Carlisle vs Shrewsbury Predictions

• Shrewsbury have yet to win an away match in League One, losing on seven of their nine trips and scoring just five goals.
• Carlisle, meanwhile, have the worst attack in League Two, with 13 goals in 19 matches, and just six in 10 at home.
• Carlisle had failed to score in five straight home league games before beating Walsall last weekend.

Entertainment at a Premium at Boundary Park

Carlisle United’s season ticket holders haven’t exactly been getting value for money this season. Though they’ve only lost three home games in League Two, they’d gone five league games without scoring at Boundary Park before last week’s 1-0 victory over Walsall. In fact, between late September and last Saturday, their only home goals were against seventh-tier Horsham FC in the previous round of the FA cup.

Carlisle are the lowest scorers in the fourth tier, failing to score in nine of their 19 league games, and shouldn’t be expected to create too much when they host Shrewsbury, currently 27 places above them in the pyramid.

Shrews’ Away-Day Struggles

Having said that, Shrewsbury’s away-day troubles make Carlisle’s home form look half-decent. The Shrews have only won away from home once in all competitions this term, at seventh-tier Stratford Town FC, and have only netted five goals in nine away league trips, drawing 2 and losing seven.

With both teams fighting for survival in their respective divisions, they’ll have bigger priorities than making the third round of the FA Cup. With both this and the two teams’ woeful attacking records in mind, opposing both teams to score looks a good value play for this encounter. For a correct score prediction, I’d cautiously back the visitors to make their superiority count with a 1-0 win.