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Saints favourites after near miss

Author: Brandon Barker
Date: 03/08/2010
Football betting

League One can rarely have been so varied with the relative big-guns of Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton and Charlton Athletic being joined by the likes of Dagenham and Redbridge and Rochdale.

The Owls, Saints and Addicks will surely all be challenging for the two automatic promotion spots with Alan Pardew's team the online favourites to succeed following last term's adjustment to life at this level.

They only just missed out on the play-offs in 2009-10 despite having a points deduction imposed on them before the season's start.

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Wednesday may struggle for goals while Charlton could prove to be the better bet to claim second place after their near-miss last term.

The race for a play-off place once again looks wide open with Huddersfield Town expected to challenge.

Of the other relegated teams, Plymouth Argyle look well-placed to push for a top-six finish but a mid-table spot could be all Peterborough United can aspire to.

Swindon Town should once again do well after their play-off heartbreak in May but the likes of MK Dons and Colchester United could struggle to do as well as they did last season.

Of last term's League Two teams, Rochdale had little time to celebrate their first promotion since 1969 as their successful squad soon began to break up.

After losing many of the players that helped them secure promotion, Dale are the online favourites to suffer an immediate return to the fourth tier of English football.

Notts County will have little trouble surviving at this level while Bournemouth have enough class to stay up, but John Still will need to perform more miracles if he is to keep his Daggers side away from the bottom four.

Exeter City did magnificently to stave off relegation last term following two successive promotion campaigns while Oldham Athletic have been on a downward spiral for several years and Paul Dickov is a completely untried manager.

This could be the year that Hartlepool United finally go down after several years of near-misses while Yeovil Town may also endure a difficult campaign.

Brentford, Brighton, Bristol Rovers, Carlisle United, Leyton Orient and Walsall all look like mid-table candidates with the Pirates probably the best-placed of the six to mount a challenge for a play-off place.

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