League One Antepost

Like many other football fans and punters, we settled down to read the Racing Post Pre-Season pull-out on Wednesday. Firstly, I'd put on record as what a great, well research and comprehensive pull-out it was. The standard has certainly improved in recent years with a healthy balance of stats, interesting angles and a decent standard of tipster on their books, which certainly hasn't always been the case historically. Well done Racing Post!

One snippet which stood out was the confidence Steve Davies had in Southend, and its been enough to sway me from "might back" to "should be backing now" as an outright bet.

The Shrimpers finished last season in 10th, and have been there or thereabouts for a while now. They started last season slowly though, and finished much quicker, so will fancy their chances.

The big bonus here is just how easy you can strike a line through some of their rivals for various reasons. Sunderland a are surely too short at 3/1 to warrant any value - just think back to Leeds, Forest and Sheffield United's years trying to get out of the division. It's hard.

Barnsley have a stock rebuild job on if they are to mount a challenge, so dont appeal at 8/1, while similar is ture at Charlton where I can't help but feel Lee Bowyer is set for a rude awakening with a whole season in front of him. Peterbrough are 16/1 but have lost a man who scored nearly 30 goals for them last campaign.

No, for me Southend look quite decent enough value at 25/1 as a outright poke, and we'll back them for the Top 6 at 7/2 as well.

1pt Southend to win League One at 25/1

2pts Southend to finish in the top six at 7/2

#Football