Plymouth Argyle vs Doncaster Rovers Predictions

Anyone who thought Plymouth would kick on this season after turning their form around during the latter stages of the last campaign have been in for a rude awakening. Nine games in and Plymouth are yet to win, while they’ve not exactly been unlucky either. After another poor performance in defeat last time out, the Pilgrims will be hoping for a change of luck when they welcome Doncaster to Home Park on Saturday.

It’s often easy to get caught up in form, and a lot of the time too much is made of when a team goes on a seemingly poor run, though given Plymouth’s string of performances this season, it’s very hard to be optimistic about the Pilgrims. To put it lightly, it is a bit surprising that Derek Adams is still in a job, such has been the level of Plymouth this season. There are plenty of Football League clubs who would’ve parted company with the manager by now.

At present, Plymouth have two main problems and they’re sizeable ones. Firstly, Adams’ men are conceding far too much, both in terms of chances and goals. Not only have the Pilgrims shipped a very worrying total of 16 goals in nine matches, but they’re also the first team to concede a total of 20 expected goals, so the fact that they’ve let in just 16 suggests that they’ve been rather fortunate.

What’s more, the hosts aren’t offering enough at the other end of the pitch. They’ve scored just five goals, while only two teams in the division have accumulated less expected goals than the Pilgrims.

In contrast, Doncaster have been going along nicely. They regained the winning thread by beating a very useful Luton side a few weeks ago, while Grant McCann’s counter-attacking continued to thrive when thrashing Walsall by four goals to one on the road after that. Last weekend, when beating Bradford, Donny once again moved through the gears in fine fashion. In truth, a repeat of any of those three encouraging performances would likely be enough for the visitors to come out on top on this occasion.

Not only does the fact that Plymouth are struggling make it easy to go against them, but their style, which is seemingly an open one, may just play straight into the hands of the visitors, who at this moment in time are probably the best counter-attacking side in the division.

Donny have shown on several occasions that they’re adept at playing away from home against teams who will come forward, so another good attacking afternoon could be in store for McCann’s men, who’ve scored eight goals in four away matches this season.

With plenty looking in favour of the visitors, against a Plymouth side that is conceding an average of 2.27 expected goals per match, the bet that stands out most is ‘Doncaster to Score Over 1.5 Goals’.