Fridays pick

Tonight sees 2nd placed Swansea City take on struggler’s Gillingham at home.
Ive looked through a few things and quite frankly I haven’t found one thing to stop me lumping on Swansea.

Swansea, their home form has been patchy to date, but the stats should surely be improved after tonight’s game. A win will put them top and they shouldn’t have too much to fear from Gillingham. Their recent form has been excellent and they have won the last three games on the bounce, all away from home, the most notable, being a 5 – 0 thrashing of 4th placed Leyton Orient.

Swansea’s last 5 home results

18 Aug 07 Swansea City 0 - 0 Nottm Forest
1 Sep 07 Swansea City 1 - 2 Doncaster
14 Sep 07 Swansea City 2 - 1 Carlisle Utd
29 Sep 07 Swansea City 0 - 0 Brighton & HA
2 Oct 07 Swansea City 2 - 1 Swindon

Gillingham, are simply awful away from home. They’ve lost 6 on the bounce and have scored a measly one goal in them six matches. And how many scored in those six? Just the one, these are the kind of stats that make for grim reading for Gills fans. To give them credit, their home record is reasonably good and this is whats keeping them outside the relation zone. But for tonight they are on foreign soil and facing a home side with the expectations of promotion.

Gillinghams last 6 away results

11 Aug 07 Cheltenham Town 1 - 0 Gillingham
25 Aug 07 Luton Town 3 - 1 Gillingham
8 Sep 07 Southend Utd 3 - 0 Gillingham
22 Sep 07 Nottm Forest 4 - 0 Gillingham
6 Oct 07 Swindon 5 - 0 Gillingham
20 Oct 07 Carlisle Utd 2 - 0 Gillingham

As you can see, Gillingham have faced some of the better sides so far but came away empty handed each time.

Verdict
Its just too hard to see past a comfortable home win here. Swansea can go top, which should provide enough motivation for the home side, and they should also be good enough to cover the handicap.

PICK

Swansea – 1 goal (1.79 @ pinnacle) 5 points