Oxford United head coach Karl Robinson expects League One to be even stronger next season after an incredibly competitive campaign in the top half of the table.
And the Us boss believes the strength of Bristol Rovers and the other teams promoted to League One will only raise the level when the season gets underway in late July.
This season saw an unprecedented haul of points required to make the play-off places, with Plymouth Argyle cruelly missing out on the top six with 80 points – the same total that took the Gas to third in League Two – while Oxford in eight accrued a haul of 76 points, which would have booked a play-off spot in the previous 11 campaigns.
Robinson, a fellow scouser and friend of Gas manager Joey Barton, believes the challenge of the third tier will only increase in 2022/23.
“The league’s going to be better,” he told the Oxford Mail. “Ipswich, Charlton, Portsmouth and Bolton will have a go.
“Three of the four (who reached the play-offs) are still going to be in this league with Derby County, Barnsley and Peterborough coming down (from the Championship).
“I only foresee it getting harder to try to stay in the top ten and that’s something we’ve got to be better at as well.”
This season's League One table was uncharacteristically polarised with the bottom six teams cut adrift from the rest. Morecambe finished 19th with 42 points, a total just four points better than when the Gas finished rock bottom and 10 points from safety the year before.
Five teams won eight games or fewer and finished with no more than 40 points, with the relegation zone and the play-offs separated by 43 points.
Robinson believes the points total required to reach the play-offs will be lower next season, but only due to the quality of the teams joining the division – Forest Green Rovers, Exeter City, the Gas and one of Port Vale or Mansfield Town – from League Two.
He added: “There are some big teams in the top seven of the league below so they’re only going to make the league stronger. This year the bottom part of the league was so disconnected.
“We always say 50 points is the benchmark so if this (the promotion race) gets stronger, that gets lower.
“I don’t think it’s so much about the top teams, I think it’s about how strong the league is from top to bottom and that’s what balances out the averages. That’s where the averages will hopefully come down because it’s going to be hard.”
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