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Dave Tindall’s FA Cup Pick 4 Preview
FA Cup Pick 4
This weekend we’ve got a 4th Round FA Cup Pick 4 £30,000 Jackpot Pool and Dave Tindall has previewed his syndicate selections for us, which you can join here.
Yeovil v Man Utd
United have gone through to the next round in their last 16 FA Cup ties against lower-league opposition and kept clean sheets in 11 of those. In general, then, they do what you’d expect in a fixture like this.
More specifically, this United team doesn’t exactly go goal-crazy under Jose Mourinho. The Red Devils haven’t scored over two goals in any of their last 12 fixtures, netting exactly two in six of those. This is a step down but 2-0 seems a decent starting point and we’ll cover a goal either side with 1-0 and 3-0.
Yeovil’s chief playmaker, Otis Khan, is banned after picking up a red card so the hosts will have less ammunition to fire at the United defence. However, if they do nick a goal, we can stay alive by adding in Other Away Win and hope that United can score four or more, a still reasonable ask.
Prediction: 0-1, 0-2, 0-3, Other Away Win
Peterborough v Leicester
Leicester needed two attempts to see off Fleetwood in the previous round and drew the initial tie 0-0 away from home before winning the replay 2-0.
Peterborough are five places higher in the League One table than Fleetwood so have to be given respect in which case let’s not put the Foxes down for more than two goals.
This pits a very strong Leicester defence (clean sheets in their last five games) against a Peterborough outfit who are the fourth highest scorers in the division. I’ll therefore give Posh a goal in two of my four scorelines and one could be good enough for a draw.
Prediction: 1-1, 0-1, 0-2, 1-2
Middlesbrough v Brighton
Championship side Boro are actually favourites with the bookmakers to win the match against Premier League Brighton but that seems a fair assessment.
Brighton have managed a paltry five goals on the road in the Premier League this season and they’ve failed to register in their last six away games.
The belief that Middlesbrough can keep a clean sheet is strengthened by them now being managed by Tony Pulis and his organisational skills are already kicking in as they’ve conceded just a single goal in the last three games.
You have to go back to September to find the last time that Boro scored over two goals in a home match so overall it looks fair to narrow this down to a couple of low-scoring home wins, both without conceding.
Prediction: 1-0, 2-0
Notts County v Swansea
Swansea have definitely benefitted from some new manager ‘bounce’ since Carlos Carvalhal took over in late December. They’re unbeaten in four, scored a memorable home win over Liverpool on Monday night and dumped out Championship leaders Wolves 2-1 in a third round replay after drawing 0-0 at Molineux.
They’ve managed two clean sheets across those four games and Carvalhal has definitely set them up to be more solid at the back.
I’m a little wary that they’ll come back to earth a little after that win over Liverpool and goals don’t come easy to Swansea so it’s probably best not to give them more than two.
Notts County are second in League Two but they’ve lost their last two matches (both at home) 2-1. That could easily happen again so I’ll add it in with a couple of low-scoring Swansea wins-to-nil.
Prediction: 0-1, 0-2, 1-2
