Surviving league one?

[Devon_Lad]

Other than Luton, I realistically don't think any of the sides fighting for promotion this season in League two would stand a chance in League one next season without considerably strengthening their squads. Luton have the budget to be able to improve in the areas they need to, but looking at the standard of football this season it's much worse than last year and think we will see some return straight back to League two.

 

[valefan16]

Other than Luton, I realistically don't think any of the sides fighting for promotion this season in League two would stand a chance in League one next season without considerably strengthening their squads. Luton have the budget to be able to improve in the areas they need to, but looking at the standard of football this season it's much worse than last year and think we will see some return straight back to League two.

Accrington would likely struggle but it isn't that hard to stay up, most do who go up and usually only needs a few tweaks... its the second season that gets tougher.

 

[shoddycollins]

Other than Luton, I realistically don't think any of the sides fighting for promotion this season in League two would stand a chance in League one next season without considerably strengthening their squads. Luton have the budget to be able to improve in the areas they need to, but looking at the standard of football this season it's much worse than last year and think we will see some return straight back to League two.

I think the difference in quality between the two divisions is certainly growing. Especially now it seems every season there are one or two 'fallen giants' in League One. I remember our first season there it was full of the sort of teams you would expect to find in the third division, and we fully expected to be in the promotion race, the only exception being Forest and even then they'd been mediocre for decades.

 

[gijsbert_bos]

I don't know about that. We beat Shrewsbury on Sunday and have beaten Rochdale, Peterborough and Oldham in recent Cup games. The teams towards the bottom are pretty awful - Walsall, Oldham etc have been struggling down there for years. People love to say this sort of stuff, that 'x' league is the weakest it's ever been, blah blah blah but it;s just something to say. Look at Blackpool, who barely limped up from League 2 last year and are in 15th and look safe.

If Lincoln do go up then financially we have the money to compete as we've nowhere near spent our FA Cup money from last year, have circa £1m from the Checkatrade plus 6000 season ticket holders and sellout crowds each week. Added to which we've signed Bostwick, Frecklington, Eardley and Wilson, all of whom have played at League One level or above for most of their careers.

 

[gijsbert_bos]

Who are these 'fallen giants' in League One? Yes, Sunderland are coming down but joined by Burton and probably Barnsley. From League One Blackburn are going up, likely joined by Wigan. That leaves Plymouth and Pompey (one of whom might go up via the playoffs). Besides them it's standard Div3 fare. Bradford are a big club but it's yonks since they were near the top flight, Blackpool are a basket case, Charlton have been dogshit for ages. That's it. There's no Sheffield Clubs there any more, no Forest. It's arguably more classically Division 3 than it has been in years. The Natural Order is sorting itself out.

 

[Luke Imp]

I think Shoddy means there's a Leeds, Leicester, Forest, Sheffield United, Coventry, Sunderland (potentially), Blackburn etc kinda team (or two, three) every year. Despite how they are off the pitch, there does seem to be a couple of decent sized Club's who in theory could blow other teams out of the water transfer fee and wages wise.

 

[Davidimp]

We've beaten four league one sides and lost to two in the last year or so but I do think our current squad would struggle.
A striker is top of the list but we would need strengthen across the board really but the Cowleys know this and will add accordingly if they stop of course!
As Mr Bos has mentioned at least we now have the funds and hopefully infrastructure in place to compete unlike 20 years when we went up and went straight back down again!

 

[GodsGift]

These threads are tiresome.

Blackpool finished seventh last year, lost some of their strongest players during the summer and yet they haven't been in League One's bottom four at any point this season. None of the promoted teams are going to be relegated. In fact they're 5th, 7th, 14th and 15th.

Yes it's a step up, but it really isn't as difficult as some suggest.

 

[darren gregory]

The last 2 seasons it didn't take a genius to predict promotion for
Sheff Utd, Bolton
Blackburn, Wigan ( being presumptious )

Next year the car crash that is Sunderland do not fit that bill. Normal order will probably return to Burton granted they have been fantastic just getting to the Championship.

We lasted 4 seasons and Gillingham who won the League in the year we went up are still doing okay.
I don't think it is a huge gap myself and a bit of good transfers of experienced League one war horses can go a long way to ensuring you do ok.

 

[UTS]

The step up is what you make of it...

Rochdale, although struggling this season, have been comfortably a top half L1 side since 2014...

Burton managed promotion from L1 on their first attempt.

Shrewsbury, a traditionally lower league side, currently find themselves 3rd in L1.

