With Gareth Ainsworth now in charge at Shrewsbury his sides are known to be masters of the ‘dark arts’, referee Simon Maher could have his work cut out in this one.

The Shrews look a lot more competitive since their change of manager, in terms of results and in their playing style, implementing a more physical approach. This bet has landed in 4 of the 5 home games Ainsworth has taken charge of so far.

It has also landed for 7 opponents Wrexham have played away from home this season.

As the saying goes, it takes two to tango, and I cannot see Wrexham avoiding a couple of cards here. They’ve covered this bet in 8 of their 11 away games this season, averaging 2.3 cards per game.

These two sides met just over a year ago in the FA Cup third round, with both sides picking up 2 bookings, which would suit us nicely here.

This is an area which seems to have been targeted by Ainsworth to assist his side with scoring goals, 5 of their 11 goals since he took over have come from dead ball situations.

Under Paul Hurst, Shrewsbury averaged 3.7 corners per home game. Since Ainsworth’s arrival, they are averaging 5 per home game, covering the 4 or more corners bet in 4 out of their 5 games.

Wrexham concede on average 4.7 per away game, with this bet being covered 7 times out of 11 by their opponents.

I fancy we’ll get some decent goalmouth action here, which is perhaps at odds with what the stats tell us over the course of the season. Shrewsbury have seen both team score in 50% of their home games, whilst in Wrexham’s away games the percentage drops to just 36%.

Since Ainsworth has taken however, both teams have scored in 4 out of 5 home games, it was just 2 in 7 before his arrival. Shrewsbury have scored in all of those, including 3 against league leaders Birmingham, which was 27% of their total goals conceded away from home.

Wrexham are also trending the right way to cover this bet, with 3 of their last 5 away games seeing both team score. 2.20 represents good odds here.

While we can see both teams scoring, we see the mostly likely outcome being a draw, which is a result that both teams would probably take.

Despite sitting 3rd in the table, Wrexham have been pretty average on the road, sitting 14th in the away league table with a negative goal difference. They have picked up 13 points on the road, which is only 2 more than 22nd place Shrewsbury have picked up on home turf. Odds of 3.30 for the draw look appealing.

The Shrews will be keen to show plenty of fight and character in front of their home fans. They have won the cards match bet at home under Ainsworth 3 times out of 5, with 1 tie.

Wrexham are hit and miss on the card front away from home. From their last 5 game, they have been shown 3+ cards on 3 occasions, and then 0 in the other 2 games.

You might well ask why we are including a ‘to score’ element in this bet for defender, but Pierre is actually Shrewsbury’s joint top scorer at home in the league this season, with him and Mal Benning both on 2 goals. Tom Bloxham is on 3, but he has just departed to Blackpool.

Pierre had not started a game until Ainsworth’s arrival, but has been virtually ever present since, the duo also worked together at Wycombe. He has started 7 games, scoring 2 and being carded 4 times, there’s every chance that run continues here.

Andy Cannon has picked up 5 yellow cards this season, 4 of which have been picked up on the road. He averages 1 in every 3 starts.

In terms of goalscoring, he has just 2 goals to his name, 1 coming away from home. Wrexham players have only score 8 goals on their travels, with the highest having scored 2, so it’s fair to say that nobody is prolific. He averages over 1 shot per 90 minutes, so we should get run for our money on the scoring aspect of this pick too.