EFL Tips | Gab Sutton

Mansfield will be glad to have built up such a healthy points tally at this stage, with about half the number of points they’ll need for safety amassed less than a third of the way through their league campaign.

The Stags have given themselves some much-needed room for error, having just entered a sequence of facing top 15 opposition 15 times in 16 league games – the other game being a pre-Christmas visit from Rotherham who have just come down from the Championship!

Nigel Clough’s side won 1-0 at Stevenage in the FA Cup on Saturday, but they have lost by that same scoreline in each of their last three league games, missing the industrious Lee Gregory up top.

While hosts Bolton might not quite be where supporters want them to be, they can defeat weaker and middling sides in the division consistently and should have too much for their visitors if Dion Charles and Aaron Collins are on song.

Port Vale had to show great resilience in last Monday’s A500 Derby, as Rekeem Harper’s red card early in the second half dealt a real blow to Darren Moore’s side, who were leading Crewe at the time, but managed to hold out for a decent point – albeit with the disappointment of conceding in stoppage time.

If Vale can bring one of George Byers or Ben Garrity into the squad for Tuesday’s trip to Cheltenham, they’ll be significantly strengthened.

Hosts Cheltenham have steadily climbed the table since boss Michael Flynn switched from 3-5-2 to 4-3-3 in October, with just one loss in six league games, but the average position of sides they avoided defeat against in that sequence is 18th.

The Robins have made some progress, but there’s not much evidence to suggest they’re ready to match one of the best teams in the league.

Richard Kone is the third-top goalscorer in League One with nine goals for the season in 16 games, and very much the division’s in-form striker.

The 21-year-old’s brilliance is not confined to the league, though, having netted against higher-league opposition in Swansea and Aston Villa in the EFL Cup, as well as National League side Wealdstone in the FA Cup at the weekend.

Having arrived in the country to play at the Homeless World Cup in 2019, Kone started out in the Eastern Counties League with Lopes Tavares, subsequently renamed Athletic Newham, for whom he was playing in the Essex Senior League as recently as last season.

Kone has had to show strength, perseverance and poise in front of goal to enjoy his meteoric rise, qualities which have been much in evidence at Adams Park – and he’ll be out to take his league tally into double figures at Exeter, who have lost five of their last seven league games.

MK Dons have scored in eight of Scott Lindsey’s nine league games in charge, mustering a combined 21 goals, giving them the best attacking record in League Two in that timeframe.

As many as 13 different players have found the net this season for the Buckinghamshire outfit, who have looked to driven attacking midfielder Alex Gilbey as their main source of goals but are hoping former Championship regular Scott Hogan can change that – still at a decent age at 32.

Chesterfield, meanwhile, have the division’s best attacking record across the whole season to date, boasting themselves a multitude of threats: when flair wide man Dilan Markanday, tricky and agile Armando Dobra, direct James Berry-McNally and experienced poacher Will Grigg start simultaneously, goals are rarely far away.

The Spireites have certain vulnerabilities in defensive areas, that may remain until January, so a high-scoring encounter looks likely.

Tranmere Rovers in a good place would likely beat Morecambe in a good place, because the former have an exponentially bigger fanbase and far greater potential when they get things right.

When both are struggling, however, Rovers grand history means it’s hard for them to pull together as a club, because the name understandably carries a certain weight of expectation.

Whereas, the Shrimps have a history of rallying together in adversity, which is how they’ve achieved what they have over the last couple of decades. Therefore, they’re relatively well-placed to ensure that the off-field problem don’t affect them, and sometimes even inspires them to unite.

So, while Derek Adams’ side might be bottom of the league, they’ve actually been playing a lot better than results suggest and have had issues with conversion – the visitors now have two wins in three and a positive start in Birkenhead would ensure a favourably frosty silence falls across Prenton Park.