League 2 review

betting zone preview: usually a good predictor

It seems a long time ago since Swindon were gracing the Premiership and for their fans the last few years have been pretty awful as the rocking Robins have fallen through the divisions.

Last year saw Swindon tamely drop out of League One, although it is not all doom and gloom around the County Ground, with the arrival of Dennis Wise as manager, and his former Chelsea team-mate Gus Poyet as his number two.

The fact the Swindon board have brought this two in means they are serious about getting the club back out of this division at the first attempt, although at a general price of 8/1 for the title they look plenty short enough.

Wise will make sure his small squad of players are one of the fittest bunches in the division but with little money to spend he has had to raid his former club Millwall over the summer, to bring in Curtis Weston and Jamie Vincent.

Winger Andy Monkhouse is a useful signing from Rotherham, but they will miss the goals of Jamie Cureton who has moved to Championships new-boys Colchester United.

Wise enjoyed a fair amount of success when in charge at Millwall, and along with guiding them to the 2004 FA Cup final, he also made them into genuine play-off contenders, only to leave the job at the end of the 2005 season when several key players were sold off.

The Wise/Poyet duo will certainly make Swindon the most high-profile club in League Two this season, but it's debatable whether they can bounce back up at the first attempt.

Next in the betting come the Franchise who have a new man in charge in the form of Martin Allen.

The former Brentford boss was expected to move up to the Championship having once again seen his Bees outfit fall at the play-off stage, but true to his character he shocked everyone by agreeing to drop down a level to try and revive the Franchise.

Allen has done well in the transfer market over the summer and the signing of Jon-Paul McGovern from Sheffield Wednesday could prove to be an inspired bit of business.

Drissa Diallo has also arrived from the Owls, while Sean O'Hanlon will help keep it tight at the back having joined from local rivals Swindon.

Izale McLeod will once again be their main threat going forward, while the loyal Franchise fans will have been delighted with the news that Nicky Rizzo has been offered a new one-year deal.

With another year to wait until they move into their new 30,000 seater stadium it will once again be the National Hockey Stadium that stages their home games and while this is far from ideal, Allen will make sure they are tough to beat at home and he will be hoping for attendances to be up on last year, when they dipped below the 6,000 mark.

The Dons are best-priced at 11/1 with Expekt and while some people might be tempted to back them at that price, a top three finish might just be beyond them, although it wouldn't be much of a shock to see them involved in the play-offs, come May.

Come Christmas last year it looked like Wycombe would walk away with the League Two title after making a fabulous start to the season, going unbeaten for their first 21 matches.

Even as late as February the Chairboys were leading the way, but then manager John Gorman took time out of the game following the death of his wife and in his absence Wycombe lost their way completely, winning only four of their last 13 matches.

Gorman left the club completely in April, and it was left down to Steve Brown and Keith Ryan to steer the club into the play-offs where they were unfortunate to lose to Cheltenham at the semi-final stage.

Last season will definitely have to go down as a huge disappointment and with former Scotland international Paul Lambert now in charge it has been all change at the Causeway Stadium over the summer.

Sam Stockley looks an interesting signing from Colchester, while England youth international Anthony Grant has joined from Chelsea on a year-long loan deal.

Veteran Tommy Mooney will once again the lead the line up front, while Kevin Betsy will provide the ammunition from midfield.

Lambert was far from impressive when taking charge of Livingston north of the border, so he has it all to do at Adams Park and while they have one of the best squads in the division, the 12/1 on offer looks a fair reflection of their chances this season.

Walsall were a Championship side three seasons ago, but after finishing bottom of League One last year, they now find themselves back in the league they occupied in the mid-90s.

Richard Money is the new man in charge at Bescot Stadium having arrived via Australia where he managed A-league outfit Newcastle Jets.

Money has a wealth of coaching experience and did well with Swedish club AIK Stockholm and has been making bullish noises in pre-season, claiming anything other than a top seven finish will be seen as a failure.

The Saddlers have been fairly busy in the transfer market over the summer with Clayton Ince arrivingfrom Coventry to take his place in between the sticks, while the signings of Michael Dobson and Tony Bedeau also look good bits of business.

Up front Money will be fielding a new-look attack with Martin Butler rejoining the club after nine years, while Hector Sam, who is a proven scorer at this level, has joined from Wrexham.

If Butler and Sam can gel from the start Walsall will certainly have lots of goals in them and they could be seen as a decent each-way bet at 12/1 with most layers.

Grimsby fans were left heartbroken when first being denied automatic promotion on the final day of the season and then getting beaten 1-0 by Cheltenham in the play-off final.

That match proved to be Russell Slade's last in charge of the Mariners before taking over at League One outfit Yeovil, and with Paul Kamudimba Kalala and goalkeeper Steve Mildenhall following him to Huish Park, it has been all change at Blundell Park since their Cardiff defeat.

Winger Andy Parkinson has also moved on, as has central defender Rob Jones and it will be interesting to see how former assistant-manager Graham Rodger gets on now that he is calling the shots.

Veteran Peter Beagrie has joined from Scunthorpe to hopefully enjoy another promotion campaign, while Isaiah Rankin has been brought in to increase the competition for places up front.

The Mariners' key man will once again by striker Michael Reddy who is too good for this division, and if he can stay fit, then Grimsby should once again be challenging for automatic promotion.

Many experts thought that Hartlepool were unlucky to get relegated from League One last season and with Danny Wilson now in charge, Jeff Stelling's boys can bounce back at the first attempt.

