Notts County vs Tranmere Predictions

With Notts County now on to their third manager of the season, Neal Ardley takes his place in Meadow Lane’s home dugout for the first time on Saturday as Notts County host Tranmere Rovers. With the hosts in terrible form at the moment and the visitors trying to continue their excellent start to the season, it promises to be an enthralling affair on Saturday afternoon.

After taking the reins at the end of November, Ardley has had a long wait before leading his side out on home soil. His opening two games have been testing away trips to Sunderland and Mansfield and he hopes to record his first win as boss in his first home match. The new man in charge has a daunting prospect ahead of him as his charges are without a win in League Two since the end of October and with 43 goals conceded so far this season, they have the worst defensive record in the division.

Standing in the way are newly-promoted Tranmere who have been impressive since returning to the Football League and occupy seventh place in the league. 34 points from their opening 21 games have seen them emerge as candidates for back-to-back promotions and they are sure to provide a stern test for their struggling hosts. Rovers have put themselves in this position largely on the back of their strong offensive powers and the 31 goals they have scored this season is a respectable return for a side challenging for the playoffs.

Although Notts County have a new man in charge, he has yet to secure victory in his two matches at the helm. Given that County have such a poor defensive record, we think that Ardley’s best form of defence will be found in attack, and when you also consider that their visitors are no slouches in front of goal either, we think that backing both teams to score is the way to go.

We are not done there though, as although we think a both teams to score bet is the best option, we believe that there is further chance of a return in this fixture. The form of the hosts makes it hard to ignore the chances of an away win, and with this in mind, we think that combining our initial tip of both teams to score with a Tranmere win should provide a good chance of some decent profit.