Notts County will look to bounce back from Saturday's National League defeat when they welcome bottom-of-the-table Dover Athletic to Meadow Lane on Monday afternoon.
With two games in just three days, the hosts are provided with a quick opportunity to strengthen their hold on a playoff spot once more, whilst the visitors tasted yet another defeat at the weekend as their woeful season continued.
Match preview
Monday's hosts were on the wrong end of a shock scoreline when they travelled to Aldershot Town on Saturday, with Ian Burchnall's side being downed 3-1 by the struggling outfit.
Callum Roberts had equalised from the penalty spot to haul his side level after falling behind early on, but after conceding once again before half time, the Magpies could not recover.
A third goal from Town two minutes from normal time looked to have piled on the misery for County, but Dion Kelly-Evans received a second yellow card in the seventh minute of stoppage time to complete a miserable day.
However, with Grimsby Town and Chesterfield also dropping points elsewhere at the weekend, County's defeat went relatively unpunished.
As a result, the hosts still occupy fifth place ahead of the bank holiday action, and depending on the result that Dagenham & Redbridge pick up against Torquay United, Burchnall's men could confirm a playoff spot with all three points against a woeful opponent in the form of Dover.
Meanwhile, the end of the 2021-22 season cannot come soon enough for visitors Dover.
Saturday's 1-0 defeat at home to Altrincham was their fourth on the bounce, and 33rd of a truly forgettable campaign in the National League.
Just two wins have been picked up all season long by Andy Hessenthaler's side, and with relegation confirmed many weeks ago, focus will have been turned to a full rebuild of the club from top to bottom in the summer.
However, the Whites must still look to compete to their highest ability in the final few weeks in order to provide themselves with as much pride as possible.
The 12-point deduction means that Monday's visitors still sit on zero points heading into game number 42 of the season, so the goal will be to at least hit a positive points tally to at least end this dreadful campaign on some kind of high.
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Team News
After sitting out the last two games with a slight back issue, Notts County look set to welcome back 20-goal striker Kyle Wootton on Monday, with Zak Brunt set to drop out as a result.
Nottingham Forest-loanee Harry Arter is an option to come into the side after having to settle for a place on the bench on Saturday, with Edward Francis likely to make way for the experienced central midfielder.
As for the visitors, Myles Judd will serve the final game of his two-match ban following his recent red card in the reverse fixture against Monday's opponents, and the defender will join Koby Arthur, James Caton, Alex Green, Noah Carney and Travis Gregory on the sidelines.
TJ Bramble and Seth Twumasi are back in training as they continue their recoveries from injury, but neither are expected to be available just yet.
Notts County possible starting lineup:
Jaros; Richardson, Graham, Rawlinson, Chicksen; Arter, Palmer; Roberts, Rodrigues, Nemane; Wootton
Dover Athletic possible starting lineup:
Andre; Byford, Ransom, Moses, Wilkinson; Collinge, Krasniqi; Nelson, Woods, Baptiste; Gyasi
We say: Notts County 3-0 Dover Athletic
After previously beating Dover 3-0 just last week, we are predicting a similar scoreline again on Monday to see County strengthen their grip on a playoff spot.
Despite being defeated at the weekend, the home side are in strong form lately, whilst it is difficult to see where the next point will come from for a poor visiting Dover side.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Notts County win with a probability of 86.8%. A draw had a probability of 8.7% and a win for Dover Athletic had a probability of 4.53%.
The most likely scoreline for a Notts County win was 3-0 with a probability of 10.08%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 4-0 (8.8%) and 2-0 (8.67%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (3.8%), while for a Dover Athletic win it was 1-2 (1.46%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 5% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Notts County would win this match.
