Blackpool v Exeter City Betting Tips: Wembley to witness a few League Two goals

May 26 2017
May 26 2017
Countdown to event
00
00
00
00
Statistics per month: Winnings: 0$ % of profit: 0 bet: 0 Won: 0 Statistic >

These League Two play-off finalists have been scoring goals for fun in the run up to this match and, if nerves don’t get the better of them, the Wembley crowd on Sunday afternoon should witness an entertaining affair.

Blackpool just about sneaked into the play-off spots on the final day of the regular season thanks to a 3-1 win against Leyton Orient. They then played in two very exciting matches against 4th place Luton and came out 6-5 winners on aggregate.

Before these play-off matches, the Tangerines were rather conservative, favouring clean sheets and defensive solidity to all out attack. This approach resulted in a 33% clean sheet ratio over the course of the campaign, including three in their last five regular season games, as well as having the second-best Goals Against record in the play-off places with just 46 conceded. However, we saw against Luton that they can come out of their shell when necessary and they did extremely well to score six goals against the side with the second-best defensive record in the entire division.

Much of the news at Blackpool this season has very much involved the boardroom and fan protests rather than their on-pitch achievements. In fact, such is the discontent at the club that, according to the Blackpool Gazette, 68% of fans have said they will not be attending Sunday’s final at Wembley. A further factor here could be manager Gary Bowyer’s lack of experience. Does he have that nous to know how to come out on top in these big finals? Having said that, confidence is a huge thing in football and Blackpool certainly have that at the moment.

Blackpool versus Luton was not the only play-off semi-final to be entertaining as Exeter against Carlisle was a similarly thrilling affair – again finishing 6-5 on aggregate to Exeter. The Grecians now go into this match with great confidence having won three of their last five, losing just once in a dead rubber against Carlisle in the regular season.

However, unlike Blackpool, goals at both ends of the pitch have been a regular occurrence all season for Exeter. They had the third-best offensive record of the regular season with 75 Goals For but have generally been poor at the back. Their Goals Against record of 56 was the second-worst in the top seven whilst they have now failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last 11 matches.

Although Wembley is of course a neutral venue, it is still technically an away game and, as such, Exeter will take confidence from their away form this campaign which has seen them take 42 points from 23 games – 13 more than they earned at home. Having said that, they have been a bit inconsistent on the road of late with no back-to-back wins since late January. However, although they have not kept a clean sheet in their last nine away games, they have scored the second-highest number of away goals this season – 39. Although manager Paul Tisdale has a lot of experience at Exeter, they have not been in a play-off final for nearly ten years.

These two sides have been in goal-scoring form recently and Exeter in particular will know that their best chance of winning this match is to outscore the opposition. I expect there will be a few goals here but, having said that, given the tense nature of almost all big finals, we probably won’t see things spill over into anything like the 3-3 scorelines witnessed in the semis. Interestingly, there have not been more than four goals in a League Two play-off final for seven years. ‘3-4 Total Goals’, is worth a go at 6/4 and is a bet that allows plenty of flexibility on the result.

Tips for all of this weekend’s final can be found here.

Found a mistake?Let us know
Still have questions? Ask our experts!
Comments