Bray Wanderers v Derry City

Bray have won four of their last ten starts, despite conceding a whopping 25 goals in the process, which is pretty hard to do, they have actually won four from five which sounds pretty good until you realise that they came against four of the other bottom six clubs and they still conceded eight times against that quartet.

Those hard earned points against fellow relegation rivals have been hugely valuable and earned Bray a bit of a buffer over the drop zone, but points will be far harder to earn today against a Derry side who are looking to hold on to the coattails of leaders St Paddy's ahead of the mini (fortnight) break.

The visitors have already won six times on the road and only conceded seven times in eight starts away from the Brandywell and have an awesome record against Wanderers in the IPL, unbeaten in six league visits to the Carlisle Grounds ( winning four). They are also 7-3-0 in ten reverse meetings and have a combined 30-7 goal difference across the 16 fixtures.

Three points for City will ensure they remain in second place and a maximum six points off the lead with a game in hand, they have three of their next four starts at home, including a visit from the leaders, so the win today would be hugely valuable. They will once again be without both left back Thomas Crawley (10-1-0) and his back up Dermott McCaffrey ( 7-0-0), Crawley is a loss, he has missed the last six and Derry are 3-1-2 in his absence, conceding at the rate of 1.83 goals per game, just 0.5 when he plays and the situation is compounded with his back up also out today. However, the two wins without Crawley did actually come when McCaffrey was out too, both times they had to use a left sided midfielder as stand in, Sean Houston played in the first and his return from injury today to face his former club is very timely and at least gives them options for this key position. Holding player Barry Molloy ( 15-0-0) who sat out the 1-0 win at Shelborne last time out has not trained all week and seems highly unlikely to play any part.

Veteran Bray striker Jason Byrne (16-10-0) could hardly be in better form with seven goals in his last two starts, but he has not scored in seven outings against City and the hosts are running out of options to play alongside him. Shane O'Neill ( 8-0-0) is out and young striker Ismahil Akinade (15-1-0) will be a last minute decision. Central defender Eoin Hyland (10-0-0) is again sidelined and this could be a major area of concern if captain and fellow centre back Danny O'Connor (7-0-0) also fails a late test.

The threat of Byrne has already been highlighted by visiting coach Declan Devine, he will surely come in for special attention, but at 35 yo it will not be easy for him after starting all 16 games, especially if he is without his usual partner up front, the break will probably be very welcome for him. Defensively Bray look very vulnerable and I favour Derry to record that seventh away win.

Derry City -0.75 ball

There is a very good chance you could do much better "in running". City have scored 15 goals in their last 9 starts, only three came before the break and all after the 32nd minute, they like to ease their way into games and given the recent offensive threat of Bray and Byrne, they will surely be looking to keep the hosts quiet early, with a focus on the defensive side of things. You should be able to get much better odds after 20 minutes or so, if we are all square, or even better in terms of betting then, should Bray be ahead.