Gab Sutton's EFL Winners & Losers - August 2-3
Gab Sutton 
The EFL returned over the weekend, with Leagues One and Two each playing a full round of fixtures to kick-start the new football season in the UK.
Luton got things off and running with a win on their return to the third tier on Friday night and remain favourites with betting sites to return to the Championship immediately, but who else shone on the opening weekend?
Free Bets EFL expert Gab Sutton will be here every week through the EFL season to pick out his winners and losers from the weekend's action.
Winners
Huddersfield
There’s been plenty of optimism around Huddersfield this summer, following the extensive rebuild contract lengths denied them last year, promising recruitment and a bold head coach appointment in Lee Grant.
Nonetheless, the Terriers finished as low as 10th last season, concluding it with 12 defeats in 15, after relegation from the Championship the year before, and so that optimism was always going to be somewhat guarded until fans saw everything come to fruition.
As such, beating last year’s League One play-off finalists Leyton Orient 3-0 on the opening day was a fantastic start for Town, in Grant’s first game in the hot-seat.
With Joe Low, Ryan Ledson Ben Wiles and Ruben Roosken among the stand-out performers, Huddersfield laid a real marker with some free-flowing football.
Barnsley
Barnsley got their 2025-26 campaign off to a great start with a 3-1 victory at Plymouth Argyle, and a highly accomplished performance.
The Reds pressed aggressively and intelligently at 11v11, before Jack Shepherd’s red card with the scoreline only 2-1 cast doubt over the final half hour, but from that point on they looked after the ball superbly, managing what was in the end a comfortable 3-1 victory thanks to Davis Keillor-Dunn’s clincher.
Tarn operated with a fluid front three of Caylan Vickers, David McGoldrick and DKD, meaning defenders didn’t quite know who to pick up, and the quality of their build-up play reflects really well on the standard of coaching from rookie Conor Hourihane.
If that’s a sign of things to come, Barnsley could be in for a progressive campaign.
Fleetwood
On paper, going to Barnet on the opening day, with the National League’s 102-point champions celebrating their Football League return, was the worst time for Fleetwood to travel to the Hive.
With that in mind, Pete Wild’s side navigated the fixture impeccably, using the Bees’ attacking, cavalier style against them, pouncing with a low volume of attacks – they didn’t create tonnes of openings, but the five they did fashion were clear-cut chances.
Operating with a solid back-five and a tight midfield three, the Cods released Ryan Graydon and Will Davies, then latterly James Norwood, with early balls in behind and they carved their hosts open.
At the other end, Toby Mullarkey, James Bolton and Zech Medley stood firm against opposition pressure, and defended their box superbly to ensure a 2-0 victory, with Wild doing his trademark fist-pumps to a jubilant away end.
Losers
Wycombe
It’s unfair to draw any conclusions from the opening day, and the common wisdom is that it takes 10 games for teams to get a clear barometer of where they’re at.
Nonetheless, Wycombe will be disappointed with their opening day 2-1 loss at newly-promoted Bradford, especially the first half performance, as an ambitious club with wealthy owners and designs on promotion.
Head coach Mike Dodds will want more aggressive engagement from the front from his side, and a bit more of the bravery on the ball he saw in the second half – losing on day one is not the end of the world, but there’s plenty of work to do.
Bristol Rovers
After relegation from League One last season, Bristol Rovers re-appointed legendary manager Darrell Clarke, to some extent, to bring the feelgood factor back to the Mem – although he’s also an excellent League Two manager in his own right, and he’s since been successful at other clubs, Port Vale and Cheltenham.
There’s been no instant impact, though, from Clarke, who inherits a group of players more gifted than the ones that won back-to-back promotions a decade ago, but probably missing the core of leaders – and that’s something he might have to take some time to find.
So, it was a 1-0 defeat for the Gas to Harrogate and, other than a nice stop in the first half, returning goalkeeper James Belshaw wasn’t overly stretched for his clean sheet.
The good news? Rovers haven’t won on the opening day in any of their last three promotion seasons, and tend to be a slow burner.
Crawley
Scott Lindsey admitted that his side didn’t turn up on Saturday’s opening day 3-0 loss at Grimsby, with his side mustering a mere five efforts at goal all afternoon.
The Red Devils defended meekly and passively against the Mariners; the wing-backs were nowhere to be seen in the defensive phases, while Kyle Scott seemed to be the only midfielder tracking back, so it was basically four players who were defending and another six sprawled out across the pitch.
Lindsey has to fix Crawley’s out-of-possession concerns and fast, because when they won promotion from this level, they were fit and never stopped running; they’ll need to lean into Ricky McFarlane’s capabilities in the Strength & Conditioning department as much as possible.
