Climbing up the football league is the ultimate dream for every side within the footballing pyramid and few title races look as exciting in the 2021/22 season as the battle for promotion in League One.
With many sides that have plied their trade in the Premier League in recent years having slipped down a couple of divisions to League One, there are a whole host of household names battling it out in the third tier of English football.
Whilst for these sides currently, the riches of Premier League football look and feel a long way off, sides such as Manchester City, Leicester City and Leeds United are concrete proof that rebuilding the squad and confidence in League One can be the catalyst for a push up the divisions towards the promised land.
For the sides currently ensconced in the battle to go up, the stakes could not be higher and with some huge teams in the mix, it promises to be a fascinating race for promotion in League One this season.
Currently sitting pretty at the top of the League One table are Rotherham United, the perennial yo-yo side between the Championship and League One.
The Millers came down from the league above last season but have been the side to beat so far this term under the expert stewardship of former player Paul Warne.
Whilst results in recent weeks haven’t been as encouraging as they were earlier in the season, Rotherham have goals flowing throughout their side and they are currently hot favourites to be promoted once more in May 2022 at 1.20, reported the UK betting aggregator British Gambler.
Hot on Rotherham’s heels are 2013 FA Cup winners Wigan Athletic, who have suffered a few seasons in the relative doldrums but appear to be on the rise once more.
The Latics too have become a yo-yo side of sorts in recent seasons and cannot seem to put their financial problems off the pitch sufficiently to one side in order to climb the football league.
Leam Richardson is the man at the helm at the DW Stadium and with games in hand, he is hoping to time Wigan’s promotion push to perfection this season.
They only sit one point behind Rotherham United currently and with as many as four games in the tank on some of the sides around them, the Latics look to be building momentum at 1.33 to make an instant return to the Championship.
Managerless Sunderland are one of the stories of the season so far in League One, with financial problems off the field plaguing the club and the most recent man in the hotseat Lee Johnson getting the boot after a 6-0 defeat to Bolton Wanderers last time out.
Despite the humiliation the Black Cats suffered at Bolton in their last league game, there is genuine cause for optimism around the Stadium of Light and Sunderland find themselves third in the table, with a realistic shot at both an automatic and play-off promotion push this term.
Who they chose to employ as Johnson’s successor will have a significant impact on how Sunderland’s promotion bid transpires this season but at 2.05, the bookmakers certainly haven’t written them off just yet.
Elsewhere, the likes of Wycombe and Oxford United are also very much in the mix to go up, with both sides banging the goals in of late and at 3.00 and 4.50 to go up respectively, they could well be in both automatic and play-off promotion contention come May.
