The season so far in League Two - Guesswork

Having set myself up for a fall by promising to update this blog each day, I often need to wrack my brains to think of something to write about and so as we’re nearly 25% of the way through the season, I thought I’d take a look at League Two and give my predictions/thoughts on the sides I’ve seen so far and where I think they’ll end up in May.

Of course fans of these teams will have seen a lot more of them than me this season and you can’t make any real judgments on a handful (or even one) of performances. It’s just a bit of fun, but post a comment if you agree or disagree.

Working my way up from the current table (positions in brackets), these – for the little they are worth - are my views:

Lincoln (23 out of 24) – Saw them recently against Wycombe and they showed a great deal of heart coming from behind twice. They have a good manager in Steve Tilson and I really can’t see them struggling all term. Mid-table finish.

Hereford (22) – Another good young manager in Jamie Pitman who has them playing well and they are unbeaten in seven. However, I’m sticking by my prediction in an earlier post that old boy Steve Guinan - who is currently on Northampton’s books – will be offered the job in January. Either way, they have too much talent to go down and I expect them to pull away from trouble. Bottom half finish though.

Stockport (21) – I saw them at Oxford where they were impressive in a hit and run win. However, subsequent results suggest that I might have seen them on a good day. Paul Simpson has no money to spend and will be relying on his contacts and loan deals to ensure a bottom half finish.

Northampton (19) – Ian Sampson will be hoping that they get over the hangover of their up win at Anfield pretty quickly as it seems to have dragged on and is in danger of costing him his job. Should finish mid-table.

Morecambe (17) – A poor side they day they played Oxford at the Kassam and they will do well to beat the drop.

Oxford (15) – Chris Wilder is about to set the cat among the pigeons with several loan signings which is a good indication that he has no intention of consolidating in League Two and doesn’t want any chance of promotion to slip by. They enjoyed their day out at Wembley last season and I have a gut feeling they’ll be back on the train to North London again in May.

Burton Albion (14) – This is just about where they will end up I suspect. A good manager in Paul Peschisolido, but he needs funds to help bolster a meagre squad and he just doesn’t have them.

Crewe (11) – Write off Dario Gradi at you peril. A play-off place beckons for the Railwaymen. I saw them lose at Oxford, but have faith in the old fella.

Cheltenham (9) – My surprise package for League Two. I think that they have one of the best managers in the division in Mark Yates and wouldn’t put it past them to make one of the top three automatic promotion places.

Wycombe (5) – Doing well at the moment (away from home), but I wonder whether they’ll last the pace. They were pre-season favourites for promotion, but I didn’t see anything to suggest they could do it when I was there.

Of course this is all good and well, but Bradford were string into the abyss a couple of weeks ago and now look as though they'll keep on marching up to the summit of the table. There's still an awful lot of football to be played.

Cheltenham Town 2 Burton Albion 1 – Ugly

My clipping from this morning's copy of The Sun - with someone else's byline!!

The Sun’s football website: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football

They say that if you are going to achieve anything in football, sometimes you have to win ugly – if so, this performance was a bit like watching Susan Boyle at a gurning competition.

In total contrast to the “semi naked Cameron Diaz show” the Robins put on last time I went to see them against Crewe, this time the Robins stole all three points with a fight back prompted by on loan substitute Shaun Jeffers who set up both goals.

Having said that, Cheltenham boss Mark Yates won’t mind if he wakes up next to the football equivalent of SuBo next May knowing that he will be strutting his stuff in the harem of League One beauties in 2011/12.

Jeff Goulding started the game after passing a fitness test, but Jeffers, 18, replaced him on the hour - as was the plan according to First Team Coach Neil Howarth after the match.

In the 80th minute Jeffers – on loan from Coventry and joining up with England U-19s for a game against Slovakia after the game –teed up co-striker Wes Morgan for his 5th goal in four games and less than two minutes later did the same thing for winger Josh Low to wrap up the win.

Mind you if it hadn’t been for several great saves by keeper Scott Brown things could have been very different. The last one – in injury time – was a stunning low save to his right from an 18 yard shot by Burton goal scorer Shaun Harrad that flew through a sea of legs.

I spoke to Harrad afterwards and he generously paid tribute to Brown saying: “He deserves the man of the match champagne for that performance.”

I had to wait until the man from BBC radio had finished talking to Harrad before I could grab a few words, but listened in as the striker was told he had “got away from the Cheltenham defence once and scored a goal”. I have to admit that I sometimes wonder what game my colleagues are watching as Harrad had several attempts on goal and I’m sure the central defenders – Steve Elliott and Keith Lowe – will happily admit Harrad made sure they earned their corn.

Harrad had last season’s amazing 6-5 home defeat against Cheltenham on his mind and admitted they felt as though they’d been mugged again. He said “We said at half time we couldn’t take it for granted especially after what happened last season, but they had two chances and scored from both. It’s a big knock back. I’m pleased to get of the mark in the league.”

Harrad is an extremely likeable guy and – more importantly – looks a real threat when he gets the ball in front of goal. Burton boss Paul Peschisolido will be hoping that he is given more opportunities by his teammates as the season wears on.

Indeed Pesch said: “We had enough three on twos and sometimes we chose the wrong option going forward. If you don’t take your chances away from home you don’t win and we had enough chances and we had the chances.”

Howarth is pleased that the Robins now have enough options on the bench from which they can pick to change a game as they did against Albion. He said: “A couple of times last season we looked at the bench and didn’t have much to change things, but now we have Gallinagh, Bird, Shroot and others who can come on and change things and Jeffers did it today. We’re very pleased with the squad we’ve managed to put together so far.

Josh Low is a Rolls Royce for us. Not any people would have got there and timed his run perfectly, but he’s got ability and it took some finishing.

We’ve played a lot of pretty stuff this season and today when we’ve needed to show bottle and character we did that as well.

We had a lot of huff and puff and weren’t able to break them down, but our couple of substitutions gave us a little more impetuous when we needed it.

Shaun is a lovely lad. He’s very lively and been staying on the training ground after training. He’s not quite in the starting eleven yet and we’ve got a couple of players like that and they’re going about things the right way. Their attitude is spot on.”

Scott Brown’s decisions are correct and a made some outstanding saves today and deserves a big pat on the back. That’s why he’s there at the end of the day, but every credit to him.”

Thomas, 23, was delighted with his equalizer, but paid tribute to both Brown and Jeffers. He said: “Scott has come in for a bit of stick, but to be fair he’s kept us in the game right at the end and if he can keep doing that we should have a good season. He’s got us the win really.

My confidence is high right now and it didn’t affect me when I missed one, I just feel another chance will come along. Shaun Jeffers is an exciting player and he’s got pace and ability and a great future.”