High-flying Bolton play host to a struggling Swindon outfit at The Macron on Saturday afternoon in a match where securing three points is a must for both.
Swindon haven’t enjoyed a particularly good campaign so far and if they’re not careful could find themselves sucked into the relegation scrap. On the other hand, Bolton have established themselves as one of the divisions strongest teams this season, but will need to continue winning matches in order to keep the pace with the league’s leading pair.
This match against a side who’ve found it tough to find their feet of late, especially on the road, provides Bolton with an excellent opportunity to continue on the up. There are two bets that catch the eye and these are: ‘Bolton to Win & Over 2.5 Goals’ and ‘Bolton to Win Half-Time/Full-Time’ at odds of 11/8 and 13/10 respectively.
Although Phil Parkinson’s side have failed to match the scoring exploits of some of the other top teams in League One, especially the pair who’re currently keeping them out of the automatic promotion spots, it’s very much been a case of “home is where the heart is”. The Trotters have produced the goods in front of goal with far greater regularity at home than when playing away and are fancied to carry on doing so.
Having won each of their last seven league games in front of a home crowd, Bolton have managed to find the net on 16 occasions. On top of this, ‘Over 2.5 Goals’ landed in five of those seven victories. If we consider also that ‘Over 2.5 Goals’ went in during four of Swindon’s last five on the road (four matches that they lost) then things are looking pretty good ahead of this one.
When playing at The Macron, Bolton have done a solid job when it comes to leading matches before the break. In fact, they’ve scored during the first 45 minutes and held a half-time lead in eight of their nine home wins. Put this together with the fact that Swindon have been trailing in six of their seven away defeats, including in three of their last four, it’s quite easy to imagine the hosts coming out and dominating from the off.
Funny things often happen in football and any match can easily fall into the “just one of those days” category, but, given the way these two are going right now, it’s very hard to see anything other than a dominant display from the hosts and Parkinson’s men are expected to put a poor visiting side to the sword in relatively convincing fashion.
See Saturday’s League Two preview here.