Salford City travel to Boundary Park on Tuesday for the commencement of their EFL Trophy campaign against Oldham Athletic.
The hosts were knocked out by Sunderland in the round of 32 last time out, while the visitors were dumped out on penalties by the Leicester City Under-21s at the same stage.
Match preview
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Salford City make the journey to Oldham fresh off the back of their first league victory of the season on Saturday when they thrashed Newport County 3-0.
Gary Bowyer's men romped to a three-goal lead inside the opening 30 minutes courtesy of goals from Tyreik Wright, Conor McAleny and Ian Henderson.
The Ammies, who narrowly missed out on a playoff spot last season, currently find themselves in 16th place and will be looking to climb up the table in the coming weeks.
Their record on the road this term has been a major Achilles' heel as Tuesday's visitors have been beaten in each of their three matches away from home in all competitions.
However, Salford were undefeated in three previous meetings against their next opponents before finally suffering a 2-1 defeat in the sides' most recent encounter back in January.
Oldham Athletic also picked up their first league victory of the season over the weekend following a 2-1 win versus Sutton United at the Borough Sports Ground.
Keith Curle's men were on the cusp of a fifth consecutive league defeat as they trailed to David Ajiboye's strike heading into the final five minutes, before late goals from Carl Piergianni and Junior Luamba turned the game on its head.
The Latics are still in the drop zone as things stand but have moved off the bottom of the table which is now occupied by the team they recently defeated.
Tuesday's visitors will hope to use that win as a springboard for a fine run of form as they seek to turn their fortunes around after a rough start.
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Team News
Ian Henderson played a part in two of Salford City's three goals last time out, and the 36-year-old forward is showing no signs of slowing down after netting 17 times in the 2019-20 campaign.
Ibou Touray has been a constant attacking threat from left-back, setting up two goals in his five appearances and he is one to keep an eye on.
Sam Hart is a major doubt after the English defender was hauled off with a minor injury less than 20 minutes into Oldham's victory over Sutton.
Dylan Fage was also unable to complete the aforementioned game as he had to be withdrawn due to a muscle injury which is set to rule him out of Tuesday's contest.
Oldham Athletic possible starting lineup:
Leutwiler; Diarra, Piergianni, Clarke; Sheehan, Vaughan, Whelan, Bettache; Luamba, Bahamboula, Hope
Salford City possible starting lineup:
King; Touray, Shepard, Ndaba, Eastham; Lund, Lowe, McAleny; Morris, Wright, Henderson
We say: Oldham Athletic 2-1 Salford City
Buoyed by their respective victories last time out, both teams will be confident of claiming the win in this one which should make for an exciting affair.
While we expect the visitors to give a good account of themselves, we are backing the home side to come out on top, albeit by a narrow margin.
Top tip
Adepoju Marvellous
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 Salford City win with a probability of 48.6%. A win for Oldham Athletic had a probability of 26.83% and a draw had a probability of 24.6%.
The most likely scoreline for a Salford City win was 0-1 with a probability of 10.14%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.48%) and 0-2 (8.27%). The likeliest Oldham Athletic win was 1-0 (7.14%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.63%). The actual scoreline of 1-0 was predicted with a 7.1% likelihood.
