League Two: The promotion race nobody wants to win

Walsall aren’t the only team wobbling at the top of League Two with eight of the sides in promotion contention struggling for consistency.

Only three teams in the race to go up or make the play-offs are in the form table’s top 10 based on the past six matches – Bradford, Colchester and Doncaster, although Rovers, who are fifth, are winless in their past three (D2 L1).

Sixth-placed Notts County have taken just five points from their past six games, winning only one of those (D2 L3).

AFC Wimbledon, who are third, have won just two of their past eight (D3 L3), collecting nine points in that time.

Port Vale missed the opportunity to move into the automatic promotion spots with defeat at home to Barrow on Tuesday night, meaning they’ve now recorded just two wins from seven (D3 L2).

Grimsby Town in seventh have eight points from their past six games (W2 D2 L2), while Crewe Alexandra have slipped to ninth after a run of four without a win (D3 L1).

Salford City were in promotion contention after six straight wins took them second at the start of January, but just two victories from their past 13 games (D5 L6) has left them six points adrift of the top seven in 10th, albeit with a game in hand.

Aside from Bradford, who also had a mini-blip of their own by losing to Gillingham and Tranmere before thrashing Colchester 4-1, it was the U’s who had been in the best form prior to that heavy defeat.

Colchester’s 13-game unbeaten run, which included five consecutive victories, was ended at Valley Parade on Saturday but they are still only one point outside the play-off spots.