It’s all about timing when making a push for the Serie B play-offs and Palermo may have picked the perfect moment to find their best form of the season.

If Alessio Dionisi’s side avoid defeat when they host Cremonese on Friday night it will mark their longest unbeaten run of the campaign – six games – and keep them well placed as the jostling continues in the race for a top-eight finish.

They held on to that final play-off spot after last week’s draw with Sampdoria, having been forced to fight back after going behind in the first minute at the Luigi Ferraris Stadium.

Once again it was Joel Pohjanpalo on the scoresheet, the January signing cancelling out Massimo Coda’s early effort late in the first half.

The Finnish striker made his Palermo debut in last month’s 2-2 draw with Spezia, helping his new side halt a run of two losses on the spin with a point that signalled the start of their unbeaten run.

He has scored in his four outings since making his bow and as Dan Cancian outlined in these pages earlier this week, with his 0.86 goals per game he is outperforming his 0.47 xG, which is Palermo’s second-highest behind Matteo Brunori. The same applies to his goal contributions, which at 1.07 per 90 minutes is a team high and considerably better than his 0.52 xG+xAG (expected goals and assists per game).

It was an emotional Pohjanpalo who said goodbye to Venezia ahead of that €4million transfer just a couple of months ago, but it could be the Cremonese defenders close to tears if he continues along his current path.

In Cremonese’s favour, their own form is not too shabby. In the 13 games played since losing at home to Reggiana in early December, they have lost just twice and last weekend hit four against Catanzaro without reply.

But their threat has been blunted by the loss of top-scorer Franco Vazquez.

The 36-year-old playmaker, who represented Italy and Argentina at international level earlier in his career, has been banned for 10 games for racially abusing Bari’s Mehdi Dorval during last month’s 1-1 draw.

Vazquez’s nine goals in his 26 appearances this term has helped his side climb to fourth in the standings, six points better off than Palermo ahead of Friday night’s encounter. Dennis Johnsen will be looking to pick up the slack after scoring three in his last two.

There is little to choose between the teams heading into this one with the hosts perhaps shading favouritism given home advantage and Pohjanpalo’s hot streak.

A win for the Sicilians would complete a league double over Cremonese after Roberto Insigne scored the only goal of the game in the reverse fixture back in August.

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