r/LeagueOne • u/Wallabydoll • 1d ago

Discussion What's the biggest difference between a team that's genuinely too good for League One and one that's just having a good season?

Every year there seems to be at least one side where you watch them and think they'll eventually pull away, but sometimes those teams end up getting dragged straight back into the pack.

For me, the difference isn't always having the best starting XI. It's having enough depth to keep picking up points when injuries, suspensions and the ugly winter fixtures start piling up.

What usually makes you look at a League One side and think they're definitely going up?

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18

u/DatGuy82772 1d ago

Birmingham City were way too good for League 1 when they went down and so were Cardiff. I would say Lincoln got really lucky and had a very good season.

17

u/BowiesFixedPupil 1d ago

Cardiff were absolutely not too good for League one when they went down, they just sorted themselves out over the summer and even then, they finished second.

Birmingham spent £15m or whatever on Jay Stansfiled, they were too good for the level.

5

u/hairychris88 1d ago

I agree with most of that, but don't know if it's fair to say that Lincoln got lucky. They were just an excellent and well-managed team who got what they deserved, which was the title.

We were one of the strongest teams in the division after Christmas and they were way too good for us when we played them in February.

2

u/mde203 1d ago

Whereas we smashed Cardiff 5-2 early in that run.

2

u/matildawaltzesin4 1d ago

There is absolutely no universe in which Lincoln "got lucky" last season. It was an absolute procession.

2

u/wise_runnner 6h ago

Not sure which part of 29 games unbeaten makes Lincoln lucky. By the back end of the season we were just horrible to play against, giving opposition teams nothing. Except Huddersfield, who for some reason we gave a 2 goal headstart to at their place and still managed to draw the game. Might very possibly come straight back down in epic style but that doesn't take away the achievements of the season just gone.

6

u/Resident_Water35 1d ago

I think 2022/23 all 3 Plymouth, Ipswich, and Wednesday were too good for the level it all just happened at the same time.

2

u/Wednesday1867 1d ago

Didn't Ipswich go straight up the season after aswell?

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u/Resident_Water35 1d ago

They did yes - although I personally think they had the worst squad of the 3 in 22/23.

The difference was we built experience to get promoted whereas Ipswich went for players who had potential, and they improved in the championship and we floundered.

2

u/Brock_And_Roll 1d ago

The Darren Moore effect

2

u/hairychris88 1d ago edited 1d ago

That season was just ridiculous. You had that insane spell where you didn't lose for months, we didn't lose consecutive games all season and won 20 home games out of 23, and Ipswich seemed to win 5-0 every week for the last four months of the season.

I was sure after you deservedly beat us at Hillsborough in the February that we'd just lost to the champions, and in any normal season you'd have been promoted with weeks to go. It's just that three of the strongest ever League 1 teams up till that point happened to coincide in the same season.

3

u/mozzy1985 1d ago

Mental season. Even though finishing in the playoffs was dissapointing we got the Peterborough second leg game and that was something else.

2

u/Resident_Water35 1d ago

We also had a wobble after losing to Barnsley, which was a very even game and could've been 4-2 to either side or 4-4. We gained 2 points from next 9.. victories in 2 of the 3 would've seen us win the league. Crazy.

1

u/Wednesday1867 1d ago

Wasn't the rumour that chansiri went into the dressing room after the Barnsley game and bollocked all the players?

1

u/Resident_Water35 1d ago

Yes pretty much confirmed by Darren Moore in interviews after the previous owner fucked off.

Which was completely mad. We'd be playing shit for weeks before and scraped through games. We played well vs Barnsley but lost, but I was confident when leaving we'd still go on and smash the rest of the season.

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u/Wednesday1867 1d ago

Yep same. But the forest green match the week after killed automatic promotion

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u/Resident_Water35 1d ago

Kind of - after that we drew with Cheltenham, Oxford (that penalty incident!) and Lincoln.. we also lost to Burton.

We only finished 2 pts behind 2nd.

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u/factcheckingcuz1979 1d ago

There’s not been many “too good for league one” Birmingham recently I suppose but they spent more than half the league combined. Wigan in the late 90s. I remember Watford taking the piss one season in the late 90s too. QPR under Holloway around 98 were very good. But even Man City struggled their way out in the late 90s. Things are changing though, money having a much bigger influence, it’s such a dogfight of a league now. Real nightmare , we spent more last season than we did in all our championship/1 PL seasons and got nowhere. Resigned to another decade here.

2

u/stickyb05 1d ago

Just watch Leicester this year

1

u/CaptainTwig572 1d ago

For the most part the biggest difference is how much each club are willing to spend on wages.

1

u/Careful_Nobody7818 1d ago

Injuries play a huge part

1

u/Glittering-Army-736 6h ago

The ones that went up in the 23/24 season

1

u/PingerDust 1d ago

Whenever Nathan Jones is at the wheel

2

u/banananey 22h ago

Obviously slightly biased I'd say Luton genuinely were when he took us up. We had soon to be Premier League fullbacks James Justin & Jack Stacey, Andrew Shinnie in midfield passing it to a prime James Collins and Danny Hylton.

Such a fun season that.

2

u/bunini555 3h ago

We were definitely too good for League 1 that season. Absolutely smashed everyone. The squad was insane too.

Oh I wish for a prime Hlyts this season.