Neither Crawley Town or Rochdale have too much left to play for in their League Two meeting at The People's Pension Stadium on Saturday.
This has been reflected by the form of both sides in recent weeks, with the hosts only ending a winless streak last weekend and the visitors extending theirs over the past week following successive defeats.
Match preview
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As mentioned above, Crawley ended a run of five games without a win by overcoming playoff hopefuls Swindon Town by a 3-1 scoreline at home last Saturday.
Quality of finishing was the difference between the two sides, with Kwesi Appiah, Tom Nichols and Isaac Hutchinson all finding the back of the net in an open game that saw their opponents enjoy the control of possession and create as many opportunities in front of goal.
The three points lifted John Yems's side into 13th place in the League Two table, but with 13 points separating themselves from the top seven, and as many as 17 points keeping them out of relegation trouble, the focus looks to have switched to preparation for next season over the coming weeks.
Yems will be eager to display progression though, so he will be urging his side to follow up last week's win with another on Saturday in order to end the campaign on a high.
Appiah scored the only goal of the game when these two sides met back in October, in what was a tight and even game of football that finished 1-0 to the Reds.
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As for the visitors, they will be looking for revenge following that narrow defeat back at the Crown Oil Arena, although that remains a difficult task when their recent form is taken into account.
Having maintained a solid advantage over the bottom two for much of the season despite recording just two wins since Christmas, their comfortable status seems to have affected Rochdale's results in recent weeks.
The 1-0 defeat at home to playoff hopefuls Mansfield Town on Tuesday extended their winless run to six matches, with only two goals scored during the dismal run resulting in as many points being picked up.
A healthy nine-point gap remains over Oldham Athletic in the drop zone despite this, and with nine games remaining at the time of writing, Robbie Stockdale's side are unlikely to be dragged into a survival battle considering the slump in form of many at the bottom.
However, the boss remains keen to eradicate any doubts over their League Two status come May, so an improvement in performance levels and results will be expected over the coming weeks in order to ensure this, beginning with Saturday's trip to Crawley.
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Team News
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Crawley have Sam Matthews available for selection after recalling the midfielder from his loan spell at Aldershot Town on Thursday.
Nicholas Tsaroulla and Tony Craig will miss out through injury once more, whilst Jack Powell will need to be assessed after being forced off early on against Swindon.
Hutchinson impressed off the bench in his place so he is likely to deputise once more in an otherwise unchanged lineup expected for the hosts.
That means central midfielder Jake Hessenthaler should continue to fill in in the back three again as a result of the defensive absentees.
As for the visitors, they are awaiting the results of scans for James Ball and Tahvon Campbell after the duo were forced off either side of half time in midweek.
With both expected to miss out, Conor Grant and Liam Kelly will fight it out for Ball's place, whilst Alex Newby is in line to deputise for Campbell in attack.
Max Taylor has resumed light training but remains unavailable for the time being, but Josh Andrews is available to return after featuring in an Under-23s game on Monday.
Crawley Town possible starting lineup:
Morris; Hessenthaler, Francillette, Francomb; Tilley, Payne, Hutchinson, Ferry; Appiah, Nadesan, Nichols
Rochdale possible starting lineup:
Lynch; Downing, O'Connell, Dorsett; O'Keeffe, Broadbent, Dooley, Clark; Kelly; Done, Newby
We say: Crawley Town 2-0 Rochdale
Despite having little to play for on Saturday, we can see the hosts coming out on top against a struggling Rochdale side that are lacking in quality all over the pitch in recent weeks.
Crawley were excellent last time out against a solid Swindon side, and if they can perform anywhere near those levels, then they should come out victorious fairly comfortably in this one.
Top tip
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 Crawley Town win with a probability of 44.44%. A win for Rochdale had a probability of 29.17% and a draw had a probability of 26.4%.
The most likely scoreline for a Crawley Town win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.37%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (8.94%) and 2-0 (8.11%). The likeliest Rochdale win was 0-1 (8.79%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.54%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with an 11.4% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 1-0 win for Crawley Town in this match and our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted the win for Crawley Town.
