Crewe defeating Cheltenham 2-0 at Wembley Stadium in an at times in the first half backs to the wall display, coupled with Huddersfield defeating Sheffield United 8-7 in a dramatic League One play-off final penalty shootout yesterday meaning that all 24 clubs who will play in the third tier of English football next season have now been confirmed.
The changes from last season seeing Charlton, Sheffield Wednesday and Huddersfield move up to the Championship, while Doncaster, Coventry (the Ricoh Arena being a new ground for Blues fans) and Portsmouth have dropped down from that level. Meanwhile, relegated and leaving us to play in League Two are Rochdale, Exeter, Chesterfield and Wycombe, and stepping up a gear for the 2012-13 campaign will be Swindon, Shrewsbury, Crawley and Crewe.
With the League One fixtures for next season released on Monday 18th June and the campaign itself starting on Saturday 18th August thoughts will soon turn then to planning away trips all across the country. Once again though it's a case of saving your petrol pennies for plenty of miles on the tarmac, with the travelling distance for Carlisle there and back to 23 away games totalling a hefty 10,166 miles.
Preston rather unsurprisingly being the shortest round trip at 178 miles, while at the other end of the scale there are four away matches in and around the 700 mile mark, those being to Bournemouth, Crawley, Portsmouth and Yeovil, with Bournemouth the worst offender weighing in at 722 miles. The total mileages to each club (round trip in brackets), and taken from the AA routefinder website, being as follows:
North
Bury – 115 (230)
Doncaster Rovers – 142 (284)
Hartlepool – 102 (204)
Oldham Athletic – 123 (246)
Preston North End – 89 (178)
Scunthorpe United – 163 (326)
Sheffield United – 158 (316)
Tranmere Rovers – 127 (254)
Midlands
Coventry City – 213 (426)
Crewe Alexandra - 145 (290)
Notts County – 187 (374)
Shrewsbury Town – 175 (350)
Walsall – 185 (370)
South
AFC Bournemouth – 361 (722)
Brentford – 314 (628)
Colchester United – 313 (626)
Crawley Town – 345 (690)
Leyton Orient – 315 (630)
MK Dons – 261 (522)
Portsmouth – 350 (700)
Stevenage – 290 (580)
Swindon Town – 270 (540)
Yeovil Town – 340 (680)
Total round trips = 10,166