Don’t forget many of the sides in L1 and L2 have both been established at both levels for much of their history. Notts Co., Swindon etc were all comfortably settled L1 sides before they went down after 1 bad season.

Plymouth are 5th in L1 in their first season back at that level.

We (Bury) recorded 85 points in L2 and then 60 points in L1 the season after with pretty much the same squad.

 

[Devon_Lad]

I don't know about that. We beat Shrewsbury on Sunday and have beaten Rochdale, Peterborough and Oldham in recent Cup games. The teams towards the bottom are pretty awful - Walsall, Oldham etc have been struggling down there for years. People love to say this sort of stuff, that 'x' league is the weakest it's ever been, blah blah blah but it;s just something to say. Look at Blackpool, who barely limped up from League 2 last year and are in 15th and look safe.

If Lincoln do go up then financially we have the money to compete as we've nowhere near spent our FA Cup money from last year, have circa £1m from the Checkatrade plus 6000 season ticket holders and sellout crowds each week. Added to which we've signed Bostwick, Frecklington, Eardley and Wilson, all of whom have played at League One level or above for most of their careers.

Our team is definitely weaker than last year and we're going to finish on a fair few more points. We've lost Portsmouth, Blackpool, Plymouth, Doncaster - The four biggest teams that were in the league. So it definitely is a weaker league than last year

 

[jacobncfc]

It’s a bit of a nothing point, to be honest. With the exceptions of Accrington and Wycombe, the rest of the teams who could get promoted would all have probably mid-table at least budgets in League One and be able to strengthen fairly significantly.

 

[shoddycollins]

I think Shoddy means there's a Leeds, Leicester, Forest, Sheffield United, Coventry, Sunderland (potentially), Blackburn etc kinda team (or two, three) every year. Despite how they are off the pitch, there does seem to be a couple of decent sized Club's who in theory could blow other teams out of the water transfer fee and wages wise.

Yeah exactly, some of the seasons we were there, the promotion race was dominated by clubs who had been in the Premier League in recent history and in many cases were still receiving parachute payments. Clubs like Burton and Yeovil who have gone up seem very much like the exception rather than the rule and teams like those are more likely to go up via the play-offs than automatics. Shrewsbury have done very well all season but it's been difficult for them to compete with the likes of Wigan and Blackburn and they may well lose out to those clubs. There's still a sense every summer in League Two that pretty much anyone could have a good season and go up but you don't get that so much in League One, as lower divisions are slowly starting to reflect the Premiership where you have a big divide between the real contenders and the rest.

 

[Hooped Wizard]

These threads are tiresome.

Blackpool finished seventh last year, lost some of their strongest players during the summer and yet they haven't been in League One's bottom four at any point this season. None of the promoted teams are going to be relegated. In fact they're 5th, 7th, 14th and 15th.

Yes it's a step up, but it really isn't as difficult as some suggest.

To be fair though ourselves and Blackpool were only here one season and has just been relegated from the championship straight down to league 2 actually so it’s not particularly surprising we’ve adapted to league one fairly easily again. As for Portsmouth and Plymouth they were both sleeping giants.

I don’t really see that this year, I think the likes of Accrington, Wycombe, Exeter would really struggle

 

[Optipez]

I think there is a gap between the two. Having seen us promoted twice from Div2 to 1 both times the squads needed strengthening. Both times we needed to add creative , ball playing midfielders and strikers with a bit of guile.
The players are just a bit sharper in Div 1 than in this league.

The team we have now although doing well is nowhere near the standard of , say, Martin Allen's mid table Div1 team of a few years ago or even the team we put out last day of the season under Shaun Derry three years ago where we only just stayed up.

 

[ASFC Tom]

Would any of you actually bet on Accrington being relagated?
Every year we confound everyone’s expectations and ‘over perform’.
When will you learn.....???

 

[Vanni]

I fail to grasp the logic that we "insert name of L2 club here" beat four L1 clubs in the FA cup so we should be fine if we go up.

So, what does it mean then when your lot is humiliated in the cup by some part time Northern Premier League side? Does it mean that the club you follow will struggle in the NPL? I think not.

Cup games are not a good indicator of what lies in store if your lot go up or down. If it were so, Wigan could easily compete in the PL next season and win the title too, after all they beat Man City this year didn't they

 

[Vanni]

Would any of you actually bet on Accrington being relagated?
Every year we confound everyone’s expectations and ‘over perform’.
When will you learn.....???

No I wouldn't, 'cos I think L1 referees are just as inept as their L2 counterparts so you lot can keep on doing what you've been doing this year, week in week out

 

[ValiantRob]

The step up 30 years ago was very big but nowadays the style of football is less physical in L1 but not necessarily much better.
This season in all competitions I would bet that more L2 sides have beaten L1 sides than the other way round.

