Football League World
·13 novembre 2024
Football League World
·13 novembre 2024
Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman spoke exclusively to Football League World about the League One promotion race
EFL Pundit Don Goodman has advised Wrexham to be "worried" about Wycombe Wanderers, who have announced themselves as shock promotion candidates from League One this season.
Wrexham arrived back in the third-tier of English football off the back of two promotions in as many seasons and have been widely tipped to continue their trajectory at breakneck speed in League One.
The Red Dragons have thus far threatened to realise their ambitions of completing three straight promotions, enjoying extremely strong early-season form to enlist themselves firmly within the promotion reckoning this term. They added their eighth victory in 14 league games by beating fellow newly-promoted side Mansfield Town, who have also put forward an early bid for promotion, sending them into third place behind Birmingham City and Wycombe.
Blues were predicted to lift the League One title at a canter and break Wolves' long-standing record points tally from the 2013/14 campaign following their relegation from the Championship and a significant summer spending spree, which saw them complete ambitious moves for the likes of Jay Stansfield, Tomoki Iwata, Christoph Klarer, Willum Willumsson and Alfie May.
Indeed, the strength in depth and the evident financial warchest at St Andrews @ Knighthead Park have spoke volumes of just how competitive League One is going to be this year, although Blues and the rest of the division will no doubt be stunned by Wycombe, who have enjoyed electrifying form to rise to the top of the table against all odds.
The Chairboys were not touted at all in pre-season promotion contention but have shown exaclty what they're all about by launching a 12-match unbeaten streak, ascending the likes of Birmingham, Wrexham and Barnsley as of late.
Wycombe may have been written off before a ball was kicked, but few will be dismissing them now, as they've set the pace in League One by winning more matches than anybody else.
Their emergence as potential title favourites has thrown a spanner in the works to the ambitions of clubs such as Wrexham, and Phil Parkinson's side have been warned about their promotion rivals.
Sky Sports pundit Don Goodman spoke via Gambling Zone about the third-tier promotion race, and he believes that Wrexham should be "worried" about Wycombe's recent form.
"If Wrexham aspire to join Birmingham in being automatically promoted from League One then, yes, they should be worried about Wycombe Wanderers," Goodman explained.
"They've gone 12 unbeaten which includes 10 wins and six have those have come in consecutive games. They're winning games in different ways, such as digging in against Wigan at the weekend but also blowing teams away with goals at times.
"From what I've seen, they've got everything you need in a team to form a genuine promotion push. Given their current position in table, I struggle to see a situation where Wycombe aren't involved in a promotion race."
Wycombe's stunning 24/25 form may come as even more of a concern for Wrexham given the difficulty of their upcoming fixture list, which will undoubtedly ask certain questions of their promotion resolve.
Ironically, Wrexham actually claimed a 3-2 victory over the Chairboys on the opening day of the season, with the table-toppers' only other defeat coming against Birmingham in the same month and by the same scoreline, but they haven't taken maximum points from any other side likely to be in the promotion race.
That puts a degree of pressure on Wrexham, who will face three of the current top-six in Stockport County, Lincoln City and Barnsley in their next four matches.
With a match at home to 11th-placed Exeter City thrown in for good measure, the Welsh side have some testing fixtures on the horizon, but if they can staple together a strong run of form, it may just ease their fears and help them to keep chase with Wycombe and Birmingham.