Bristol Rovers host promotion pushing Peterborough United at the Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Matt Taylor’s side come into the weekend off the back of a positive seven days, having won back-to-back matches against Cheltenham Town and Cambridge United.
As for Saturday’s visitors, the Posh sit fourth in the League One table, six points off the automatic promotion positions, with a game in hand on all of the teams around them.
The Cambridgeshire outfit thumped Fleetwood Town 4-1 in midweek, despite the fact that The Fisherman took the lead inside 60 seconds.
Former Rovers striker Jonson Clarke-Harris came off the bench and netted twice for the Posh on Tuesday evening and of course Gasheads will remember the agonising summer transfer deadline day saga, where the centre-forward narrowly missed out on re-signing for Rovers, as paperwork delays meant that the 29-year-old missed the cut-off by only a few minutes.
Darren Ferguson’s side are the league’s top scorers with 84 goals and the Gas will have to be defensively switched on if they are to get anything out of this encounter.
Matt Taylor’s side have kept two clean sheets in their last five matches and the Rovers boss will be hoping his team can emulate similar defence offerings come Saturday.
The two sides met back in September, where Ferguson’s side eased past Rovers winning by two goals to nil.
However, the Gas did beat Peterborough at the Mem in last season’s home fixture, as veteran Scott Sinclair was the difference maker that day. The 34-year-old is good form, as he netted the opener for Rovers at Cheltenham last weekend.
Gasheads can expect to see some changes come the weekend, as the gaffer welcomes back one or two from injury and you would expect the Lancastrian to freshen things up slightly with a game only four days on post-Cambridge.
Here is how we think the Gas could line-up at the Mem on Saturday afternoon.
Predicted XI:
1. GK: Jed Ward
The youngster returned to the starting XI vs Cambridge, where he kept a clean sheet and I expect Matt Taylor to stick with Ward this weekend.
2. RB: Jack Hunt
The former Sheffield Wednesday man was absent from Rovers' squad on Tuesday evening for personal reasons. However, his manager has confirmed that he is back and will feature this weekend.
3. CB: Connor Taylor
With James Wilson absent from the Cambridge victory, I expect Taylor to play again on Saturday. However, the Rovers boss confirmed earlier this week that Wilson is in contention for Saturday, but I expect he will be on the bench.
4. CB: Elkan Baggott
The Ipswich Town loanee has been excellent since his return from injury. Matt Taylor prefers a left footed centre-half on the left-hand side, as it offers balance and I would be shocked if Baggott doesn't feature from the start on the weekend.