While it was the Championship that kicked off the 2019/20 EFL season, League Two wasn’t far behind as Salford City hosted Stevenage in Saturday’s early kick-off. The League might have seen the only goalless draw from the three divisions, but we still weren’t short of action and magic moments.
EFL League Two Review
Written in the Stars
Two months ago, Leyton Orient were rocked by the sudden passing of their head coach, Justin Edinburgh. It came just weeks after he had led them to the National League title and a Wembley appearance in the FA Trophy final. It’s been a long, difficult period of mourning for the club, but they got off to the perfect start is preserving Edinburgh’s legacy with a gritty 1-0 win at home to Cheltenham Town.
There was a fitting goalscorer too, as Edinburgh’s last signing and close personal friend, Josh Wright, squeezed the ball underneath Scott Flinders to a rapturous noise from the Breyer Group Stadium. If anyone was going to score the club’s first goal back in the Football League and without the heroic Edinburgh in charge, it had to be Wright.
While Cheltenham weren’t helped by the quickfire red cards for both Luke Varney and Rohan Ince, Orient showed enough that suggested they will continue to fight as they did for Edinburgh under Ross Embleton.
Lowe Off to Winning Start With Pilgrims
Plymouth Argyle are widely tipped to make a direct return to League One this season under Ryan Lowe. That optimism looks well placed even at this incredibly early stage after his side stormed to a 3-0 win at Crewe Alexandra on the opening day.
Callum McFadzean, who didn’t score at all last season, popped up with a brace, the first a flying volley after just four minutes and the second a neat finish from a tight angle in second-half stoppage time. Sandwiched in between was another fine goal from Joel Grant, who curled right into the bottom corner from 25 yards.
It wasn’t the ideal start for David Artell’s Crewe but there won’t be many tougher sides than Plymouth this season. Their strong squad is backed up by a manager in Lowe who got Bury promoted against all the odds last season and they will take some stopping.
How Did We Do?
Each week we take a crack at predicting the results of each match. How did we get on this opening weekend? Actual results are shown in bold whereas our predictions are in italics.
Salford City 2-0 Stevenage – Salford City 2-1 Stevenage
Bradford City 0-0 Cambridge United – Bradford City 3-0 Cambridge United
Carlisle United 2-1 Crawley Town – Carlisle United 2-0 Crawley Town
Colchester United 1-1 Port Vale – Colchester United 3-1 Port Vale
Crewe Alexandra 0-3 Plymouth Argyle – Crewe Alexandra 1-1 Plymouth Argyle
Exeter City 1-0 Macclesfield Town – Exeter City 3-1 Macclesfield Town
Forest Green Rovers 1-0 Oldham Athletic – Forest Green Rovers 2-0 Oldham Athletic
Leyton Orient 1-0 Cheltenham Town – Leyton Orient 1-1 Cheltenham Town
Morecambe 0-2 Grimsby Town – Morecambe 0-0 Grimsby Town
Newport County 2-2 Mansfield Town – Newport County 1-1 Mansfield Town
Northampton Town 0-1 Walsall – Northampton Town 1-0 Walsall
Scunthorpe United 0-2 Swindon Town – Scunthorpe United 2-2 Swindon Town
So, no correct scores for us this week but plenty of right results.
Up Next
Games to take place on Saturday, August 10. 3:00 kick-offs unless otherwise stated.
Grimsby Town v Bradford City – 13:00
Cambridge United v Newport County
Cheltenham Town v Scunthorpe United
Crawley Town v Salford City
Macclesfield Town v Leyton Orient
Mansfield Town v Morecambe
Oldham Athletic v Crewe Alexandra
Plymouth Argyle v Colchester United
Port Vale v Northampton Town
Stevenage v Exeter City
Swindon Town v Carlisle United
Walsall v Forest Green Rovers
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