I’m an Exeter fan, so have spent virtually my entire life watching L2 standard football, a brief trip into the Conference notwithstanding. I’m very familiar with the lower leagues and much prefer it there to anywhere else. I’ve turned down Champions League in the past to watch lower league games. They’re much more fun.

Over the coming season I’ll be watching a lot of L1, because of Exeter. But I also expect to go to a fair few lower league games, probably Dagenham as I quite like Victoria Road, or maybe Torquay. In a few weeks I’ll be off to AFC Wimbledon v Oxford United. I also need to fit in a trip to Tooting & Mitcham at some point along with Wembley FC, plus there’s a few places that I’ve been meaning to go for a while, like Corinthian-Casuals. So I’m not (that) ignorant to the quality of L2 (or lower at all). You’ll often find some absolute gems at this level who go onto bigger things – Sam Voakes at Wolves, formerly of Bournemouth, for example (ok, he was L1 at the time, although you could also mention George Friend). Rueben Reid’s now left Rotherham for West Brom, Sam Saunders for Brentford, etc etc.

And yes, a lot of people still forget Rotherham have been splashing the cash. Not sure that’s a sensible strategy, mind. I still rate Robins as a manager though. Personally, I’d like to see Bury and Rochdale go up.

Robins is not a bad manager, but there are several better in League 2.

And Gary, while you deserve some credit as this is better than most of the ill-informed and poorly-researched predictions you see at this time of year, it is still irritating to read that the ignorance towards the quality in League 2 still exists (i.e. the Neil Ruddock analogy).

I’m surprised Mark Robins has not been given a chance with a club higher up the League. He’s done a great job at Rotherham.