Rochdale host MK Dons at the Crown Oil Arena hoping that they can change their fortunes against the team who sit two places ahead of them in the table.

Barry-Murphy's men had hoped that they had turned a corner when they beat Bristol Rovers away from home. However, their bad run of form resumed as Charlton cruised to victory beating them by a very convincing 2-0. BB-M's men have failed to win at home in their last 11 home matches, resulting in them having one of the worst home records in the Division. 

The visitors come into this one in a slightly better vein of form having accumulated 7 points in their past 5 league outings, whereas the hosts have only collected 4 points from their past 5. A win here would undoubtedly do either team the world of good. A win for Dale, if results were to go their way, could see them close the gap on Shrewsbury, who sit just above them in 17th place, and even begin to close the gap on tonight's opponents. It would also give them some much needed breathing room over Wimbledon and Bristol Rovers. A win for the visitors tonight could see them extend the gap between themselves and Dale to a significant 9 points and if results were to go their way they could soar up the table to 12th place, potentially finding themselves 11 points clear of the bottom four.

This one could be a absolute goal fest with Dale boasting one of the best goal-scoring records in the division, having scored 40 this season, which ranks them at 5th for most goals scored. Although it's not so pretty at the back with Dale having conceded 27 goals this season, a total that is only topped by bottom of the table Burton Albion. However, Dale will surely take some hope from the fact that MK Dons have failed to score at the Crown Oil Arena since August 2016. Dale midfielder Matty Lund is having an amazing season, getting on the score sheet 10 times already this campaign, making this his best ever league goal tally in a season to date and also putting him top of the tree in terms of Dale goalscorers. 

MK Dons put in a real hard fought performance to share the honours with a tough Sunderland side last time out. Martins men went 1 down in 5 minutes but they fought hard to be able to go in at the break 2-1 up. Sunderland made the game level once more scoring just 11 minutes into the second half. Surely Barry-Murphy can take some positives from Dons sloppy defending and his team will be hoping to exploit that again tonight.

Will Grigg will be available for the first time tonight since his return back to MK Dons from Sunderland, but Russell Martin looks to be without midfielder Louis Thompson after he suffered an injury against Sunderland at the weekend. Martin will be keeping tabs on Ben Gladwin and David Kasumu right up until he submits the team sheets to see if they'll be ready, after recent injuries.  Jordan Houghton, Jay Bird and Kieran Agard still remain out injured for this one. 

Dale will have to make the decision whether Eoghan O'Connell will be fit enough to play tonight having played the full 90 minutes at the weekend despite it being his first game in a month following his hamstring injury. With Paul McShane still being out with a calf issue, it is expected that O'Connell will play some part in the game. January signings Jack Vale and Connor Grant will be hoping for starts tonight after coming off the bench on Saturday and Conor Shaughnessy will be hoping that he can make his debut for Dale tonight.

Carl Boyeson will be the man taking charge of the game. Mr Boyeson has refereed  17 games so far this season and has produced a total of 57 yellow cards but is yet to send anyone off, although he has awarded 3 penalties. His assistants are Christopher Ward and Mark Cunliffe, whilst the fourth official is Peter Gooch.

A word from the Manager's 

Brian Barry-Murphy: "Saturday was disappointing, but the lads have been amazing over a long period of time now and I think it's very important that we bounce back on Tuesday night. From our point of view, we didn't reach the heights that we wanted to, so it's very important that we understand why and put that right."

Russell Martin: Rochdale are a very good side and gave us a really good game last year. I have so much respect for their Manager and how they play. Some of their games have been very entertaining."