Clear winners might not be evident when these two out of sorts sides clash at Ashton Gate this weekend, but there’s a case to be made for Bristol City to emerge winners over Luton Town in this mid-table tussle.

City haven’t lived up to their pre-season billing as promotion favourites so far, spluttering their way to a mediocre 11th place in the league ladder – just one rung above Luton in the 12th. Neither side has performed well in recent weeks either, Luton without a win in their last 3 matches and their hosts without victory in the last 4.

What potentially swings this tie in City’s way is the psychological advantage, as they haven’t lost to Luton home or away in the league for nearly seven years now. That kind of run is usually enough to demoralize any team on the wrong end of the sequence, and odds are that Luton will need to wait a while longer before stopping the rut.

2 points on Bristol City at 1.75 with Sportingbet.

Goals – loads of them, for that matter – have been the highlight of Mansfield’s season so far, as Keith Curle’s free-scoring side has already racked up a whopping 36 league goals going into this match.

As long as they carry such firepower in their ranks, the Stags will continue to offer value for victory no matter who they play, and the reward of automatic promotion for their goalscoring trouble can only serve to double the incentive.

15th-placed Boston have acquitted themselves to life in the Football League with distinction, and the impressive 4-0 drubbing of Torquay last Saturday has extended their unbeaten run to 5 matches. However, Boston’s away form appears to be the chink in their armour, as the league’s new boys have only won once on their travels all season – not to mention a miserly haul of just 4 away goals so far.

If results elsewhere on Saturday go their way, Mansfield know that 3 points here could lift them up as high as second in the table – and that should be all the motivation the Stags need to edge out the Pilgrims at Field Mill.

4 points on Mansfield at 1.62 with Bet365.

Despite getting knocked out of the Carling Cup by Middlesbrough earlier this week, Wigan Athletic can return to winning ways – if not the top of the First Division – when they face Crystal Palace in Saturday’s lunchtime fixture at the JJB Stadium.

The Latics were unlucky in losing to Boro despite putting up a creditable performance, and the absence of their prolific strike pairing of Nathan Ellington and Geoff Horsfield didn’t help their cause either. But the two frontmen will be fully available for this tie, and allied with Wigan’s notoriously solid defensive record, Paul Jewell must be confident of seeing his troops emerge victorious this weekend.

Inconsistent to the last letter, Crystal Palace might have won 3-1 away at Blackpool in the Cup on Tuesday, but that hardly papers over the glaring cracks in their recent form. The Eagles have won just one of their last six league matches and don’t exactly boast an encouraging away record either, with four defeats in seven outings already under their belt this season.

Wigan suffered a surprise 2-0 defeat at Walsall in their last league game, but good teams don’t usually lose twice in succession, and The Latics certainly have enough quality to uphold that adage by disposing of an inconsistent Palace side.

4 points on Wigan at 1.67 with Victor Chandler.

With just one point separating Borussia Moenchengladbach and Hansa Rostock at the foot of the Bundesliga table, three points here will no doubt provide a huge boost to the winning side’s survival hopes.

An impressive 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund in the German Cup this week will have done wonders for morale in the Gladbach camp, while on the contrary, Hansa must be scratching their heads after losing at home to Hertha Berlin twice in the last six days.

Gladbach are arguably the more in-form side coming into this vital clash, having held mighty Bayern Munich to a draw recently and narrowly losing 1-0 to Leverkusen in their last league game. The same simply cannot be said of Hansa, whose dire league form has seen them lose their last six matches now and who must surely be suffering a major confidence crisis going into this tie.

The visitors’ only consolation is that Gladbach have struggled to score goals at home all season, but with the noisy Boekelberghome support at hand to encourage them, Gladbach should be able to scrape their way towards a second win of the campaign.

3 points on Gladbach at with 1.91 with Bet365.