National League · Saturday, 31 October 2026 · 15:00. Our rating makes this 60% to go over 2.5 goals, so our lean is over. The National League average is 58%.
| Market | Yes | No | Our call |
|---|---|---|---|
| Over 2.5 goals | 60% | 40% | Over |
| Over 3.5 goals | 37% | 63% | no pick |
| Both teams to score | 57% | 43% | Yes |
The result model puts Boreham Wood at 67%, the draw at 18% and Hartlepool at 15%, from expected goals of 2.4 and 1.04.
The league sets the starting point. National League has produced over 2.5 goals in 58% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.
Each side's own record. Boreham Wood have 11 in 13 this season (6 of 6 at home), Hartlepool 5 in 13 (4 of 7 away). Those records are pulled toward the league rate with the weight of about 24 matches — enough that two or three unusual games cannot swing a rating — giving 67% and 51%.
Last season still counts, briefly. With 13 and 13 games played this season, last season's rates are still blended in and fade out entirely by game 40 — the point at which our testing showed they stop adding accuracy. A single season is part luck, so each club's record is first pulled toward the league average by 34 games' weight. That moves the two figures to 65% and 49%.
The mix. Weighted 40% home side, 40% away side and 20% league — the split that beat every alternative across 30,582 matches of testing — that gives 57%.
Head to head. These sides have met 3 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 67%. That nudges the number 5% of the way toward the head-to-head pattern — deliberately small, because fixtures change more than reputations do — landing on 58%.
Goal expectation. Separately a Poisson model built from attack and defence strength — using real expected-goals data where the league has it — puts this match at 67%, from expected goals of 2.4 for Boreham Wood and 1.04 for Hartlepool. Folding in 30% of that view gives 60%.
This breakdown is generated from the same inputs the rating uses, so it cannot describe a calculation we did not perform. The full model is set out in the methodology.
| Team | Games | O2.5 | O3.5 | BTTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boreham Wood | 13 | 85% | 46% | 77% |
| Hartlepool | 13 | 38% | 23% | 38% |
Our numbers give this match a 72% chance of at least one goal before half-time and 37% of two or more. The National League rates, last season and this season combined, are 72% and 36% (this season so far: 74% with a first-half goal, from 155 games). After the break: 83% for a goal and 54% for two or more (league 82% and 51%). Boreham Wood's last 50 games had a first-half goal 84% of the time and a second-half goal 84%; Hartlepool's last 50, 60% and 84%. A goal in both halves: 61% (league 58%). Highest-scoring half: second 47%, first 30%, level 23% — close to the league's usual split, because team form says little about which half is busier. Team form says less about a single half than about a full match, so these numbers stay close to the league's.
Every match ranked the same way: first half goals today · second half goals today · goal in both halves today · tomorrow.
More: Boreham Wood season stats · Hartlepool season stats · National League table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.