Preview: Salford City vs MK Dons - prediction, team news, lineups

Salford City play host to MK Dons on Saturday afternoon looking for the victory that would catapult them back into the automatic promotion hunt.

At a time when the home side sit in sixth position in the League Two table, the visitors are in second and hold a four-point advantage in the race to finish in the top three.

Match preview

Eleven years have passed since Karl Robinson was guiding MK Dons into the Championship, but he now has ambitions to break new ground with Salford.

This is the seventh season where Salford are attempting to continue their rise up the English football pyramid, and victory on Saturday would move them to within three points of their second-placed opponents.

Despite a potentially-pivotal 1-0 defeat to Cambridge City last time out, Salford had prevailed in five of the six games before that setback.

Aside from a 3-1 loss at Grimsby Town, Salford have kept four clean sheets and conceded just twice across the other six fixtures played during that time.

While three of their five home defeats this season have come in the last six such contests, Robinson's side have prevailed in their most recent three games at the Peninsula Stadium.

© Imago

MK Dons boast an identical record to Salford across their last five games, prevailing four times in succession before defeat last time out.

Furthermore, Paul Warne's side had gone 13 matches without losing in League Two until they suffered a 3-1 loss at the hands of Barnet.

That defeat marked the first time that MK Dons had suffered defeat in a home fixture in League Two since a 2-1 reverse to Accrington Stanley on September 20.

Nevertheless, MK Dons head to the North-West with the best away record in the division, accumulating 36 points from their 19 matches on their travels.

Most notably, though, their return of 40 goals in away games is nine more than the second-best of 31 strikes.

Salford City League Two form:

MK Dons League Two form:

Team News

© Imago

Salford will be without right-back Haji Mnoga, who is on international duty with Tanzania.

With Zach Awe also suffering an injury against Cambridge last time out, Rosaire Longelo and Brandon Cooper could be drafted into the defence.

Daniel Udoh is also an option to replace Cole Stockton in the final third.

MK Dons have been dealt a major blow with defender Jack Sanders suffering a shoulder injury that could keep him sidelined for the rest of the season.

Curtis Nelson or Gethin Jones will replace him in the back three, while Aaron Collins is in line to take the spot of Connor Lemonheigh-Evans after the latter suffered a knee issue last weekend.

Salford City possible starting lineup:

Young; Longelo, Turton, Oluwo, Cooper, Garbutt; Austerfield, Butcher, Grant; Graydon, Udoh

MK Dons possible starting lineup:

MacGillivray; Ekpiteta, Nelson, Offord; Nemane, Kelly, Gilbey, Mellish; Wiles, Hepburn-Murphy; Collins

We say: Salford City 1-1 MK Dons

With teams starting to circle below them, Salford could be of the opinion that avoiding defeat is as important as pushing for maximum points. At a time when MK Dons may feel the same, we would not be surprised to see a low-scoring draw play out.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.