Like the greyhounds who picked up the slack when Horse Flu decimated racing, the third and fourth tier become the headline for UK Football this weekend, as a bunch or relatively meaningless friendlies interrupt the UK Football.
But League One and Two are always loved here at The Gurgler, and deserve their brief time in the spotlight. So it’s a good time to catch up on who’s winning, who could be promoted, and who could be dropping down a division of disappearing into the abyss of Non League. Just in case you were asking, which we know no one is. The Gurgler is the home of the answer for the question no one asked. But in case the water cooler talk mentions Barnsley, Yeovil or Dagenham & Redbridge, we’ll have you partially covered.
WHO’S WINNING
Both Leagues are headed, and comfortably, and very comfortably by Burton Albion in League 1 and Northampton in League Two. Freshly promoted from League Two the previous season, Burton are a reasonably small club that currently head the league by six points with 11 games to go, and have been top or near to for a lot of this season. Northampton are an even bigger surprise given they were doing a whip around to pay players, had the HMRC wind up order that gets threatened from time, and were involved in a case of a 10M loan that was meant to build a grandstand but was “used” elsewhere. The Cobblers lead their division by a massive 11 points with a game in hand and 11 matches to go. Promotion is almost guaranteed as they are 17 points ahead of fourth. They have lost only one of the their last 24 and that includes just 4 draws. Both of these team look the goods for the title.
WHO ELSE COULD GO UP
Wigan are currently second and unbeaten in 16 games, so good enough for one of the three spots. The other is tough to predict, but that doesn’t stop us choosing Millwall for the last spot up.
With four places on offer in League Two, it is slightly easier on the 24 team with a top 7, but Oxford look the next best and should go up, Bristol Rovers too are on one of those runs at this time of the season that leads all the way to the next division. And we’ll plump for a roughie in Luton Town who are still 6 points from the playoff spots.
WHO IS GOING DOWN.
League One is a little unfair as it has four spots in the drop zone, and the last two Crewe and Colchester have looked likely for most of the season. Peterborough in 16th and 11 points away from relegation are the last side who could go down given their run of form, but our pre season choice Blackpool are an excellent chance, as are Fleetwood. That means the last two selections are going down from outside the bottom 4 at current.
League Two relegation is more cut and dried with York 7 points from safety and Dagenham & Redbridge 9 points. With only two relegation spots it will take an almighty run in the last 10/11 games to avoid the drop to the Non League National League Premier. A division from which there is no easy return.
SACKED MANAGERS
There have been 40 sacked managers across the top four divisions so far this season, and there have been 11 in League One and 10 in League Two (Championship lead the way with 13). The average tenure for the current managers in League One is 1.2 years and League Two 1.6 years. One each from League One and Two have gone this week alone. Tough gig.
MULTI TIME
Since we’ve given our overall thoughts of the end of the season, what about some quick multis to keep you interested until later in the season.
LEAGUE ONE MULTI
$1 for $16
BARNSLEY to beat Scunthorpe
SHEFFIELD UTD to beat Crewe
COVENTRY to beat Peterborough
BURTON to beat Oldham.
LEAGUE TWO MULTI
$1 for $9
OXFORD to beat Stevenage
NORTHAMPTON to beat Newport
PORTSMOUTH to beat Notts County
YEOVIL to beat Carlisle.