Wilson has yet to sign anyone since taking over from youth-team coach Paul Stephenson, but he boosted the club's coffers with the sale of Adam Boyd to Luton for £500,000 last week, meaning that up front Joel Porter and rising star James Brown will lead the way.

Both Porter and Brown missed most of last season with injury, but with both of them now back to full fitness they have the potential to form one of the most deadliest partnerships in the division, especially Porter who on his day can win matches on his own.

Hartlepool have done well in pre-season by beating Leeds and Scottish side Gretna last Saturday and, with Victoria Park such a tough place to come to, if Hartlepool can make a good start to the season there is no reason why they can't be pushing for a top three finish.

Wilson has bags of experience operating at this level of football and as long as he can keep hold of Porter and one or two other players who are attracting attention from bigger clubs, Hartlepool will have much of the squad that fell through the League One trapdoor on the final day of the season, and therefore should be backed at 14/1 with Betfred for the title.

It's been a hectic summer of transfer activity for Darlington manager David Hodgson, and the Quakers this season look set to be battling it out for an automatic promotion spot.

Darlo finished eighth last year just three points out side of the play-offs, mainly due to making a slow start at the beginning of the season.

Hodgson will be determined not to make the same mistake this time around and his summer purchases look set to give Darlington fans something to smile about at last.

Barry Conlon has returned to the club from Barnsley and will once again be among the goals, while Martin Smith has arrived from Northampton and is another who is more than capable of reaching double figures for the season.

Hodgson has also picked up former Premiership striker Gaetano Giallanza to make sure that going forward the Quakers have the necessary firepower to hurt teams.

Darlington have also been bolstered in other areas with midfielder Michael Cummins arriving from Port Vale having bagged 10 goals for the Valiants last season, while versatile defender Patrick Collins has joined from Sheffield Wednesday.

With the superb 96.6 TFM Darlington Arena as their home ground, Darlington have all the facilities to be playing at a higher level and with the bit between their teeth after missing out on the play-offs for the past two seasons, having a few quid on them at 14/1 to make it third time lucky might not be such a bad bet after all.

Plenty of people will fancy Peterborough to improve this season now that former

Lincoln manager Keith Alexander is in charge and with a decent squad at his disposal the London Road club should be pushing for the play-offs.

The departure of Sean St Ledger is a blow, but Alexander has been busy bringing in new faces, with Simon Yeo following him from Sincil Bank and Richard Butcher and Guy Branston arriving from Oldham.

Danny Crow is a talented striker who will lead the way up front for Posh and with Alexander knowing exactly what is required to get a team into the play-offs, expect Barry Fry's club to be fighting it out in the play-offs come next May.

Bristol Rovers will once again rely on the goals of Richard Walker and Junior Agogo as they bid to improve on last season's 12th placed finish.

Walker and Agogo shared 37 goals between themselves last season and with Agogo spurning the advances of Southend and Preston to stay at the Memorial Ground, Rovers should certainly be among the goals again this time around.

The Pirates slowly improved under Paul Trollope last season, who replaced the sacked Ian Atkins in September, and with Lennie Lawrence overseeing things as the club's Director of Football, you have to fancy Rovers to be in and around the play-off places this time around.

Winger Lewis Haldane looks a player with a big future in the game and with his pace and crossing ability Walker and Agogo will once again get the service they require, and at 16/1 there are worst each-way bets to be had.

Shrewsbury could be the surprise package in League Two this season and at 20/1 they have to be worth a couple of notes each-way.

The Shrews had a steady if not spectacular season under Gary Peters, and in his second year in charge they have to be fancied to continue the improvement they have showed under him.

This is a special season for Shrewsbury fans as it's the last year they will be playing at Gay Meadow before moving to New Meadow for the start of the 2007/08 campaign, a campaign they hope will begin in League One.

Shrewsbury fielded several players below 20 last season as Peters turned to youth, and with vital experience now gained, big things will be expected from them this time around.

Peters has done well to poach three of Chester City's best players in Ben Davies, Stewart Drummond and Chris MacKenzie and with money available following the £600,000 sale of keeper Joe Hart to Manchester City, Peters should be able to dip back into the transfer market if he needs to.

In central defenders Richard Hope and Sagi Burton they have two guys who could easily be playing at a higher level, while up front former Bradford striker Andy Cooke has joined to give the Shrews some much-needed experience in attack.

As long as they can hit the ground running, starting at home to Mansfield, then their final year at a ground they have called home since 1909 could turn out to be a memorable one for a completely different reason.

Turning to the relegation betting and Barnet could be worth backing at 7/2 with Betfred to make a return to Conference football, after narrowly avoiding the drop last season.

With more players leaving Underhill than coming in over the summer a lot will depend on veterans, Andy Hessenthaler, Paul Warhurst and goal machine Giuliano Grazioli to keep them out of trouble but at a combined age of 108, this might be prove to be just beyond on them!

The Bees' long standing difficulties with the local council over moving to a new ground continue to rumble on and with limited facilities available at Underhill, Paul Fairclough has had a tough task in attracting new faces to the North London outfit.

Barnet badly struggled away from home last season, winning just three of their 23 games, and but for a five-game unbeaten run at the end of

the season, they could have easily made an instant return to the Conference.

Making a good start will be key to Barnet avoiding the drop this season, and if key players such as Nick Bailey and captain Ian Hendon pick up injuries early on, the 7/2 could be looking a tasty investment come Christmas time