Round 33 of the 2023-24 League One season sees Stevenage and Bristol Rovers go head-to-head against each other at the Lamex Stadium on Tuesday evening.
Neither team was able to come away with maximum points from their most recent outings, and they will be looking to get back to winning ways.
Match preview
Stevenage had to make do with a share of the spoils from Saturday's meeting against Port Vale, which ended in a 2-2 stalemate at Vale Park.
Steve Evans's men fell behind to Terence Vancooten's own goal but managed to turn the game on its head through quickfire strikes from Jamie Reid and Vancooten, after which Funso Ojo restored parity in stoppage time.
As a result, the Boro remain sixth in the League One table, just one point clear of Oxford United in the race for the final playoff spot.
Coming up next is the challenge of an opposing outfit who have come out on top in just one of the previous six editions of this fixture across all competitions.
Having recently seen their 10-game unbeaten run on home turf end, Tuesday's hosts will be looking to avoid consecutive defeats in front of their fans.
Bristol Rovers were on the receiving end of a 2-1 defeat against Burton Albion when the teams clashed at the Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
Goals in either half from Ciaran Gilligan and Mark Helm left Matt Taylor's men with a mountain to climb after which Anthony Evans pulled one back on the hour mark.
With 40 points from 31 matches so far, the Pirates sit 12th in the standings, a whopping nine points clear of the drop zone heading into the final third of the campaign.
Off the back of ending a five-match winless run on the road in their last away outing, Tuesday's visitors now go in search of back to back victories on enemy territory for the first time since December.
Team News
Stevenage's Jamie Reid has found the back of the net in three of his last five matches, making the forward one to keep an eye on here.
Kane Hemmings will be pushing for a place in the hosts' starting XI having made his return to action from a brief injury spell last time out.
Thirty-five-year-old Chris Martin is eligible to feature for Bristol in this one after serving a one-game suspension in the defeat to Burton.
George Friend was hauled off in the first half of the aforementioned match with an injury scare, and the Englishman is a huge doubt for the away side.
Stevenage possible starting lineup:
MacGillivray; Wildin, Vancooten, Piergianni, Guinness-Walker; Forster-Caskey, Burns, Thomson; Freeman; Reid, Oliver
Bristol Rovers possible starting lineup:
Ward; Wilson, Baggott, Brown; Thomas, Conteh, Grant, Gordon; Evans, Aguilera, Marquis
We say: Stevenage 2-1 Bristol Rovers
The sides boast similar attacking records heading into this one, but Stevenage have had the upper hand defensively, and we fancy the home team to emerge victorious come the end of the 90 minutes.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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