I round up League Two’s first weekend, with Macclesfield picking up a point at Bradford, and Bury snatching a win at MK Dons.
Coca-Cola League Two got off to a flying start this weekend with some interesting results up and down the country.
The most interesting results were those of three away teams, who were tipped by many to go down.
In my eyes the biggest upset of the weekend was at Wycombe Wanderers. Wycombe have got quite a strong team and at home they should be looking to avoid defeat in most games, especially those ones again the lower ranked teams. However Accrington Stanley went there and turned Wycombe over, keeping a clean sheet in the process. Paul Mullin got the only goal of the game, but it was all Wycombe throughout the rest of the game. However that`s how teams will look to play away from home, and Accrington got off to a perfect start away from home yesterday.
The second biggest shock of the weekend was at Milton Keynes. The big homecoming, the opening of the new stadium to league football. Bury weren’t even brought into the equation before the game. But Bury travelled in numbers and Bury themselves thought they could do a job on Ray Mathias (sorry Paul Ince’s) team. However MK Dons took the lead and it looked as though it would be the perfect little start in their oversized plastic stadium. Keith Andrews got the goal. But at half-time Chris Casper brought on an unfit Andy Bishop, who first tapped in after five minutes, before hammering home a penalty minutes later in front of the travelling Bury support. MK Dongs 1-2 Bury.
12,000 season tickets? Something ridiculous like that. So it was another one of those homecomings I thought, would little Macclesfield have a chance at ‘big-club` Bradford. No chance! However when I looked on my phone half way through the first half at Edgeley Park I was honestly shocked to see Macclesfield leading at Valley Parade. Francis Green gave Macclesfield the lead, but some bloke with a long name (Ndumbu-Nsungu or something like that) brought the scores level just before half time.
Well done Macclesfield, Bury and Accrington for proving the doubters (including myself) wrong. Most people had those three marked down as definite home wins.
The early league leaders are Shrewsbury Town, who pulled off a sensational result away at fellow promotion candidates Lincoln City. At half time the game was evenly poised at 0-0. Something must have happened at half-time though, four goals in 30 minutes gave Shrewsbury a 4-0 away win, sending them to the top of the table on the opening day of the season. Andy Cooke bagged two with Dave Hibbert & Steve Leslie getting the other two.
Promotion favourites Peterborough United got off to the perfect start at home to Rochdale. Rochdale had several debutants in the team, including ex-County keeper James Spencer and striker Adam Le Fondre, but that couldn`t stop the Posh onslaught as they ran out 3-0 winners to go second in the league. Josh Low, Aaron Mclean and Danny Crow got the three goals.
Third in the table are Darlington, who had a relatively comfortable start at home to Wrexham. Kevin McBride scored before the break, Julian Joachim scored after the break to hand Darlo an easy start to the campaign. However Darlington did have their goalkeeper sent off after bringing Proctor down, fortunately for Darlington it didn`t affect them too much.
Obviously Stockport County were the other team to win yesterday beating Dagenham, making us sixth out of the six teams that won on the opening day of the season.
So with six wins, it obviously leaves the remaining six games to be drawn.
With Bradford-Macclesfield talked about above, the next team down in alphabetical order are Brentford, who drew at home to Mansfield. Alan Connell gave Brentford the lead after 15 minutes, but Michael Boulding hit back ten minutes later to send Mansfield home with a point.
Grimsby and Notts County also shared the points. Ryan Bennett, a 17 year old making a debut for Grimsby, gave Grimsby the lead in the first half. But Neil MacKenzie equalised in the second half for Notts County.
The other three games were all goalless. Morecambe got off to a good start, holding Barnet to a draw at home.
Hereford and Rotherham ended goalless, as did Chester and Chesterfield.
So its an interesting first weekend in League Two, just a mere 45 games to go. Can`t wait!
