League Two – Round up so far

We are now fourteen games into the League Two season and many feel we should be starting to get a feel for what each individual teams aims will now be for the season.  Personally, I disagree and always find myself reluctant to make such a comment until each side has faced eachother once, however, I believe there are some anomalies already!

Firstly, many anticipated that Crawley Town would runaway with the League Two title and to be honest, I was one of them.  Having seen them play twice this season already, I don’t believe they are as strong as most people first thought and this was potentially proven by Morecambe who annihilated them 6-0 followed by a 3-0 home defeat to Swindon.  Having said that, they have bounced back immediately with six straight wins and placed themselves on top of the pile.  Who knows what extra cash they will be able to get their hands on should they feel they need to improve their squad further?

Crawley are being closely followed by Southend United who finally appear to have found their feet in the division after a some what inconsistent start to the season.  Southend are currently on an unbeaten run of seven league games, including six wins.  They have made some very impressive signings this season including Liam Dickinson, JP Kalala and Neil Harris; They also have a young striker on trial currently, called Yannick Boli, who played for PSG as well as previously being linked with Real Madrid – potentially an exciting prospect for League Two on a cold Tuesday night!

As for the rest of the automatic promotion and playoff places, the only teams which not many would have expected to be there are Morecambe and Cheltenham.  Morecambe have been extremely good on the road and most teams have found them difficult to break down.  Cheltenham have some what crept into the automatic positions currently and certainly deserve to be there.  In my opinion, I feel these teams will start to fall down the table in time and will eventually finish in a respectable mid-table position.  I also believe that Swindon and Port Vale will grab a playoff spot and Gillingham will fill the remaining automatic promotion spot.

In terms of relegation, I think it could be tight this year.  We currently have Plymouth stuck at the bottom of the table and in numerous off-the-field issues and in serious fear of their existence – who knows what a consecutive relegation could do to the club.  Barnet also find themselves in the relegation zone, despite having one of the tastiest attacks in the league, I fancy them to find enough to steer away from relegation and stay up.  Accrington Stanley have had a terrible time on the road this season, but have been so reliant on their home form in recent years that they should have enough about them.  I personally fear for Hereford, I saw them play away earlier in the season and really felt that they will struggle this season and I believe this may be their year to go down.

Like I said at the beginning, I really do not believe you can fully judge a team’s expectations until the 23^rd game of the season, so let’s see what happens in the next nine games!

@Rich__Norton