Scunthorpe vs Rochdale Predictions

It’s been a torrid start to the campaign for Scunthorpe, who recently parted company with Nick Daws and brought in Stuart McCall as manager, though they did improve their fortunes slightly when drawing away from home against Accrington last weekend. Having taken a point from his first game in charge, new boss McCall will be hoping to maintain his unbeaten run when Scunthorpe welcome Rochdale to Glanford Park on Saturday afternoon.

Under their new manager, Scunthorpe did stop the rot last weekend when drawing away at Accrington, though their performance wasn’t much of an improvement. By grinding out a point, it was simply a case of digging deep and avoiding defeat for Scunthorpe, who in all honesty, were somewhat outplayed by their hosts. On the balance of play, Stanley deserved to come out on top.

It’s fair to say that Scunthorpe have struggled during the early weeks of the season, and while experienced League One manager Stuart McCall may be able to alter their fortunes in time, it’s hard to get away from the fact that they’ve simply not been up to scratch in any area. The Iron have not been good enough offensively, while they’re also struggling massively at the back. As things stand, after six matches in League One, only one team has conceded more goals than Scunthorpe, and as they sit bottom of the expected goals against table, it’s fair to say that they’ve not been hard done by.

Fortunately for the hosts, they face a Rochdale side who’ve also been poor at the back, though the Dale have offered significantly more than Scunthorpe in an offensive sense.

Unlike last season, where Rochdale looked reasonably sound at the back at times but struggled to make their presence felt in the final third, Keith Hill’s men have looked more than useful going forward during the early weeks of this season, though their defensive efforts have left plenty to be desired. They too have conceded 13 goals, while they’ve kept just a single clean sheet.

Given how poorly Scunthorpe have fared at the back and having seen that Accrington made relatively light work of fashioning chances against the Iron last time out, Rochdale ought to fancy their attacking chances at Glanford Park on Saturday, though if they adopt an overly cavalier approach, they could easily be caught out. After all, most teams have found it easy to get at Dale’s back-line this season.

With the way things have gone for both teams, ‘Over 2.5 Goals & Both Teams to Score’ is easy to plump for at the prices. The pair have conceded an awful lot between them, as they’ve shipped a combined total of 26 goals, while they’re also conceding a combined average of 4.15 expected goals per game.