NTT20 Podcast Acca: Three teams to win on Good Friday

“They are lapping up the progress being made under Russell Martin, and the balance he has found with a settled group of players is impressive.”

Expectant Exeter to exercise their excellence

At this stage of the season, it’s normal to be confronted with a lot of short priced favourites, and deciding which are ‘bankers’ and which might be a little ‘trappy’ is the key challenge.

Exeter fans are flocking to St James Park to cheer their team over the line for automatic promotion. The ground is sold out, with Colchester giving back some of their away allocation in order to accommodate more home fans. The atmosphere will be fantastic.

Having done enough in February and March to avoid an end of season relegation fight, Colchester looked unmotivated in defeat to Stevenage last week.

Here, they travel four and a half hours to play a highly motivated, well-supported side who, in the last three months, have picked up 40 points from 17 games, winning 12 of them. A side who have won 6 of their last 8 at home, and kept five clean sheets in their last seven league games.

The thing that has separated Exeter from those beneath them is their reliability, their consistency of performance. It’s difficult to see Colchester upsetting that rhythm.

Swans to glide on

Barnsley’s price of 1.041/25 for relegation sums up their prospects, after a brief flash of hope a month ago. The mentality of the side has been questioned by fans and even the manager – they are rarely outclassed at 0-0, but regularly fold when going behind.

A confident and technical Swansea City side is not a good opponent for the Tykes. Even with nothing to play for, Swansea fans will be in joyous mood after three impressive wins on the spin. They are lapping up the progress being made under Russell Martin, and the balance he has found with a settled group of players is impressive.

It’s not expected to be an easy game for Swansea, but without Woodrow, Helik and Collins, Barnsley simply lack leaders for a game in which they’ll spend the majority of time out of possession. Should Swansea take a chance to go ahead here, it’s hard to see Barnsley getting back into it.

Robins luck to turn in North Yorkshire

Swindon fans were understandably disappointed after a late defeat to Newport County last Saturday in a game they dominated.

In their last two games they have been the better side without winning, but I believe a similar level of performance here will be enough to beat a poor Harrogate side.

Swindon have a group of attack and midfield players to be envious of – Louis Reed, Jonny Williams, Jack Payne all have quality and experience. They know that a win here and their play-off hopes are still alive.

Harrogate are in poor form, and have been for the last five months. They’ve lost 6 of their last 8 in the league, including 4 defeats in 6 at home, drawing the other two.

They’ve conceded the second most goals in the division, and since the turn of the year, they’ve the 2nd worst record in the division across 22 games.

Swindon need a little more precision, and a little more luck, but they should outclass Harrogate here in a game that means much more to them.