 

[ASFC Tom]

No I wouldn't, 'cos I think L1 referees are just as inept as their L2 counterparts so you lot can keep on doing what you've been doing this year, week in week out

What, winning?

 

[GTFCfish]

Thankfully some of us don’t need to worry too much about life in League 1.

 

[T.A]

If you have a half decent defence and someone who can get you 15+ goals then you’ll be fine. There are at least 8 teams that have been dogshit all season and we’ve been the worst of the lot. There’s only been 3 consistent teams in the division this year and two are still paying championship wages to most of their players.

 

[Kenneth E End]

No I wouldn't, 'cos I think L1 referees are just as inept as their L2 counterparts so you lot can keep on doing what you've been doing this year, week in week out

Because they’re the same referees?

 

[Kenneth E End]

Obviously there is a bigger wage bill but is there much difference financially to operate in L1 than L2? Central funding and turnover wise?

 

[Devon_Lad]

To be fair though ourselves and Blackpool were only here one season and has just been relegated from the championship straight down to league 2 actually so it’s not particularly surprising we’ve adapted to league one fairly easily again. As for Portsmouth and Plymouth they were both sleeping giants.

I don’t really see that this year, I think the likes of Accrington, Wycombe, Exeter would really struggle

If we are lucky enough to go up I think our season will completely depend on if get the money for Ethan Ampadu off Chelsea in the summer

 

[shoddycollins]

I fail to grasp the logic that we "insert name of L2 club here" beat four L1 clubs in the FA cup so we should be fine if we go up.

So, what does it mean then when your lot is humiliated in the cup by some part time Northern Premier League side? Does it mean that the club you follow will struggle in the NPL? I think not.

Cup games are not a good indicator of what lies in store if your lot go up or down. If it were so, Wigan could easily compete in the PL next season and win the title too, after all they beat Man City this year didn't they

That reminds me, I was gonna pick up on that too. We've got a pretty good record against higher division sides the last three seasons. Beat QPR at their place, Beat, Gillingham, Oldham and Fleetwood this season, Port Vale and Chesterfield in cup competitions the last couple of seasons too (while they were both in L1) Took Derby and Liverpool to penalties, Sheff Wed to a replay. Were probably the better team against Derby and also Sunderland this season. For obvious reasons the cup defeats in the same period is only 6 (including those penalty defeats) and one of those was Everton. Rochdale and Sunderland the only L1 or Championship sides to have beaten us in 90 minutes in those three seasons. Yet we can't get out of L2 so clearly we're a bit behind a division made up entirely of teams who have managed to get promoted from L2 or have played even higher.

 

[GodsGift]

I fail to grasp the logic that we "insert name of L2 club here" beat four L1 clubs in the FA cup so we should be fine if we go up.

So, what does it mean then when your lot is humiliated in the cup by some part time Northern Premier League side? Does it mean that the club you follow will struggle in the NPL? I think not.

Cup games are not a good indicator of what lies in store if your lot go up or down. If it were so, Wigan could easily compete in the PL next season and win the title too, after all they beat Man City this year didn't they

I'd agree if it was just a one-off, but if you've done it four or five times it's clearly not a coincidence.

 

[UTS]

Worth noting possibly, our chairman says he ‘isn’t worried’ about relegation to L2 as the financial outlay on the whole is ‘very similar’ between the two leagues.

 

[GTFCfish]

I don't know about that. We beat Shrewsbury on Sunday and have beaten Rochdale, Peterborough and Oldham in recent Cup games. The teams towards the bottom are pretty awful - Walsall, Oldham etc have been struggling down there for years. People love to say this sort of stuff, that 'x' league is the weakest it's ever been, blah blah blah but it;s just something to say. Look at Blackpool, who barely limped up from League 2 last year and are in 15th and look safe.

If Lincoln do go up then financially we have the money to compete as we've nowhere near spent our FA Cup money from last year, have circa £1m from the Checkatrade plus 6000 season ticket holders and sellout crowds each week. Added to which we've signed Bostwick, Frecklington, Eardley and Wilson, all of whom have played at League One level or above for most of their careers.

You also beat Burnley who are now 7th in Premier League so are you saying you think this Lincoln team could easily hold their own in the Prem too then?

 

[Moomin]

I think there’s enough poor L1 teams, which means most promoted teams would hold their own at the minimum.

Whoever goes up will add a few players too so I really can’t see anyone coming straight back down.