Home Heroes: Crawley, Gillingham and Rotherham set to start strongly
Three teams all in a new era look likely to hit the ground running in the opening round of fixtures in England's bottom two tiers.
The 2012/13 league campaign gets underway this weekend, with Crawley Town looking good for three points as they make their League One bow against Scunthorpe United. Meanwhile, in League Two, Gillingham and Rotherham United – who both narrowly missed out on a play-off position last term – are favourites for the win in their games against Bradford City and Burton Albion respectively.
The first League One and League Two edition of our new ‘Home Heroes’ treble feature works out at just over 5/1, meaning punters who use their free £20 bet will see a return of £128 if they are correct in following this tip.
Crawley to beat Scunthorpe @ evens
Saturday’s game at the Broadfield Stadium sees a meeting of two teams who knocked out Championship opposition on penalties in the first round of the newly-branded Capital One Cup on Tuesday evening.
| Champions League | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dortmund | 1-1 | Bayern Munich | £150.00 | (13/2) |
| Dortmund | 1-2 | Bayern Munich | £160.00 | (7/1) |
| Dortmund | 0-2 | Bayern Munich | £175.00 | (31/4) |
| Dortmund win | £84.00 | (16/5) | ||
| Draw | £82.00 | (31/10) | ||
| Bayern Munich win | £34.00 | (7/10) | ||
Scunthorpe struggled in their first season back in the third tier of English football and were winless in their final five games last term, though thankfully for The Iron, their League One status was already all but secure.
Crawley were one of the pre-season favourites for promotion last season and secured third position on the final day of the season with a 1-0 victory at Accrington Stanley. They are expected to at least consolidate their position under the guidance of new manger Richie Barker.
Gillingham to beat Bradford @ evens
Gillingham finished the 2011-12 campaign just outside of the play-off places, two points behind seventh-placed Crewe Alexandra, who, incidentally, were themselves victorious at Wembley in May.
Despite only losing one of their final seven games, manager Andy Hessenthaler’s contract was terminated, with Martin Allen taking charge in July.
Allen led his new side to arguably the shock result of the first round of the Capital One Cup, beating Championship side Bristol City 2-1. His opening league game comes at home, against a Bradford City side who limped to an 18th-placed finish last term for the second season in succession and the Gills should be backed to get the job done here.
Rotherham to beat Burton @ 3/5
Rotherham, under the leadership of former Crawley manager Steve Evans, are favourites for the League Two title for the forthcoming season.
After four years in the Don Valley Stadium just outside Sheffield, the Millers finally return to Rotherham in their brand new ground, The New York Stadium, with a whole host of new signings to boot.
On the other hand, Burton are one of the favourites to be involved in the relegation run in this term. The Midlands side were involved in a 16-game winless streak towards the end of the last campaign and have just one away victory to their name in 2012.
With the hosts keen to put on a show on such a historic day for the club, Albion should be swept aside, hopefully completing a successful ‘Home Heroes’ treble on the opening weekend of the new campaign.
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