Jefferson Lake’s Plymouth Argyle v Northampton Town preview

Date/kick-off time: Saturday, March 7, 3pm kick-off

Venue: Home Park, Plymouth

Weather forecast: 11C, cloudy

Outs and doubts: Cobblers: Ian Morris (knee), Kaid Mohamed (broken metatarsal), Ben Tozer (knee), Joel Byrom (suspended). Plymouth: None

Betting: Plymouth 5/4, draw 12/5, Cobblers 5/2

Form guide: Plymouth LLWWWW, Cobblers WWWDLW

Possible line-ups: Northampton (4-2-3-1): Duke; Moloney, Cresswell, Collins, Horwood; Carter, Taylor; Holmes, Hackett, D’Ath; Toney. Plymouth (3-5-2): McCormick;

Nelson, McHugh, Hartley; Talbot, B Reid, O’Connor, Blizzard, Holmes-Dennis; R Reid, Alessandra.

Last time out: Cobblers beat Portsmouth 1-0 (Holmes), Plymouth lost 1-0 at Stevenage

Most recent meeting: Saturday, December 13, 2014 - Cobblers 2 (Toney, Murdoch) Plymouth 3

Cobblers connection: Chris Hargreaves joined the Cobblers in the summer of 2000 after leaving Plymouth, and supporters with good memories will recall a Chronicle & Echo back page photograph in which the midfielder was snapped on the Sixfields turf alongside two other additions, Marco Gabbiadini and Jamie Forrester. Hargreaves outlasted both of those, making 176 appearances and scoring 11 goals.

Jefferson Lake’s preview: There was a dose of bad news for the Cobblers in the build-up to this game with the confirmation that Plymouth striker Reuben Reid is over his recent injury and ready to lead the Pilgrims’ line.

Reid is a lethal striker whose tally of 17 goals so far this season tells its own story.

After a nomadic career, the powerful forward has found his feet - and his goalscoring touch - at Home Park where he has formed a pretty nifty strike partnership with Lewis Alessandra, who has scored in his past three games against the Cobblers.

Plymouth have had a couple of poor results in Reid’s absence, losing twice and failing to score in both games, and a revival will be sought on Saturday.

Northampton can go above Argyle with a win, but won’t go into the top seven because two of the other play-off hunters, Stevenage and Newport County, play each other.

They will be without their set-piece specialist Joel Byrom, whose place in the starting line-up will go to Darren Carter, but have a fresh option in attack with John-Joe O’Toole available after his three-game suspension.

Any positive outcome will be a good result for Town and a draw would be a very acceptable result, with two home games against struggling sides next on the agenda.

Prediction: Plymouth 1 Northampton 1