Wimbledon still on top, Bristol Rovers at the bottom

Towards the end of every season we start looking at the bottom of League One and the top of the Blue Square Premier, and given that we're now a decent gap above the drop zone but still a distance off of the Playoffs, we can start assuming we'll be in League Two next season.

Let's start with the relegation battle in League One. The bottom ten in League One contains six of the last ten League Two Champions in Brentford, Carlisle, Yeovil, Plymouth, Notts County and Walsall, the last of that group is very interesting as they are the only one of the six in the drop zone, but that's not why it's interesting. Back in 2005/6 four teams came down from League One, a year later three of them went back up with Bristol Rovers, and now two of them and Rovers look like coming back.

Bristol Rovers are currently bottom of the pile and have conceded six goals on three occasions this season, including a recent 6-1 defeat at fellow strugglers Walsall. Five straight defeats has seen nineteen goals sail into the Bristol Rovers net and they've won just once in the last sixteen games. They were a team who went up with their only decent run of results during their six years in League Two, it seems almost ironic that they now look likely to come back down on the back of the only season where they haven't done reasonably well in the division above. They lost 4-1 at Orient on Saturday.

Left : Memorial Stadium, the home of Bristol Rovers.

Sitting above them is a Walsall side who were well adrift a few weeks back and despite a 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth today, they will consider their chances of staying up reasonably decent after eight points from their last four games.

Dagenham have struggled to adapt to a higher level but have only lost one of the last five, winning three and their games in hand over most of the teams above them. Their goal difference is also the best of the four teams in the drop zone and Saturday saw a respectable 1-1 draw at Playoff chasing side Oldham.

The team that should be the most worried though are Swindon Town. They've played the most games in the division and have no proven goalscorers at League One level after Paynter went to Leeds in the summer and Austin left for Burnley in January. They have bought in Benyon from Torquay but that hasn't stopped the slump. January 3rd saw a 4-2 win at Charlton that saw them move six points clear of the drop zone, they haven't won any of the nine goals since then, losing all but three, including Saturday's late, late defeat at Colchester.

Realistically in League One, anyone up to 13th placed Hartlepool is still in the relegation battle. As well as the group mentioned earlier, Tranmere, Sheffield Wednesday and the aforementioned Hartlepool are still also in danger.

Two divisions lower and Wimbledon are top by four points.....but have played five games more than closest challengers Crawley. Both enjoyed wins on Saturday, Wimbledon beat York just under two weeks after losing to them 4-1 at Bootham Cresent....Crawley's win on the other hand was far from routine. They found themselves 2-0 down at home to a Wrexham side who have come out of nowhere to storm into fourth place, but Crawley still took the three points and winning 3-2.

Right : The Racecourse, home of Wrexham

Infact, there were two fixtures today with the Playoff teams facing each other today, the other being Fleetwood travelling to Luton Town. Fleetwood have risen up the non-League ladder exceedingly quickly due to an investor and won comfortably at Kenilworth Road, taking a 3-1 win back to Lancashire.

Fleetwood are a point above Kidderminster, the Harrier had five points deducted a month ago due to failing to adhere to the financial reporting rules of the FA. Without those points being deducted they would be comfortably in the Playoffs. However, other than Kidderminster there is no team realistically challenging for the Playoffs. Grimsby are seven points off of the pace, as are Newport are throwing away a 3-0 lead at Mansfield on Saturda evening.

Rushden are eight points off of the pace, but you can't rule out York and Darlington yet, whom despite being severely behind, have enough games in hand each to potentially mount a challenge.