenage along with a 14 goal swing and that is not going to happen ! So we have the home side who probably allowed themselves a small celebration after their win over Newport County on Saturday, which "ensured" their survival. Boro played really well in the first half at the weekend, but according to their own supporters were dire after the break, incredibly nervous, scared to make a tackle and were pushed further and further back and in danger of blowing a two goal lead and, if County had pulled one back earlier (they scored in the 88th minute), the visitors would probably have taken a point or more. That backs to the wall second 45 performance, along with releif at staying up, is bound to have taken a toll mentally and I suspect it will be hard to get really up for a much stronger opponent just a couple of days later. Away win.

1.75 units Bristol Rovers -0.5 ball 1.97 asian line/Sportmarket.

Good Luck.