Coventry City play host to Peterborough United on Friday evening knowing that victory could be enough to move into top spot of the Championship standings.
While the Sky Blues are dreaming about a surprise promotion bid, Peterborough need to avoid defeat in order to climb out of the relegation zone.
Match preview
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There would have been a time during the early stages of the season when Mark Robins would taken Coventry's form as progress towards avoiding a battle against the drop.
However, with five wins having now been recorded from eight matches and the added carrot of moving into first place in front of them, Coventry are now ready to build on their momentum.
No-one associated with the club will be getting carried away at this stage, particularly with just nine goals being netted since the beginning of August.
Nevertheless, narrow wins and clean sheets have bred confidence behind the scenes to such a degree that a 1-1 draw away at Millwall was regarded as a disappointing result.
Viktor Gyokeres netted his fifth strike of the campaign at The Den; the Swede already contributing more goals than during his loan period at the club last season.
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Despite all of the optimism before their return to the second tier, Peterborough have looked a level below many of their opponents over the past seven weeks.
However, on the back of four successive defeats, Posh stormed to a 3-0 triumph over Birmingham City last weekend to keep them off the bottom of the table.
An own goal, penalty and sending off for Blues helped them along the way, but Darren Ferguson was naturally delighted with the improvements shown by his players.
While Peterborough remain with the second-worst defensive record in the division, recording their first clean sheet of the season in all competitions should provide the squad with added confidence going forward.
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Team News
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Coventry remain without right wing-back Fankaty Dabo, who serves the second of the three-match ban handed to him for his dismissal against Cardiff City.
Michael Rose is expected to take the place of the injured Jake Clarke-Salter in what may turn to be the only alteration to the team.
Martyn Waghorn is an alternative to Matt Godden if Robins opts to make a change in the final third.
Ferguson will be forced into at least one alteration with Jonson Clarke-Harris beginning a four-match ban for historical social media offences.
Posh were dealt a blow earlier this week when forward Jack Marriott was ruled out until 2022 with a severe hamstring injury.
Coventry City possible starting lineup:
Moore; Hyam, McFadzean, Rose; Kane, Hamer, Sheaf, Maatsen; O'Hare; Gyokeres, Godden
Peterborough United possible starting lineup:
Cornell; Thompson, Edwards, Kent, Butler; Taylor, Norburn, Grant; Ward, Kanu, Dembele
We say: Coventry City 2-1 Peterborough United
Peterborough will be full of confidence after their last result, something which should lead to a competitive contest being played out at the Ricoh Arena. However, we cannot back against the home side right now, who should have enough quality to edge this fixture by the odd goal in three.
Top tip
Darren Plant
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Coventry City win with a probability of 52.4%. A draw had a probability of 26.5% and a win for Peterborough United had a probability of 21.11%.
The most likely scoreline for a Coventry City win was 1-0 with a probability of 14.75%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.86%) and 2-1 (9%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.21%), while for a Peterborough United win it was 0-1 (8.29%). The actual scoreline of 3-0 was predicted with a 5.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Coventry City would win this match.
