Speaking of teams who look to have had a poor summer window so far, Reading have lost both of their young centre backs Bindon and Mbengue and also look set to lose last season’s top scorer, Harvey Knibbs. Manager Noel Hunt has cut a frustrated figure in interviews, bemoaning the club missing out on transfer targets and despite their boardroom takeover, they don’t feel in great shape for the new season. 

Lincoln have also lost significant players at the back with Sean Roughan and Paudie O’Connor moving on, and have also sold Ethan Erhahon for a significant fee. However, they’ve recruited well with Sonny Bradley and Ryley Towler adding experience. They’ve been solid under Michael Skubala for a while now and having scored 10 goals in four friendlies, they seem to have found the formula for goals that was severely lacking last season.

The Imps did the double over Reading last season and look well set to make it three wins in a row against their visitors.

Barnsley’s games under Conor Hourihane have been utter chaos, with both teams scoring in all of his 10 games in charge. This bet would have landed in seven of those, including scorelines of 4-2 against Reading, 3-4 against Leyton Orient and a 6-2 reverse against Birmingham. The attacking midfielder seems to have adopted an all-out-attack approach and, with little at stake in the early stages of the season, we can expect that to continue. 

Plymouth also have a new man at the helm in Tom Cleverley, who will be hoping to guide Argyle back to the Championship at the first time of asking. The Devonshire club have had a large turnover of their squad, however, at the back end of last season, this bet would have landed in six of their last seven games.

Cleverley’s spell at Watford saw an average of 2.58 goals per game with an equal split between his side and their opponents, so all signs in this game point towards goals.

It’s the battle of the N County’s on the opening day of League Two.

Both sides start the new campaign with a new manager in the technical area, David Hughes for Newport, a former Man United coach, and Martin Paterson for Notts, who had a short spell in charge at Burton Albion.

To be fully transparent, I expect Newport to get relegated this season, I had them bottom in my 1-24’s. However, they were pretty bad last year, with the lowest expected points tally in League Two, but still managed to be useful on home soil, finishing a respectable 14th in the home league table.

For Notts County, after having lost in the play-off semi finals last season, there has not been much enthusiasm over the appointment of Paterson as successor to Stuart Maynard. The Pies have also lost their first choice goalkeeper Alex Bass and main talisman David McGoldrick, as well as a few loanees who were useful players last term. The look very opposable here.

Newport have been priced up at 5.0 to win the game, and 2.10 double chance. I wouldn’t put anyone off the win price, but I’ll opt for the latter for a bit of extra security.

These two sides were 1st (Walsall) and 4th (Swindon) in terms of goals scored last season in League Two. Each side retains the same manager for the new season, so there seems to be little reason why they would change their approach this time around.

After blowing a hefty lead at the top in 2024/25, and ultimately failing to achieve promotion through the play-offs after defeat at Wembley, their may be some nerves heading into a first home fixture of the season, which could point to some early defensive jitters, particularly as Walsall’s goalkeeper and three centre backs will have at least three changes from last time around, after the departures of Simkin, Allen and Okagbue.

Ian Holloway’s teams always try to entertain, and they possess a striker in Harry Smith who I think could go close to winning the golden boot this season. They will be aware that an early goal could get the Walsall fans on their players backs. I expect both teams to score in this one.