Port Vale and Burton Albion will meet at Vale Park with the two clubs separated by just a handful of places in the League One table with the Brewers aiming to jump further away from the relegation zone this weekend.
Burton managed to get a fantastic victory over Wycombe Wanderers last weekend and played against Peterborough United in midweek. Against Burton, Dale Taylor and Joe Powell scored a goal each inside the first 18 minutes of the game, but Deki Oshilaja's red card did leave a bitter taste in fans' mouths, as he remains suspended for this outing. Burton had 10 shots that day and four on target, and this remains one of their highest outputs this campaign.
Prior to this, however, Burton were beaten by Ipswich Town 4-0 and also drew 0-0 with Accrington Stanley at the end of February. Nevertheless, with a 2-1 win over Bristol Rovers, a 2-0 win over Oxford United, a 3-2 win over Fleetwood Town and a 1-0 victory over Exeter City mean they have secured five wins over the past six weeks. It keeps the Brewers above the drop zone by a healthy five points with a game in hand to play too.
Port Vale managed to draw with Fleetwood Town last time out and also defeated MK Dons 1-0 just prior to that. However, they did previously win only one of their past six games by defeating Exeter City 1-0.
It now puts them 11 points above MK Dons in 22nd and without any games in hand to play. The Vale Park faithful now see their side sitting with 12 wins in the league and 16 defeats on the board, but with 50 goals let in, only those in the bottom five and Burton have let in more.
They also need to seriously work on their goals scored, as they've netted 36 in 26 games. At the same time, they are only behind the top 12 by one point and are below Portsmouth by just seven now.