Salford City vs Fleetwood Town - prediction, team news, lineups

Aiming to make it six league games unbeaten and climb into the top three of the League Two table, Salford City will welcome Fleetwood Town to the AIG Stadium on Saturday.

The hosts have won their last two outings in England's fourth tier, while their visitors have suffered three straight defeats in all competitions.

Salford City return to action on Saturday aiming to continue an upturn in form in League Two, having climbed into the top seven after a slow start to the season.

Following a playoff final defeat last time around, the Ammies replaced Karl Robinson with Peter Cklamovski over the summer with the aim of securing automatic promotion, but they failed to put a point on the board in their first three games under the new boss.

They appear to have turned a corner since, though, winning four and drawing one of their last five league games, only interrupted by an EFL Trophy defeat to Sheffield Wednesday after wins over Newport County, Port Vale and Swindon Town and an away draw against Rotherham United with 10 men.

A trip to Oldham Athletic followed last weekend, and the Ammies returned to winning ways and again made it back-to-back league wins, dishing out a 4-1 beating having led 2-0 through Luke Molyneux and Kelly N'Mai before Brendan Wiredu made it 3-1 and Adebola Oluwo put the game out of sight.

Now sat seventh and with momentum growing, while only trailing the top three teams by two points, Salford City will hope to continue their winning streak on Saturday with a chance to crack the automatic promotion spots.

Their visitors, meanwhile, head to the AIG Stadium hoping to arrest a losing run and climb back towards League Two's playoff places.

Aiming to kick of from a 15th-placed finish last time around, and heading into a first full season under the management of Matt Lawlor, Fleetwood Town made an encouraging start in the fourth tier, going unbeaten in their first six matches and winning two of those to sit on 10 points.

The Fishermen followed that up with a 1-0 EFL Cup win over second-tier Sheffield United but have since suffered their first three losses of the season consecutively, firstly falling to a 3-1 defeat in a trip to Barnet.

Then on the back of an EFL Trophy loss to Oldham Athletic, Lawlor's side hosted newly-promoted Rochdale last weekend and came away empty-handed, having fallen 2-0 down to goals from Dajaune Brown and Aden Flint and failed to find a leveller after Mark Helm halved the deficit on the half-hour mark.

Now sat 14th, but still only three points behind their seventh-placed hosts at this early stage of the season, Fleetwood Town will bid to bounce back and begin a climb towards the right end of the division on Saturday.

Salford City may be unchanged from last weekend's win, with defender Michael Rose remaining the only long-term absentee through injury.

Kelly N'Mai will continue in attack after his goal last time out, likely again joining Ben Woodburn in support of front man Macaulay Langstaff.

Luke Molyneux offers further attacking threat from a wing-back role, while midfielder Joe Powell has scored three times this season and should again partner Brendan Wiredu despite competition from Jorge Grant and Matt Butcher.

Fleetwood Town will remain without Kane Thompson-Sommers, while midfielder Andy Cannon has also been sidelined since the beginning of September.

Fulham loanee Aaron Loupalo-Bi will hope to again get the nod up front alongside veteran Ched Evans, who has scored four goals so far this season.

Adam Murphy will hope to keep his place in the middle of their 3-5-2 setup alongside Harrison Neal and key man Mark Helm.

Norris; Aimson, Scarr, Allen; Molyneux, Wiredu, Powell, Odoh; Woodburn, Langstaff, N'Mai

Lynch; Rooney, Potter, Hughes; Cirino, Murphy, Neal, Helm, McCann; Evans, Loupalo-Bi

Fleetwood have seen their form dip in recent weeks and arrive at a Salford City side who are starting to click and build momentum while making their vast array of quality show. We fancy the Ammies to make it five league wins in six at the weekend.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

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