Stockport boss Challinor has labelled Saturday's enticing showdown as one that both sides simply have to win, but the hosts' recent failures to convert one point into three and MK Dons' propensity to fall short on the road may put paid to that idea.
The Hatters are certainly nowhere near the force that they were during the earliest months of the campaign, but even with their crisis on the left-hand side of the backline, we can envisage the defensively-sound hosts maintaining their top-three position by taking a point off an MK Dons crop who do not travel well.
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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 Stockport County win with a probability of 52.04%. A win for MK Dons had a probability of 24.25% and a draw had a probability of 23.7%.
The most likely scoreline for a Stockport County win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.1%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.71%) and 2-0 (8.77%). The likeliest MK Dons win was 0-1 (6.46%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.19%). The actual scoreline of 5-0 was predicted with a 0.8% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Stockport County would win this match.
0.24) 
-0.03) 
