Blackpool and Bournemouth meet at Bloomfield Road on Saturday afternoon in the clash of the Championship's two seaside towns.
The Tangerines are currently 14th in the table but looking up, while the Cherries sit in second place – six points behind leaders Fulham.
Match preview
© Reuters
Blackpool's 1-1 draw away at Coventry extended their unbeaten run to five games (W3 D2) – their longest streak without defeat so far this season.
Having been promoted from League One last year, the Tangerines are now just five points off the Championship playoffs.
Neil Critchley's side have won their last three league matches at Bloomfield Road – the club have not won four in a row on home turf since September 2017.
Blackpool scored twice in the space of four minutes as they came from two goals down to draw 2-2 in this season's reverse fixture at the Vitality Stadium in August.
© Reuters
Bournemouth bounced back from their FA Cup exit at the hands of Boreham Wood last weekend with a 3-1 home win over Birmingham City on Wednesday night.
The Cherries' Championship form has been rather erratic of late, with two back-to-back losses followed by two back-to-back wins, before two more back-to-back losses and now two back-to-back wins again.
Although the gap to high-scoring Fulham has increased, Scott Parker's side are currently two points clear of third-placed Blackburn Rovers, with two games in hand.
No Championship side have picked up more points away from home this season than Bournemouth (28), while the Cherries also have the division's best defence, having conceded only 25 goals in 29 games.
- L
- W
- W
- D
- W
- D
- W
- L
- W
- D
- W
- D
- W
- W
- L
- L
- W
- W
- W
- L
- L
- W
- L
- W
Team News
© Reuters
Critchley hopes to have Richard Keogh available for Saturday's game after the centre-back was forced off with a calf injury in the second half against Coventry in midweek.
CJ Hamilton and Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel sat out the trip to the CBS Arena but will be in contention to be recalled.
Ethan Robson started in midweek after returning from his loan spell at MK Dons, but could be replaced by Callum Connolly.
Jefferson Lerma was sent off in Bournemouth's midweek win over Birmingham so will be suspended for this game, but Scott Parker hinted after the match that he was considering appealing the red card.
Ryan Christie suffered a quad issue in the second half of that match and had to be substituted, so will be assessed ahead of the weekend.
If the Scot is unavailable, it could open the door for deadline day signing Siriki Dembele to make his first start.
Blackpool possible starting lineup:
Grimshaw; Gabriel, Ekpiteta, Keogh, Sterling; Hamilton, Dougall, Connolly, Bowler; Madine, Lavery
Bournemouth possible starting lineup:
Travers; Stacey, Phillips, Kelly, Zemura; Billing, Cook, Cantwell; Dembele, Solanke, Anthony
We say: Blackpool 1-2 Bournemouth
It would be naive to say that Bournemouth have rediscovered their mojo after their midweek win because we have been here before. The Cherries will undoubtedly be favourites as they head to Bloomfield Road, but Blackpool have shown they are no pushovers. We think that it will be a tight game where the visitors just nick victory.
Top tip
Olly Allen
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Bournemouth win with a probability of 48.72%. A draw had a probability of 25.9% and a win for Blackpool had a probability of 25.38%.
The most likely scoreline for a Bournemouth win was 0-1 with a probability of 12.16%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.25%) and 0-2 (9.16%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.28%), while for a Blackpool win it was 1-0 (8.16%). The actual scoreline of 1-2 was predicted with a 9.3% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted a 1-2 win for Bournemouth in this match and our data analysis correctly predicted the win for Bournemouth.
