Bradford City, League Two

EFL League Two 2021-22 Predictions

EFL League Two 2021-22 Predictions

EFL League Two or tier Four of English football kicks off this weekend and it looks set to have some bumper crowds as fans are finally allowed back. At this level, the extra gate receipts make a huge difference but it will be later in the year before it filters into any major transfer activity.

With most squads being composed of free transfers and loanees it’s often down to the quality of the coaching and this is why we fancy Bradford to figure prominently. Salford or the Class of 92 as they are sometimes referred to with or without affection should also be ones to watch given their financial backing. Anyway here are our predictions for the forthcoming season…

EFL League Two Winners

EFL League Two Contenders

Image: Michael715/Shutterstock.com

We could make a case for seven or eight teams this year but as they famously said in the Movie Highlander  “there can be only one” and we have just about settled for Bradford City. The reason for this is largely underpinned by them poaching Derek Adams from newly-promoted Morecambe. He seems to have the knack of getting teams promoted having also done it with Ross County (twice) and Plymouth in 2019. This is a massive advantage at this level and with big crowds and a decent squad they are worth a punt.

Automatic Promotion

Forest Green Rovers & Exeter have both been really close to promotion in recent seasons, and with a bit of luck, both should avoid the pain of the playoffs this time around. Rovers have some promising young players coming through. We have heard good things about ex Greenock Morton winger Nicky Cadden in particular.

Exeter City were a playoff finalist in 2019-20 and looked set to make the playoffs again for much of the season before falling 3 points short. They also have a nice windfall of around £4m in the bank thanks to the Ollie Watkins sell-on clause. If they are pushing for promotion post-December we can see the chairman opening the chq book to finish the job.

Playoff Contenders

Newport lost in the final last year and should go close again in 2021-22, while Carlisle United hopefully won’t have to contend with the fixture pile-up. That and the weeks with no games resulted in a loss of form that cost them. They finished strongly though only losing once in their last 10 games.

Mansfield Salford and Tranmere will be well fancied again while Bristol Rovers have added some experience to support what is a promising young squad.

How Will the Newly Promoted Teams fare?

The gap between the National League and EFL League Two is not great, however, staying up and competing for promotion are two whole different ball games. Sutton United are best known for their FA Cup exploits but one-off games are a whole lot different to the weekly grind of League Two. They should be good enough to avoid the relegation zone and history shows that it is rare for a National League champion to struggle in their first season.

Hartlepool finished the season strongly and have a good manager plus decent support. We doubt this will be enough to propel them up the table though and consolidation is probably as good as they can expect. We won’t be too surprised if they end up in the relegation dog fight.

EFL League Two Relegation candidates

Swindon Town has had a torrid offseason and that has got to factor into this equation. They could be quite good but right now we have them struggling.  Scunthorpe struggled last season and have a wafer-thin squad that looks weaker than last year. A relegation battle looks inevitable for them. We think that both the newly promoted teams are likely to be in the fight too.

Colchester United, Barrow and the unpredictable Oldham Athletic make up our group of strugglers.

EFL League Two Final Table Prediction

1 Bradford City
2 Forest Green Rovers
3 Exeter City
4 Newport County
5 Carlisle United
6 Mansfield Town
7 Salford City
8 Bristol Rovers
9 Tranmere Rovers
10 Leyton Orient
11 Port Vale
12 Walsall
13 Stevenage
14 Crawley Town
15 Harrogate Town
16 Rochdale
17 Northampton Town
18 Sutton United
19 Barrow
20 Oldham Athletic
21  Colchester United
22 Hartlepool United
23 Swindon Town
24 Scunthorpe United

Playoff Final 

Carlisle United beating Salford City

So there we have it, our predictions for 2021-22. Why not check out our most recent EFL League Two posts while you are here, or have a go at one of our growing bank of Football Quizzes.

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