English Football League / Richard Walker / 06 August 2010 /

With an experienced manager at the helm, Bradford City look set to build on last season's excellent end-of-season form by securing promotion this term. Richard Walker believes they'll avoid defeat on Saturday.

Rotherham United v Lincoln City

There's always a danger in putting your faith in a team that lost in the play-offs, but Rotherham lost in the semis rather than the final and so their disappointment and any possible hangover won't be so huge. They finished 15 places above Lincoln last season, and while there will always be a degree of improvement by any side during the close season, Lincoln are going to need to have come on leaps and bounds to pose the Millers too many problems at home. Ronnie Moore will expect his side to build on their fifth place of last season, and if they are to fill one of the automatic promotion places again, they've got to be beating teams such as Lincoln on their own turf.

Back Rotherham at [1.87]

Shrewsbury Town v Bradford City

For a team that finished below halfway last season to be at the head of the market to win League Two this term shows just how highly Bradford manager Peter Taylor is rated. The Bantams' sojourn in the Premier League is too far in the past to cite that as a reason for their favouritism, so Taylor must be the driving force. He certainly got the club moving when he arrived last season, losing only five of his 17 games after taking over a team that was flirting with relegation. Shrewsbury were also mid-table last term, although they were heading in the opposite direction having been a candidate for promotion at the start of the 2009/10 campaign. If Bradford are as good as their price for the title suggests, they ought to be able to take something from this one.

Lay Shrewsbury at [2.44]

Wycombe Wanderers v Morecambe

With only friendly results, rumours and memories of last season to go on, it's hard to put too much faith in anything this early in the season. Therefore, the assumption has to be that the main reason Wycombe are favourites to beat Morecambe is that they were in League One last term. But there's a reason why they aren't any more - they weren't good enough to stay there. The Chairboys may have prevented the drop until very late in the season but they still finished five points adrift of safety when all's said and done. As I said earlier, teams who failed in the play-offs can suffer a hangover - and Morecambe will certainly be finding it hard to get over their near miss in May. But Sammy McIlroy's side were in excellent form in the second half of last term, and they will show their hosts life in a lower division is no tea party.

Lay Wycombe at [2.06]

Southend United v Stockport County

There'll be plenty of talk of how things used to be down at Roots Hall - after all, a year ago, this was a League One fixture. For Stockport, though, relegation was pretty much inevitable from well before the end of the season. They finished bottom and were 18 points behind Southend, who finished next to bottom, and a massive 27 points adrift of safety. Paul Simpson has got his hands full to reinvigorate County, and I can't see them getting much in Essex this weekend. New Southend manager Paul Sturrock has plenty of lower league success and knowledge behind him, and he has moved quickly to make his mark on the squad with a clutch of signings.

Back Southend at [2.12]

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