Peterborough vs Scunthorpe Predictions

After losing to Barnsley on Boxing Day, Peterborough needed to bounce back quickly to stay in the top six and bounce back quickly is exactly what they did. After thrashing Accrington by four goals to nil on the road, Steve Evans men will be confident of taking another step in the right direction when they welcome Scunthorpe’s dodgy rear-guard to ABAX Stadium on Tuesday afternoon.

Peterborough have certainly slowed down since their fast start to the season, but they showed that they’re still a side to be taken seriously when smashing home four goals against Accrington at the weekend. There won’t be too many teams that go to Crown Ground and dish out such a beating, so Evans’ men deserve plenty of credit for that effort. However, consistency remains a problem for Posh, who continue to find it tough to hit their stride on a regular basis.

Even at home, Peterborough have struggled to continually put their best foot forward. They’ve won just four times at ABAX Stadium this season, while they’ve emerged victorious from just two of their last ten on home soil. In addition, their attacking efforts have been all too up and down. They offered very little against Walsall last time out at home, created plenty against both Oxford and Wimbledon before that, but were very lacklustre against Bradford prior to that.

Fortunately, this home match against a Scunthorpe side that struggles to keep things tight at the back does represent a big opportunity for Posh to continue where they left off on Saturday. Even if they’re not at their best offensively, the Iron’s dodgy back-line may struggle to hold out.

Keeping teams out is not something that Scunthorpe have been able to do this season. Tuesday’s visitors recorded their first clean sheet in over a month on Saturday, though the fact that they conceded 1.85 expected goals suggests that they were lucky to do so. What’s more, Scunny have failed to shut out their opponents in all but one of their 12 away matches this season, while they’ve shipped a worrying total of 22 goals on their travels. It would be easy to assume that they’ve simply not had the rub of the green, but the fact that Stuart McCall’s men have conceded an average of 1.93 expected goals shows that they’ve conceded so many goals simply because they’ve been too easy to create against.

In all honesty, despite failing to impress from an attacking point of view in many of their home games, Peterborough could hardly have a better opportunity here. Having warmed up nicely at the weekend, Posh can see in the New Year by finding the net on multiple occasions on Tuesday. Against one of the weakest rear-guards in the division, the bet that stands out is ‘Peterborough to Win & Over 1.5 Goals’.