How strong is the competition this year?

[Yellowblood]

I was looking through previous league one tables. I don't believe there will be a significant gap between the majority of teams this season. I would suspect Barnsley will be strong and perhaps walk away with it, but I dont think there is the same level of quality at the top as some seasons.

Look at 2009/2010. I am glad we aren't competing with this! Lambert, Holt, Austin, Rhodes, Beckford, Lallana, Deeney.....

http://www.soccerbase.com/tournaments/tournament.sd?tourn_id=5

 

[tonyw]

The other takeaway I get from looking at that page is how bloody difficult it can be to predict who's going to bang in the goals any given season.

Billy Paynter scored 26 goals in the league, and 29 overall for the Scum that year. In a seventeen year career that took him all over the football league, he never scored more than 15 in any other season.

Lee Barnard scored 24 in the league (and 26 overall) for a combination of Southend & Southampton. He also never scored more than 15 in any other season of his career, and now - at the not particularly ancient age of 34 - plays for Maldon & Tiptree (Who are they? Exactly!)

So who knows.....I think most people look at our squad and think that striker is the weakest link. But you just never know who's going to find the current circumstances to their liking and have the season of their life.


In terms of working out who's strong this year.....apart from Barnsley (who better be good, or we're in trouble), probably best to wait to make sweeping predictions. I don't think anyone saw Shrewsbury being as good as they were last season in early August.