Saturday’s EFL Tips with Matt Jones

Not too much EFL action this weekend, because of course it is the FA Cup third round and that means all the championship clubs are involved in that and plenty of League One and League Two teams have had their matches postponed as well.

But there are still five games in the third tier and six in the fourth tier, and I've endeavoured to pick out one match from each division that you might want to have a little flutter on this Saturday afternoon.

Let's start up in League One where Fleetwood take on Derby County an interesting one, this one. It's a first home league game for Charlie Adam - The new Fleetwood boss. He's taking his first steps into the managerial world, having had a playing career which sure I'm taking the likes of Blackpool and Liverpool and it will be interesting to see how he does as a manager his first game last weekend was a 3-1 defeat to Shrewsbury and that was the third time in four matches that both teams have scored in a Fleetwood fixture that, by the way, coming on the back of a run of no goal in six games for Fleetwood.

Now they haven't kept a clean sheet in four at Highbury, and they are bottom of the table with the worst defence in League One. They've conceded 42 times in just 24 outings. As for Derby, while they are flying high at the moment and are hopeful of getting back into the Championship, they have though, only kept one clean sheet in their last five outings, both teams drawing in the other four at the other end, by the way, they have netted in 16 successive games across all competitions since losing to Shrewsbury in October. 4 successive wins on the road, the most recent of them are three two success at Oxford, eight of their last 15 away matches have seen both teams scored, so Fleetwood against Derby. I think there could be action at both ends of the field in this one and both teams to score is my selection.

Let's move into League 2, where high flying Mansfield take on Crewe. Mansfield really have hit form of late, four wins in their last five to go with a draw that since A 2-2 stalemate against Tranmere in late November. Now their most recent match was a really impressive

2-0 victory against Stockport, Stockport, are top of the table but Mansfield are now only two points behind them and they do have two games in hand as well and their form at Field Mill this season has been terrific.

Unbeaten at home in the League won 5, drawn 6 so maybe a few too many stalemates for Nigel. But they are proving very hard to beat on home soil and they're also tough for Crewe

Now as for Crewe, they did win 1-0 against Bradford last week, but that only ended a run of seven without a win in that period they've drawn three and lost four, and they have, as a result dropped to 6th in the table over the last month, so their promotion hopes hitting a little bit of a blow, but they are still in the playoff region, away from home. They've been a little bit patchy. It's certainly for a team that high up the table, only three wins from 12 attempts in the league at drawing 5 and losing 4 of their last three away games.

So I think this is going to be a tough one for them. And I therefore think Mansfield could win. So just the two EFL games for you to go on this weekend. From my point of view anyway, Fleetwood against Derby, both teams to score and Mansfield to win at home to Crewe.