DPL vs Coventry and Portsmouth

Coventry are obviously a decent team and to even draw at their adopted home In Birmingham would surely be a most satisfactory outcome.

Their business model is an odd one though. When you are homeless you would surely make your first priority a decent place to live rather than investing in expensive furniture and fittings. But they have seemingly put investment in players first which together with the skills of their experienced manager, Mark Robins, has taken them to second place in the league.

They were nearly there last season and they are most confidently expecting to go at least one better than this. It has been their 100% home record, admittedly mostly against unfancied teams, that has lifted them to where they are. They have drawn all their away games including their toughest fixtures at Portsmouth and Burton.

There was a table recently published showing that we had had the toughest start of all the successful teams based on league position of the opposition at the time we played them which is creditable, but the fact that we had fewer away matches was not taken into account. And we have yet to win away.

If we do so, we will be justifiably confident about our promotion prospects, but I won’t stick my neck out. I’ll go for 1-1 Anderson/John.