Accrington - 08/09 16th, Bookies 125/1 24th - With £25,000 a month going to the taxman and the smallest average attendance in the Football League Accy will certainly be searching the bargain bins for their squad this season. Add to that players being banned for betting, and facing sentence for affray, they could well be struggling to fill the newly expanded subs bench each week. They've been favourites for the drop for the last two seasons, but their luck could well run out this term.
Aldershot - 08/09 15th, Bookies 66/1 21st - The one question from Shots fans this summer is What Is Going On? Rumours of financial uncertainty, a reshuffled board structure, and allowing highly rated keeper Nikki Bull to walk away for nothing only concerns the fans even more. A very low key summer has seen only defensive arrivals and nothing to genuinely excite the fans. Relied heavily on loan players last season, and will probably do the same this term.
Barnet - 08/09 17th, Bookies 74/1 22nd - Might as well be renamed Walmington on Sea with Dad's Army in full effect in Barnet. Gary Breen, Paul Furlong, and Lee Harrison are all enjoying extended careers at the Underhill care home. Whether the veterans can keep their joints going when the cold sets in will determine whether they have a relegation fight on their hands with them likely to be selling John O'Flynn and Albert Adomah purely to balance the books.
Bournemouth - 08/09 21st, Bookies 16/1 6th= - Still under a transfer embargo they have only the remnants of last season's squad to make a start on this season until the new owners can clear their debts. Providing things go according to plan they should be a danger next season but this term will be about treading water and getting things right off the pitch while blooding some of the youth squad to bolster their threadbare squad.
Bradford - 08/09 9th, Bookies 14/1 3rd= - After another dramatic failure with the division's largest budget last season, funds have been slashed leaving boss Stuart McCall to ask players to leave or take pay cuts in order to juggle finances to build a squad. The retention of 30 goal partnership Peter Thorne and Michael Boulding on lesser wages is a crucial part of the plan, but outside of that they are looking at youngsters and untested non-league starlets to bolster their promotion push.
Burton - 08/09 Conf 1st(p), Bookies 50/1 20th - Many people expect an immediate return for the side that won the Conference with a whimper after Nigel Clough left. They won only one of their last seven games in trying to secure the title, and will enter the League with the vast majority of the same team. The squad as a whole has limited League experience, with ex-Bull Tony James - a veteran of 370 games at Conference level - one of a number to be making his League debut.