Forest Green Rovers vs Tranmere Predictions

With the regular season now complete and the majority of the teams starting to make their plans for the new campaign, there is still a handful of sides who will be hoping that they have enough about them to earn a spot at Wembley and ultimately promotion to England’s third tier. This Monday sees two sides go head to head who are hoping they have the quality required to book their spot at Wembley for the League Two play-off final as Forest Green Rovers welcome Tranmere Rovers to The New Lawn for the second leg of their League Two play-off semi-final clash.

If the two clashes between these sides in the regular season are anything to go by, then Forest Green Rovers will be very confident in their chances of claiming their spot at Wembley for the final. The visitors claimed an excellent 3-1 victory when the sides met back in October, and they followed up that victory by becoming one of the few visiting sides to be successful at Prenton Park as they claimed a 1-0 win on Good Friday. However, in the first leg on Friday, they were unable to repeat that trick as an Oliver Banks thunderbolt was enough give the hosts the win. Tranmere enjoyed the bulk of possession and chances in that clash thanks in no small part to Gavin Gunning’s dismissal in the 15th minute.

After claiming all three points at Prenton Park and being one of only two sides who were able to do the double over their hosts this season, Forest Green Rovers will have every reason to believe that they have the capabilities required to progress. However, in the regular campaign they had a pretty modest home record and they go into this match with it all to do following their defeat in the first leg.

Tranmere Rovers enjoyed an excellent return to the Football League following their promotion from the National League last season, and they know that whatever the remainder of the campaign holds for them, they will deem this season to be a success. Rovers disappointment that they were unable to capitalise on their excellent position due to a poor end to the season which ruled out their automatic promotion bid will have subsided following their first leg performance, but they will have to ensure they complete the job on Monday.

If Tranmere Rovers are to emerge victorious then one man who is undoubtedly going to have a big impact is star striker James Norwood. The 28-year-old finished as the league’s top scorer with 29 goals to his name in all competitions, and although he failed to score in the first leg, the fact that he had a number of very good chances means he is still finding the space and should be able to bag a goal this time around.

A quick glance at the odds and it immediately becomes apparent that the bookies fancy Forest Green Rovers to get the job done over 90 minutes and have priced the match accordingly. However, it is not an assessment that we agree with and when you consider the average home record of the hosts and the fact that they did not look all that threatening first time around, albeit with a man less for the majority of the game, then we think backing the visitors to get a win is the way to go. However, it is also important to note that Tranmere are a lot more open defensively on the road, so adding the safety net of the ‘Draw – No Bet’ looks to be a wise move to make.