We have been discussing Chateauroux's woes for seemingly two years, they were "relegated" last season, but earned a late reprieve, unfortunately for them after they had got together a third tier quality squad. They are in deep trouble again, six points + from safety, having not scored in four starts, two at home and coming off a frightful 6-0 hammering at Nancy last weekend , my preview of which read ...

Nancy look back on track after a very hard to explain fall from grace, they were second in the table with a 7-6-1 record in early November, but went to inform Nimes at the end of last month in ninth place having gone 0-1-6 through the interim period, throw in a cup defeat for good measure and their season was in danger of being over before Spring had sprung . However, a nice point in that pivotal game stopped the rot and they have subsequently beaten promotion rivals Sochaux and Brest and they are now a rival to the six clubs above them in the table and lie now just six points off the automatic promotion spots. This is a huge game for them, a match they should win and a chance to really build some momentum, dropping points to such a poor traveller after beating promotion contenders back to back would be little short of a disaster and I expect a very committed , focused performance from them and quite possibly a repeat of the thumping they administered in the reverse fixture, which they won 5-2. The squad is unchanged from last weekend's 2-0 win at Sochaux.

Chatearoux are six points from safety and as we have discussed many times, have a squad which was assembled for third tier football, they have won just 2 of 54 Ligue 2 away starts and arrive without suspended central defender Fabien Boyer (also sat out the reverse meeting....see above), this is an inexperienced group with nine players in today's squad aged 21 or younger or yet to play a game this season, three others are at the other end of the spectrum and in at least their 35th year, Jerome Leroy will be 41 later this year, very few are in their prime footballing years. Home win and it could be emphatic, Nancy have won the last three h2h meetings, all by two or more goals and have kept clean sheets in 6 of their last 8 games against Chateauroux.