Why League Two might be the most bonkers league in English football
League Two might actually be the most bonkers division in English football. It just does not make any sense.
For anyone who likes to have a bet, the fourth tier is one to avoid most weeks. It is so difficult to predict. In fact, if you think a particular team will win, you are best off going for the opposite to happen. You jhave got more chance of collecting your winnings.
Walsall are top but they have lost their last two. Third-placed Salford City have lost three of their last five. Gillingham were leading the way but they have dropped outside the play-offs after four defeats in five. When you look at the form guide for the sides near the top, there is more red than green.
The league’s bottom club, Newport County, won 3-0 away at Harrogate Town at the weekend, while second from bottom Crawley Town thrashed Bristol Rovers 4-0. It is nuts.
Take Chesterfield, for example. They have won two out of nine but are only three points off the summit. In the 90th minute on Saturday they were third. By the 93rd minute they were seventh. They have lost the joint fewest number of games (three) along with Bromley. But it feels like they have been defeated a lot more than that. They have the fifth best attack but 17 other teams have conceded fewer goals than them.
It is a league which is crying out for someone to grab it by the scruff of the neck and take charge of it. But I am just not sure that will happen. It is consistently inconsistent. It was the same last year. I don’t think Doncaster Rovers, who Chesterfield beat 8-2 on aggregate across both league fixtures, will be remembered in years to come as the great champions of the 2024/2025 campaign. Not that they will care and rightly so.
I saw someone say recently that the league had not taken shape yet. Will it ever? You get the feeling that this is already going to go down to the last day of the season and the champions will be whoever is fortunate to be top of the tree at 5pm after the 46th game.
That brings me back to the Spireites. Everyone is waiting for them to ‘go on a run’ but perhaps that won’t happen and maybe they won’t need to. A ‘good run’ in this league is back-to-back wins, while in others a team could go 10 unbeaten and still not be in the play-offs. It is absolutely crazy but sometimes you just want it to make sense. Up the League Two madness.