Mark Langdon's weekend FA Cup & EFL tips and football accumulators

Mark Langdon's free football tips, accumulators and analysis for this weekend's FA Cup and EFL matches.

Best bets

Coventry draw no bet
1pt 4-5 Hills, Sky Bet
Colchester
1pt 7-5 general
Mansfield
1pt 21-20 general

Bristol Rovers v Coventry

2.01pm Sunday

Mark Robins and Coventry will always be synonymous with the FA Cup and together they could make strides in this season's competition.

Robins, according to footballing folklore, was the man who saved Sir Alex Ferguson from the sack at Manchester United, scoring a goal against Nottingham Forest en route to the Red Devils lifting the FA Cup in 1990, while Coventry's greatest day came in 1987 when defeating a top-class Tottenham team at Wembley.

The current Sky Blues crop are unlikely to match those efforts but they can reach round four by winning at Bristol Rovers.

Cov, up to third in Sky Bet League One following three straight wins, could barely be feeling better about themselves after romping to successive 4-1 away victories at Wycombe and Tranmere.

Matt Godden has nailed hat-tricks in both wins and they look to be heading to Bristol at the perfect time as new coach Ben Garner beds in his ideas while also having to deal with a mounting injury crisis.

Garner saw ace keeper Anssi Jaakkola dislocate his shoulder in Wednesday's 3-0 defeat at MK Dons, while influential midfielder Abu Ogogo had to come off at half-time of that defeat.

Ollie Davies is another headline name in a packed treatment table as the Gas struggle to deliver decent performances.

Since Christmas they have lost to AFC Wimbledon and MK Dons and were pummeled in a 0-0 draw at Fleetwood when Town had eight shots on target to Rovers' one.

Mansfield v Grimsby

3pm Saturday

Graham Coughlan's departure from Rovers looks like as if it has hurt the club but he has given Mansfield a boost. The Stags are clearly ambitious and were able to tempt the manager to take a step down in division to sort out their mess.

Serious mismanagement has left Mansfield down in 17th and Coughlan may not even need to be that good to get them going in the right direction.

They have shown signs of improvement with draws against Crewe, Northampton and Port Vale, plus they competed well in a 2-0 defeat at Bradford when losing to a couple of James Vaughan penalties.

Beating Cambridge 3-2 with a Nicky Maynard hat-trick on Wednesday could be just the confidence-booster needed and in terms of talent they should be odds-on to beat Grimsby.

The Mariners made a winning start to life under Ian Holloway thanks to Ahkeem Rose's goal in a 1-0 win over Salford. That, however, was one of only two shots on target and Grimsby had been on a 15-match winless run before claiming maximum points.

Stevenage v Colchester

3pm Saturday

Graham Westley's fourth spell as Stevenage manager has not gone as well as he will have hoped with one point from three matches and Colchester could make it three straight defeats for Boro.

Westley will lament last-gasp losers at Plymouth and Northampton, but in both games they were on the back foot and paid the price.

Tylor Denton was injured in Devon and Scott Cuthbert was unable to start at Cobblers after suffering a problem in the warm-up, which could leave Westley short of defenders for this clash.

Colchester are unbeaten in ten league games and also had the happy distraction of a run to the League Cup quarter-finals.

Weekend accumulators

Banker
Arsenal 4-6
Marcelo Bielsa picked a weakened Leeds side in last season's FA Cup and if he does likewise at Arsenal it is likely to result in defeat to the Premier League hosts, who are improving under Mikel Arteta.

Blowout
Fulham 6-5
Aston Villa are likely to field their reserves but many of them are decent Championship performers and there is no guarantee out-of-form Fulham will play their strongest side either.

Accumulator
Millwall 4-9, Oxford 4-11, Barcelona 4-9, Arsenal 8-13. £1 accumulator returns £4.60 with Betway & Sky Bet.

Both teams to score
Games at Birmingham 8-11, Real Sociedad 8-13, Crewe 6-10. £1 treble returns £4.46 with Hills.

Thought for the week

Here are three players who could have a big 2020.

Lautaro Martinez Inter Milan
Barcelona will have to think about who will become their next striker as Luis Suarez turns 33 later this month and Lautaro looks the obvious contender after a magnificent season for Inter.

Martinez trails Romelu Lukaku by four Serie A goals this season, but watch Inter regularly enough and it is pretty obvious the 22-year-old is going to develop into something very special as he showed with five Champions League goals.

A killer in the box but with the technical ability to play for Barca, Lautaro should be become a major player on the world stage.

Patrik Schick RB Leipzig
At one stage it looked as if Schick would not even be the most famous person in his family - sister Kristyna Schickova is a popular model on Instagram - but the classy Czech forward is showing signs of getting back to his best.

Schick, who failed a medical at Juventus and then bombed out at Roma, is a languid type who can sometimes play at a pace similar to Dimitar Berbatov but four goals in his last five appearances for Leipzig suggests the 23-year-old is getting back to the kind of form which made him standout at Sampdoria.

Andre Onana Ajax
Cameroonian cat Onana claims racism has stopped him from moving to a bigger league but it is surely only a matter of time before he gets a switch to a wealthier club.

Onana is all class with his feet and agile enough to make it at the highest level.

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