Perhaps a welcome break from league football as Cove Rangers & Albion Rovers face off to decide who makes it to next stage of the Challenge Cup. All the pre-match information is available here!
Both teams should be fairly well rested for this game, as they have had some quiet days to prepare. Hopefully this will translate into lots of action on the pitch.
Cove's stadium, Balmoral Stadium, has a artifical turf surface. Albion Rovers have grass on their own stadium. This might or might not make a difference, and to help evaluate that we give you the recent performance numbers for Albion Rovers when playing on artifical turf; 4 wins, 1 draw and 8 losses from 13 matches. They have scored 17 goals in these games and conceded 29.
Cove Rangers form and stats
Action has already taken place for Cove in Challenge Cup as they have defeated Stenhousemuir to reach the 3rd Round. Last season, Cove's Challenge Cup journey ended in the 3rd round.2-2-0 (win-draw-lost) are the League One numbers at home for Cove Rangers so far this season.
Cove enjoyed a nice away win last time out, playing at Alloa Athletic's place. The match ended 3-1 with R. McAllister (2) scoring.
Before that, Cove had a League One home game versus Airdrieonians which ended with a victory 1-0.With an average of more than two goals per home game in the league (8 in 4 games), Cove Rangers's attacking play is working. On the other hand, Cove have conceded 4 goals.
Albion Rovers form and stats
The traveling awayteam has defeated St. Mirren U21 in order to reach 3rd round of Challenge Cup. They also participated in Challenge Cup last season. This ended in the 1st round.The manager B. Reid is not happy with the away performances in the League Two so far, as all 4 matches have been lost. Bitter travels for Albion as they have lost five games in a row away from home. The last time they avoided an away-from-home loss was the Stenhousemuir match.
Albion lost away at Stranraer (0-1) in their previous game and are perhaps starting to feel homesick.
It was a League Two defeat before that one as the away game against Forfar Athletic wasn't a success with a 1-3 loss.Albion are seemingly not capable of scoring regularly on their travels in the league. They have only managed 2 goals from 4 away games. The Albion manager B. Reid has some worries about the defense as 9 goals have been conceded in these travels.
Head 2 Head
Cove Rangers-Albion Rovers H2H statistics last three meetings regardless of arena: Cove one win, Albion Rovers zero wins, two draws. three of these three matches had three or more goals (over 2,5).Top Goalscorers
  R. McAllister 9 goals | M. Megginson 4 goals |  R. Leitch 2 goals |
Cove Rangers missing players
Albion Rovers missing players
| Cove Rangers | Albion Rovers | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 12 | Played | P | 13 | 25 | ||
| 9 | 5 | Won | W | 4 | 8 | ||
| 7 | 5 | Drew | D | 2 | 7 | ||
| 9 | 2 | Lost | L | 7 | 10 | ||
| 35 | 19 | Scored | S | 18 | 33 | ||
| 36 | 13 | Conceded | C | 26 | 37 | ||
| 96% | 92% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 100% | 92% | ||
| 80% | 75% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 77% | 72% | ||
| 48% | 33% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 62% | 48% | ||
| 40% | 33% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 46% | 32% | ||
| 12% | 17% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 23% | 16% | ||
| 56% | 58% | BTTS | BTTS | 62% | 48% | ||
| 24% | 33% | Clean Sheets | C S | 15% | 28% | ||
| 24% | 17% | Failed to Score | F T | 23% | 32% | ||
| 4.8 | 4.8 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 4.5 | 4.3 | ||
| 3.9 | 2.6 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 5.7 | 5.3 | ||
| 1.7 | 1.8 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 1.5 | 1.3 | ||
| 3 | 1 | Red cards | R C | 1 | 2 | ||
| 11.5 | 12.9 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 7.5 | 9 | ||
| 4.3 | 5.6 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 3.6 | 3.6 | ||
| 32% | 28% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 38% | 37% | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Queen's Park | 9 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 14 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 7 | 17 |
| 2 | Cove Rangers | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 16 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 17 |
| 3 | Falkirk | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 13 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 14 |
| 4 | Airdrieonians | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 13 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 14 |
| 5 | Dumbarton | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 16 | 16 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 14 |
| 6 | Montrose | 9 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 10 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 13 |
| 7 | Alloa Athletic | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 12 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 11 |
| 8 | Clyde | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 13 | 17 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 10 | -4 | 11 |
| 9 | Peterhead | 9 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 15 | 15 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| 10 | East Fife | 9 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 23 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 18 | -15 | 4 |
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Kelty Hearts | 9 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 19 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 4 | 13 | 23 |
| 2 | Stirling Albion | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 17 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 19 |
| 3 | Annan Athletic | 9 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 11 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 15 |
| 4 | Forfar Athletic | 9 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 13 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 14 |
| 5 | Edinburgh City | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 14 |
| 6 | Stranraer | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | -4 | 11 |
| 7 | Elgin City | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 7 | -4 | 9 |
| 8 | Albion Rovers | 9 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 8 | 16 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 9 | -8 | 7 |
| 9 | Stenhousemuir | 9 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 15 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | -7 | 6 |
| 10 | Cowdenbeath | 9 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 17 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 10 | -8 | 6 |