The no-manager derby in the Championship this weekend, and whilst we will have to wait to see how the Swansea team deal with this, we already know how the group of players at Blackburn have coped without John Eustace.

In a way, it is still Eustace that deserves some credit from the way that Blackburn have performed without him there. His insistence on recruiting experience and character has left the club with a group of players who are partially able to lead themselves. Danny Batth was outed by Tony Mowbray after Rovers won at West Brom last week as saying that the players felt galvanised and that they had pulled together as a result of the managerial upheaval.

Rovers, under the stewardship of David Lowe and Damien Johnson, have remained organised defensively, and dangerous going forwards. They have been the better team in both league matches under this arrangement, and though the bosses are off to London to try and negotiate with their prospective new head coach, it seems as though the team are very comfortable in their current structure.

Swansea were obviously in very poor form, hence the decision being taken to remove Luke Williams. There has been that poor combination of toothless attack and porous defence in 2025 which has resulted in eight defeats from ten matches in all competitions. Indeed, only the win at Bristol City would’ve seen this recommended bet fail this year.

Taking the season as a whole, there is little between the teams from a chance creation perspective, with their xGF totals broadly similar around midtable in the league, but Blackburn have a +6 advantage from an xGA point of view.

Most importantly, it is the confidence and form of Rovers over Swansea which makes the double chance on Blackburn an appealing angle.

West Brom made it 14 matches from 14 in terms of over 1.5 goals being scored last weekend.

This means that Tony Mowbray has overseen at least 2 goals in every match that he has managed for West Brom, and yet the prices continue to peg Albion as a team to favour unders with.

There should be a slight concern about Oxford on the other side of this bet. They seem to have really struggled to get their attack locked in over the last few weeks, though there were better signs last time out when they had 14 shots and created 3 big chances against Pompey. That resurgence does provide a little more confidence, but West Brom have to remain favourites for this match.

Something will have to give here though. West Brom have not kept a clean sheet in 12 matches, whilst Oxford haven’t scored in 3. The encounter between these two earlier in the season ended 1-1, albeit under different managers than we will see on Saturday.

The Baggies have covered this line by themselves in 7 of their last 9 home matches, which demonstrates how dangerous they can be when their attack clicks. Mowbray, as an attack first style of manager, will surely be setting his team up to take the game to Oxford and trying to return to form by scoring goals.

The 1-0 home defeat to Exeter last Saturday proved to be Garry Monk’s final match as Cambridge manager. This extended United’s winless run to 5, while they’ve returned just 1 victory from 14 in all competitions. He departs with the Abbey Stadium club sitting bottom of the League One table.

A change of manager can sometimes lead to quick improvement, but it is in more hope than expectation to believe that’ll boost their chances of getting anything against in-form promotion candidates Stockport.

County are hunting down back-to-back promotions. They sit inside the play-off places with 14 games remaining, putting them amongst a cluster of clubs realistically battling it out for 2nd place. This is a team unbeaten in 7, of which 6 were wins, including against the likes of Leyton Orient, Reading and Barnsley. Absolutely everything is pointing towards another away triumph for Dave Challinor’s men on Saturday afternoon.

Stockport generally know how to get the job done in these kind of tests. Only 2 of their 7 league losses all season have come to teams currently in the bottom-half. Also, they are unbeaten in league action v opponents now positioned 16th and below, winning 9 of 13 meetings.

Birmingham are understandably making most of the headlines in League One this season, but Leyton Orient are very much a team to keep a close eye on. They too are starting to attract greater attention thanks to a rather rapid rise up the standings. Richie Wellens’ side are now in possession of the final play-off position.

It is only 1 defeat from their previous 15 league fixtures, of which 12 were wins, including their last 3 in succession. In midweek, they became only the 7th team since the start of December 2021 to beat Wrexham in a league match at STōK Cae Ras. To see they are super-confident is something of an understatement.

Orient will fancy their chances of at the very, very least scoring away to Bolton on Saturday. Across their last 6 away battles the O’s have averaged 2.83 goals, including netting 2 or more v Wrexham and Barnsley.

A trip to Bolton is never an easy task, but they recently hired Steven Schumacher as their new manager and he is still trying to get the team to play as he wants. Therefore, they are a little up-and-down across respective 90 minutes, although they’ve won 2 of 4 in all competitions under his tenure, Wanderers are yet to keep a clean sheet in this period.

After defeats to Chesterfield, Crystal Palace and Grimsby, Doncaster got back on track with a 1-0 away win at Morecambe on Tuesday night, a win which took them back into the automatic promotion places. Donny can back up the victory by taking another 3 points on Saturday.

Doncaster are top of the League Two away table with a record of 8 wins, 3 draws and 5 losses for a total of 27 points from 16 matches, with 24 away goals scored – only Notts County (27) have scored more.

Doncaster are 2nd in the League Two xPTS table despite underperforming their own expected points by -3. The data suggests that if Doncaster should continue their points per game ratio, it will give them a solid chance at securing promotion.

Accrington have won just once in their last 7 matches. They are 22nd in the 5 game form table and 21st in the league table – just 4 points ahead of the relegation zone. Accrington have scored just 2 goals in their last 7 matches. Their chance creation has been really poor with xG in their last 7 matches reading 0.25-1.03-0.26-1.64-0.08-0.30-1.21.

Doncaster can be dominant against Accrington. They average 52.1% possession in League Two matches this season – Accrington average 45.8%. Doncaster are 1st for touches in opponents penalty area with 833 touches – Accrington are 23rd with 474 touches. Doncaster beat Accrington 4-1 on the opening day of the season and are fancied to complete the double over them here.

Goals are forecasted when Cheltenham hop over the England/Wales border for their visit to Newport on Saturday. Both teams have a variety of potent attackers and can trouble each other’s defences.

Cheltenham average 1.33 goals per game in League Two this season. In Jordan Thomas and Ethan Archer they have goal threat from both wide areas – the pair have scored 8 goals between them this season. George Miller (6 goals) will lead the line and is backed up by the wily Matty Taylor (3 goals).

Premier League loanees Ethan Williams and Ashley Hay have already provided goal contributions too. After scoring in all of their first 10 League Two away games, Cheltenham haven’t registered in any of their last 4. They can get back to scoring ways against a Newport side that have conceded 1.52 goals per game this season.

Newport are averaging 1.32 goals per game in League Two this term. Like Cheltenham, their threat comes from multiple angles. Courtney Baker-Richardson and Kyle Hudlin have teamed up for 9 goals from the strikers position. Bobby Kamwa has 5 goals from left-wing and David Ajiboye has already scored twice since his January arrival from Peterborough.

Aaron Wilding has chipped in with 4 goals from midfield and centre-back Matthew Baker has notched 3 times. On average, Cheltenham have conceded 1.43 goals per game this season and Newport are fancied to pose plenty of danger here.

16/31 of Newport matches and 19/30 Cheltenham matches this season have ended with both teams scoring with another expected here.