Pau are on an incredible unbeaten run of 7 games, through which they have picked up 17 points , I say "incredible" as at the start of that upturn they had just 21 points and 22 goals from their first 26 games and looked on their way back to National. Now they have 5 teams below them and are within four points of the four teams immediately above them. A win tonight would leave them looking really secure and they will surely be going for it. In their last home start they came from behind to beat 3rd placed Clermont 2-1 in a game which was very open and even and which might easily have produced another couple of goals. Auxerre are immediately outside the playoff spots, their automatic chance has gone it seems , but they are only six adrift of Clermont in 3rd and two off 5th placed Paris FC and those two meet this evening, so one or both is going to drop points and all three for Auxerre will leave them firmly in the mix.

 

I must be honest and say I am surprised that Auxerre did not build on that strong start and remain inside the top 2-3 , it all finally looked in place for them and in early season I spoke about the offensive options they possessed .........

 

They have a quartet of hugely experienced players with massive offensive threat in Remy Dugimont, Mickael Le Bihan , Kevin Fortune and Matthias Autret, who have 154 goals and 77 assists in L2 between them ! Le Bihan is currently top scorer in L2 and don't say you weren't warned as I wrote last season shortly after he signed ........... I like Auxerre as team and the signing last week of Mickael Le Bihan from Nice, who had a goal and assist on his debut feels like a game changer, he was top scorer in this league in 2014-15 and I lost count of the number of times I mentioned him as the big player at Le Havre and he will score a LOT of goals in this team, he is way too good for the second tier IMO. He is super hungry after a long time out injured (17 months in one go) and little game time, but looks fit again and desperate to make up for lost time.

 

Maybe it is not too late, they seem to have regrouped finally and have won their last two starts scoring seven goals. Given their options and that the five subs rule should further help them , especially at this stage of the campaign, maybe it was always going to happen. Auxerre have "won" on target attempts 17-6, BC's 10-4 and ITB 28-14 across those last two starts and we can expect plenty of chances at both ends of the pitch tonight. They are not coming here to sit back for too long, have named six what we can call forwards in their squad and will be going for this from the off. They are the #1 ranked team and top scorers in the first half of away games and given that Pau have trailed at half time in their last three starts, there must be a good chance this follows suit.

 

I am going to go with Auxerre to take an early lead and goals.

 

 

 

 

Good luck !