Bolton Wanderers v Stockport County: Free Tips, Prediction and Odds

Bolton Wanderers are braced for a trio of derby clashes which may well define their League One season, starting with the visit of Stockport County to the Toughsheet Stadium.

Bolton Wanderers v Stockport County free betting tips and predictions

Stockport win - 13/8

Bolton and Stockport, two teams with promotion in their sights, clash at the Toughsheet Stadium on Saturday in a game of major significance.

The Trotters are sixth in the table, having been re-energised under new boss Steven Schumacher, while the Hatters are one place and two points better off as they chase down back-to-back promotions.

The stakes are high enough with this fixture part one of a critical trio of derbies for the Trotters, who come back from the international break and face trips to Blackpool and Wigan Athletic.

Their record in derbies is not the best - back-to-back defeats at Blackpool and Wigan 12 months ago started to see them drift out of the automatic promotion race.

And this season they have already been thumped 5-0 at Stockport.

All three of those games were under the guidance of Ian Evatt who has of course since been replaced by Schumacher, a man who has brought a greater sense of self-belief back to the club.

What he hasn't fully managed to do yet, however, is shore up a defence that has been a liability all season and continues to ship too many easy goals and struggles to square up to aggressive opponents.

And Dave Challinor's Stockport will, if they get the opportunity, go long and hard and ruffle as many feathers as possible.

They can mix it up - Isaac Olaofe is a pacy foil alongside whichever battering ram - Sam Cosgrove or Kyle Wootton - Challinor plumps for, but Stockport will be direct, pour in crosses and will try to expose a Bolton defence which has shipped more goals - 54 - than any side in the top 16.

Since Christmas, remarkably, they have kept only three clean sheets, though two of them were against Huddersfield Town and Wrexham, which suggests they can do it against good clubs.

But it's Stockport's style which may not suit Bolton, who scored twice at Bristol Rovers on Tuesday night and that still wasn't good enough as they went down to a 3-2 loss.

They have won seven of their last 10, but there doesn't appear to be much faith in either keeper, Luke Southwood or Nathan Baxter, either of whom is going to face a barrage.

They have won four in a row at home culminating in that fabulous 3-1 triumph over Birmingham City and they have goalscorers in form, with John McAtee on a run of five goals in six and Aaron Morley three in five from deeper.

Stockport have had a full week off to prepare for this with last Saturday's 0-0 draw against Charlton Athletic extending their run to one defeat in 11.

Number of goals in match 2 or 3 - 20/21

Stockport's games are high on intensity, but generally short on goals. Only five of their 36 matches have copped for Over 3.5 Goals backers - only games involving Wigan and Stevenage have produced less than that total.

A whopping 23 of their matches have produced under 2.5 goals - a divisional high they share with Stevenage - with 17 of their matches producing exactly two goals.

Twenty-five County clashes have produced two or three goals, so chuck a dart at that being the number of goals at the Toughsheet.

Corner Match Bet - Bolton - 21/20

Stockport's games don't deliver on the goals front and nor do they produce a glut of corners, either.

A League One-low 19 per cent of their games produce under 10.5 corners. Their games average 8.3 a time.

This derby match will be tense anyway, so there seems no good reason for thinking the game will produce more than 9.5 corners.

But rather than be tempted by the unders in that market, take Wanderers to win the corner match bet at 21/20.

Bolton average six corners per home game, Stockport 4.7 per away game so the stats are very much in our favour.

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Bolton Wanderers v Stockport County odds

Bolton Wanderers - 31/20
Draw - 12/5
Stockport County - 13/8

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This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.