Tranmere welcome Crawley Town to Prenton Park today as they look to get back to winning ways following defeat at Forest Green on Tuesday night.
The match comes off the back of a difficult week of travelling, with a goalless draw down at Yeovil preceding the match at Forest Green.
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Here are some stats and snippets of information to digest before the game and discuss over a pre-match pint.
Form Guide
Overall both teams have shown some signs of having a solid season. On current form over the last six matches, Tranmere are third in the form table for the division while Crawley are in sixth.
If you look at the respective home and away form though, everything points toward a Tranmere victory today (if only it was that simple).
Overall (last six):
Tranmere: DWWWDL
Crawley: WLWLWD
League Position
Tranmere: 7th (24 points, +3 GD)
Crawley: 9th (23 points, +3 GD)
Tranmere’s home record: Tranmre have the ninth best home record in the division, winning four of their seven home games, drawing two and losing only once. High-flying Newport were the only team to leave Prenton Park with three points, while league leaders Lincoln City are among those to leave empty handed.
Crawley’s away record: Crawley’s strength is definitely their home form. In a league table showing only performances away from home in League Two, Crawley would sit 21st. They’ve lost five of their seven on the road, though they have won two as well. Their last away game saw them ship three at Colchester in a 3-1 defeat and they lost at Notts County by the same score earlier this month. Interesting to note, one of their two wins away from home also came at the league leaders Lincoln City.
Team Goal Stats
Crawley are League Two’s fifth highest goalscorers with 23 goals this season, averaging out at 1.53 per game. Tranmere have struggled a little in front of goal, however, they are still 11th in that respect with 18 league goals – an average of 1.20 per game.
Tranmere: 18
Crawley: 23
Clean Sheets
Much of Tranmere’s early season success has been thanks to a solid defence for the most part. Only MK Dons boast more clean sheets (8) in the entire division, with Rovers, Crewe and Lincoln having seven each.
Tranmere: 7
Crawley: 4
Discipline (or lack of)
Crawley arrive at Prenton Park with a pretty torrid disciplinary record already this season. They’ve had three red cards (one more than Tranmere) and a staggering 37 yellow cards already this campaign. They’re the joint-second worst for their red cards, but are far and away the leaders when it comes to the most yellows!
Tranmere have just 21 yellows so far.
Tranmere: 2 reds, 21 yellows
Crawley: 3 reds, 37 yellows
Overall defensive record
Tranmere have conceded 15 goals this season, compared with Crawley’s 20.
Tranmere: 15
Crawley: 20
Top goal scorers
Two of the division’s top three goal scorers will be on display at Prenton Park this afternoon, with James Norwood of Tranmere and Ollie Palmer of Crawley both tied on eight goals this term. Each are a single goal behind Exeter City’s Jayden Stockley.
Tranmere – James Norwood – 8 goals
Crawley – Ollie Palmer – 8 goals
Assist King
A stat that may have slipped under the radar of many fans heading in to this one is that Connor Jennings is again having a fruitful season when it comes to assists. Having provided plenty of goals last season (8), he already has three assists to his name this season, just one behind Stevenage’s Alex Revell who is the division’s best. Jennings should probably be level with him on four assists having set-up a great chance of James Norwood in the dying moments of last week’s match at Yeovil.
George Francomb and Felipe Morais have each created two goals for Crawley this season, while Tranmere’s Cole Stockton has the same number of assists also.
Tranmere: 3 Connor Jennings, 2 Cole Stockton
Crawley: 2 George Francomb and Felipe Morais
