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Competition to get promoted from League Two is set to be as fierce as ever this season. Here, the Life’s a Pitch team assesses the promotion prospects of the bookmakers’ favourites, Rotherham, Fleetwood Town and Bristol Rovers, to successfully navigate a route to League One.

Starting at Fleetwood, the Daily Telegraph’s Jason Burt believes Micky Mellon’s men can emulate Crawley’s success last season and get promoted at the first attempt in League Two. “The big concern will be the loss of Jamie Vardy, who obviously scored a lot of goals last season, but he’s finally gone so they’ll have to replace him. But they’ve got  very capable manager who’s impressed a lot of people. I think geographically it could help as well, out on a limb up there, a place where people won’t want to go. I can see them doing very well this season.”

Talking of Crawley, Steve Evans (pictured, above) left the Reds in April to take over at Rotherham, this season’s favourites to go up. And The People’s Tom Hopkinson believes Crawley’s loss was definitely Rotherham’s gain. “Love him or hate him he knows what he’s doing. He proved at Crawley that he’s not afraid of taking on the big guns. I know they knocked Derby out in that incredible FA Cup run. If they can keep Daniel Nardiello fit and keep him scoring goals they’ve got a real chance of living up to the pre-season hype.”

Meanwhile, Bristol Rovers’ chances of success depend on Mark McGhee getting his man-management right, according to the Sunday Mirror’s David Walker. “He’s had a few dodgy turns along his career, a few bad experiences with player power in the dressing room. But you’ve got to get it right at this level, because you can’t start clearing out your dressing room and bringing in a whole new set of players. He is a smart manager, he’s a very smart guy, I would just hope he can keep himself in check in terms of managing that group of players.”

Watch the full video discussion by clicking on the play button in the image above.

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