Non-league / Editor / 18 October 2007 /

Legendary non-league manager Frank Gregan previews tonight's live match on Setanta

What a fantastic game of football last Thursday's live match was between Oxford United and Torquay. It was great to watch Oxford racing into a 3-0 win before half time and Torquay coming back in the second half to snatch an 89th minute equaliser. I trust that those of you that are following my season long strategy of laying the side with a two-goal lead had a great time betting in running!

This Thursday's live game between Stevenage and Burton is also likely to be a spicy affair, with the atmosphere likely to be a little more charged due to the sudden resignation of the Stevenage manager Mark Stimson. He is currently coming in for a heap of stick from the Boro fans with the presumption being that he is likely to take over the reins at Gillingham. We will have to wait and see what happens, but I have always found Mark to be a very professional and talented manager. Good luck to him wherever he ends up.

But the change at the helm has made me leave the match odds market in this game alone as it is always difficult to predict how the players will react to a shock departure. Instead, I'm looking at the over or under goals market. This market relates to how many goals will be scored in the game and there are four options available.

I am a sucker for a big price and there is 6.4 available to take for 4.5 goals or over although I would be confident about asking for 7.0 and getting a matched bet. However, I am erring on the side of caution this week and playing to the statistics. Stevenage have scored 17 at home in 8 games at just over 2 goals per game. Burton have scored 11 on the road in 8 games at an average of 1.375 goals per game. Add the two together and there should be the magic three goals scored which are needed for success in the more than 2.5 goals market. That is my recommendation this week, over 2.5 goals.

Odds of 2.0 are available and I think that is a great bet. Everybody associated with Conference football wants the television showpieces to be a success. You can guarantee that every manager tells his players in the dressing room prior to the live game on the telly - "Go out there and entertain, let's show everyone watching what a good league this is." To illustrate this you only have to look at the over and under 2.5 goals in the previous nine live Thursday evening matches thus far this season. Seven have been over and only two have been under. Those odds of 2.0 continue to look very good!

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