The Football League Paper says...
This battle for EFL status will go to the wire
THE fight to get into the EFL is a hard-fought one – and so is the one to stay in there. With just a dozen games left now, we’re getting to the nitty gritty, or squeaky bum time as Sir Alex Ferguson would call it.
What a day it was yesterday down at the bottom end of League Two. Our columnist Graham Westley must have been delighted with his Barnet side’s hard-fought 1-0 win at Colchester.
The Bees started the day six points off safety – and ended it exactly the same way. That was because their fellow relegation strugglers also achieved victories.
Second-bottom Chesterfield put a dent in Swindon’s promotion hopes with a fine 2-1 win and third-bottom Morecambe’s 4-2 victory at red-hot Wycombe was arguably the result of the day.
Veteran Shrimps forward Kevin Ellison scored twice a day after his 39th birthday to show that experience still counts.
Crewe had been slipping into danger, but their stunning 4-1 victory against Lincoln at Sincil Bank was almost up there with Morecambe’s result.
And Forest Green’s 2-0 home win against Harry Kewell’s Crawley meant that, amazingly, the bottom five at the start of the day all won.
If Barnet and Chesterfield can put a couple more wins together, it will start to make it very interesting down at the foot – and draw other clubs into the battle.
There is a possibility the club that finishes 23rd won’t go down this season, but that would mean a National League side with an artificial pitch winning promotion and then refusing to switch to grass.
It seems unlikely and that means it’s more than probable that two clubs will go down as usual. Which two? It’s difficult to say.
Third tier quality
HOW strong are the lower leagues? Well, League One doesn’t appear to be in too bad a shape taking into account last weekend’s FA Cup games.
Rochdale gave Tottenham a fright in their meeting at Spotland and will hope to do so again in the replay on Wednesday night, while Wigan pulled off the shock of the season against Manchester City. It shows the depth of football in this country.