Good luck to anyone trying to get promoted out of the fourth tier this season – with several clubs investing and Ryan and Rob’s Wrexham joining the party, the battle to reach League One could prove intense
Gabriel Sutton
There can be absolutely no doubt about it: League Two just got a whole lot stronger.
What Leyton Orient, Stevenage, Northampton and Carlisle achieved last season was phenomenal, for different reasons, and other good sides missed out, yet the standard of football at the top has slipped, incrementally, since 2019-20.
That could change this year, because Wrexham – owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and managed by Phil Parkinson – and Notts County come up having amassed three-digit points tallies in the National League, and will massively enhance the division.
The same could be said for MK Dons and Forest Green – relegated from League One – who have spent big to back up their ambitions of an instant return, recruiting midfielder Alex Gilbey and defender Ryan Inniss respectively, to offer the bite they missed last year. In Inniss’ case – sent off four times for Charlton – he possibly had a little too much bite last season.
Also coming back down are Lancashire adversaries Morecambe and Accrington Stanley, both aiming to overcome budgetary limitations under the manager who took them up last time, Derek Adams and John Coleman. Doubt them at your peril.
On top of the new teams, there are some sides who were in League Two last season who are different propositions now compared with 12 months ago.
Take Gillingham, for example: they look revitalised under the ownership of American Brad Galinson, and will be expected to build on excellent form in the second half of 2022-23 after another splashing of cash this summer. Colchester, too, benefited from fresh investment in January and have an incredibly talented group, working under a progressive coach in Ben Garner, who led Swindon to the play-offs at this level in 2021-22.
Doncaster, meanwhile, have increased their budget to lure Grant McCann back for a second stint – he guided the club to the 2019 League One play-offs.
The bar is raised, then, for last season’s defeated play-off trio: Stockport have the resources to deliver Dave Challinor’s seventh promotion as a manager, and first in the EFL, Mark Hughes’ Bradford have tied talisman Andy Cook down to a new deal, and Salford have an astute coach in Neil Wood.
The threats come from far and wide, so even usual suspects Mansfield and Swindon are left to rethink their respective squads’ age profiles: the former edge towards a yo
