Accrington Stanley – Carlisle United. Mark O’Haire’s prediction

Accrington and Carlisle lock horns for the second time in 10 days with Stanley bidding to bounce back from their 2-0 defeat at Brunton Park.

John Coleman’s charges kept their play-off and promotion hopes alive with a dominant 4-1 win over Crawley on Saturday in a bad-tempered match marred by three red cards, cementing their position in the top-seven. And I fancy Accrington’s chances of bagging a fourth consecutive home victory here.

The hosts hold an excellent W6-D2-L5 return when taking on top-half rivals, only Portsmouth and Carlisle have scored more home goals despite the Reds playing fewer fixtures in front of their own supporters and their 2.00 points-per-game average (W7-D3-L2) at the Wham Stadium is only bettered by table-topping Northampton.

Further indication of Accy’s outstanding campaign is seen in the performance data – only Pompey (65.93%) and Oxford (65.68%) are enjoying a larger share of the total shots-on-target in League Two than Stanley’s 63.35% with no side averaging more efforts on-target as hosts’ 6.83 per-game.

Carlisle slipped to an ugly 1-0 loss at Newport on Saturday and Keith Curle’s men have managed just W2-D6-L4 when taking on top-half teams. The Cumbrians have kept just one clean sheet across those 12 games and may be suffering from a bit of fatigue with this their ninth game of 2016 already.

United had five players suffering the after effects of a virus over the weekend and it’s no certainty that those players will be on the mend and 100% here. So with that in mind, I’m happy to oppose the travellers and back Accrington to win at 1.91.