Leagues One & Two looking to impress
League One is notoriously a building platform for clubs in a swift decline from Premier League glory over recent years. Southampton, Watford, Leicester and Leeds have all been in English Football’s third tier in the past decade. The challenge of promotion has been made harder in recent years with the ‘nothing to lose’ attitude of teams coming from the other side of the Football pyramid as clubs from the National League and League Two look for their moment of glory.
Established Premier League clubs of the 90s and 00s like Charlton, Sunderland, Ipswich and Portsmouth have struggled in the past five years to get out of a league that is trapping more teams than it is letting go. Teams like Blackpool, Coventry City and Huddersfield have all leapfrogged the favourites in a search to be established in the Championship, but could this year be any different?
For Charlton, playing the likes of Morecambe, Cheltenham and Fleetwood would have seemed like more of a Pre-Season friendly schedule back in the early 2000s, but all three teams will look to cause an upset, and having seen the journey the Addicks have been on in the past 5 years they won’t be fearful of an experienced Charlton side. As the addicks look to rebuild under Nigel Adkins first full season in charge, they have kept the likes of FA Cup winner Ben Watson in midfield and Wales record cap holder Chris Gunter as a fully versatile defender. Throw in the likes of Jayden Stockley and Connor Washington who have bags of experience at this level and the promise of youth with Albie Morgan, Charlton are one of the favourites to escape the third tier this season.
Portsmouth and Ipswich have been inconsistent over recent years, both previous starting strong but Ipswich in particular have struggled to even finish in a play off place. Ipswich have strengthened up top bringing in Connor Chaplin, Macauley Bonne and Joe Pigott who all have experience at this level. Portsmouth have opted to strengthen at the back bringing in a new back line, perhaps working on last years weaknesses after finishing a disappointing 8th last term.
Despite the fact that Sunderland have let a lot of players go over the summer, the black cats will be hopefully for another promotion push having failed in the play offs for the past two seasons. Top scorer Charlie Wyke has moved on, but they are looking towards youth to help them out this season after signing players on loan from either side of Manchester. Sunderland will know that they have experience to cause anybody a problem this season.
Wigan are also a team that have suffered in the past few seasons dropping down to League one. They escaped relegation by one point last season, however and have captured Sunderland’s top scrorer Charlie Wyke and playmaker Max Power as well as Charlton’s number one goalkeeper Ben Amos. They mean business and will be expected to push for promotion.
Outside chances for a promotion push will be teams like Lincoln and Oxford who were amongst the favourites, it will be interesting to see if they can develop a consistent flow of results. Bolton will hope they can work their way back up the football pyramid and ride on last seasons momentum of promotion from League Two.
It looks quite obvious that teams such as Morecambe, Cambridge and Cheltenham should be down in the relegation zone towards the end of the season, but it is all to play for to avoid relegation to League Two.
Speaking of League Two, it’s always an open field to see who has the will and determination to progress. To an outsider teams like Barrow and Harrogate Town could be clubs associated with the realms of Non-League football as both survived the first year in the Football League and will be joined by Sutton United. It’s hard to look past these three teams being at the wrong end of the table in May, but they will certainly give it their best shot.
Swindon and Bristol Rovers will look for a quick escape following their relegation last season, along with the usual suspects of Bradford, Tranmere and Scunthorpe who have been established League One teams in the past.
