Wycombe Wanderers are set to host struggling Crawley Town at Adams Park on Saturday, aiming to continue their strong start to the 2024-25 League One season.
The hosts are in eighth with 14 points from eight games, while the visitors are in 21st with seven points from their opening eight fixtures.
Match preview
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Since being relegated from the Championship in 2020-21, Wycombe have found themselves slowly slipping down the League One standings, placing sixth in 2021-22, ninth in 2022-23 and 10th in 2023-24.
Matt Bloomfield, who has been in charge since February 2023, aimed to guide his team back toward the playoff positions this year, and they have begun the campaign positively in pursuit of that goal.
They have lost just four of their opening 12 games across all competitions, winning seven and drawing two in that time, while they are unbeaten in their last six League One fixtures.
Bloomfield will be confident that his outfit can continue that run with another win on Saturday, with Crawley currently on a run of seven matches without a victory across all competitions.
Crawley finished seventh in League Two last season, narrowly finishing above Barrow and Bradford by a singular point, and surprisingly went on to win the playoffs.
The Red Devils convincingly defeated MK Dons 8-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals to set up a final against Crewe Alexandra, who they dominated to beat 2-0 and secure promotion back to League One for the first time since 2014-15.
Crawley began the season in impressive form, winning their first four matches across all competitions, but that dream start quickly ended as they entered a stretch of seven games without a victory, suffering losses in six of those matches.
Scott Lindsey, who guided the side out of the relegation zone in 2022-23 and to promotion last year, opted to move on to manage MK Dons at the end of September, and Crawley have since announced Rob Elliot as their new boss.
Elliot will take charge of the team for the first time on Saturday, and he will face the challenging task of attempting to end their dismal winless run.
Team News
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Having avoided any injury issues in recent matches, Wycombe could start an unchanged team from the one that was narrowly held to a draw by Barnsley last time out.
Richard Kone replaced starting striker Daniel Udoh and scored just nine minutes later in that game, leaving Bloomfield with a decision to make regarding which player to start in this match.
The visitors are likely to remain without captain Dion Conroy, who is still yet to make his first appearance for the club this season.
Elliot may implement several changes in his first match in charge of the club, one of which could involve reinstating Gavan Holohan to the starting lineup after the midfielder returned to the bench for the first time this season in the previous game.
Wycombe Wanderers possible starting lineup:
Ravizzoli; Grimmer, Low, Taylor, Harvie; Lubala, Scowen, Bakinson, Morley, Sadlier; Kone
Crawley Town possible starting lineup:
Wollacott; Mullarkey, Mukena, Flint; Camara, Williams, Holohan, Kelly; Hepburn-Murphy, Darcy; Swan
We say: Wycombe Wanderers 2-1 Crawley Town
While we expect there to be an improvement from Crawley in their first match under the new boss, Wycombe are in a fantastic vein of form heading into this game, and we expect them to pick up another win here.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Ellis Stevens
