Attention on Wednesday turns to the League Two semi-final play-off at Roots Hall in an evenly-poised tie with Crewe and Southend both just 90 minutes away from Wembley.
Cheltenham are the current 6/4 favourites for promotion having established a 2-0 first-leg lead from their semi-final with Torquay, with Crewe on offer at 2/1 and Southend at 13/5 to triumph at Wembley.
This tie is finely poised with Crewe holding a slender one-goal advantage following the clash at Alexandra Stadium on Saturday with centre-half Adam Dugdale proving perhaps an unlikely matchwinner – heading home Ashley Westwood’s free kick early in the second period.
The betting suggesting that Southend are certainly not out of it, though, with the Shrimpers hosting the second leg on Wednesday as 10/11 match favourites, with the draw priced at 12/5 while Crewe can be backed at 3/1 to make it a double success.
Of course a draw will suffice for the Railwaymen, which places all the pressure on the Blues, especially as they also only missed out on automatic promotion by a solitary point.
There was 11 points separating these two sides in the regular season so a lot may depend on how Paul Sturrock’s men cope with expectation and pressure – and maybe any nervous tension that transmits from the crowd, if the Seasiders fail to get in front early.
Southend do have a decent record at Roots Hall without being spectacular – they suffered five defeats in front of their own fans during the regular season, while they were also held six times.
Crewe went into the play-offs on the back of a 16-match unbeaten run – seven wins and nine draws – with Southend the last team to beat them, winning 1-0 at Roots Hall at the start of February.
Whether much can be read into that is open to question – Southend also won 3-1 at Crewe earlier in the season and look what happened at the weekend – but it is certainly something that Sturrock’s men can take into the game.
Bilel Mohsni scored the winner in this fixture earlier in the season and certainly looked as though he can cause Crewe plenty of problems in the first leg. He can be backed at 6/1 to be the First/Last Goalscorer and 13/8 Anytime, although on-loan signing Freddy Eastwood leads both markets.
However, Crewe have made themselves hard to beat on the road of late and are unbeaten in seven and, although five of those have been in draws, Alex have taken a point from trips to promoted Crawley and fellow play-off contender Torquay.
Steve Davis’s men have tended to spread the goals around this season with Nick Powell leading the scoring markets for Crewe at 6/1 First/last and 13/8 Anytime – perhaps providing a bit more value elsewhere with Byron Moore on offer at 8/1 and 9/4, while first-leg hero Dugdale is available at 33/1 and 10/1.
All the pressure is on Southend for this one but they perhaps enjoyed better success on the road this term, and in-form Crewe can secure the necessary result to book their Wembley date.
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