As usual, here are the match timelines for each of the weekend’s League 2 matches. There’s a full explanation of these here, but in a nutshell they track how each team’s expected goals tally (the number of goals that the average team would have scored from their shots) changed over the course of the match.

You can also compare these with how the E Ratings predicted each match would pan out here.

Summary

First of all, here are all of the timelines together, with the same vertical scale to help you pick out which saw the most (and least) goalmouth action:

Individual matches

They may have been pre-match favourites but Bristol Rovers’ late lead looked somewhat fortunate, so it wasn’t a surprise to see Plymouth peg them back. Much of what the home side created came in the final 25 minutes, with their visitors having looked the more dangerous throughout.

Hartlepool are the lowest-rated attacking side in the division at the moment but their finishing earned them a point here. While neither side’s forays amounted to much in the first half, Cambridge were much busier than their visitors once their forwards clicked in the second but conceded from the only chance they allowed in the game’s final 40 minutes.

While bottom side York will be glad of a point however it’s earned, their performance here adds to their relegation worries. The visitors didn’t manage a single shot in the first half and produced nothing of note until the surge in the last 15 minutes which resulted in their equaliser. Carlisle by comparison had rattled in enough chances to score at least once more and will be disappointed not to have marked their homecoming with a win.

Accrington were considered marginal favourites here, such has been their improvement this season, but Exeter were their equal throughout and took a greater share of their shots in dangerous areas. The first half looks to have been much more exciting than the second and a draw may have been a fairer result overall.

This was only Luton’s second win in ten, with both coming away from home, but it looks to have been deserved. The Hatters created the better quality chances in an open start to the game and frustrated Mansfield for long spells after taking an early lead. By the time the home side got going in the second half the damage had already been done.

This match had a weird symmetry to it. After racing into a shock two-goal lead early on, Dag & Red look to have sought to defend it for the remainder of the match. Apart from one dangerous spell in the middle of the first half they looked to be on course to succeed, with hosts Newport creating little themselves, but a late surge from the home side secured them a point which was the least they deserved.

This match pitted the division’s two most clinical attacks against each other but, with Morecambe not even taking a shot until the dying moments of the first half, only one side were able to demonstrate their finishing before the interval. Northampton dominated the opening period and look to have deserved their lead, with their visitors having the better of the second half once they found their rhythm.

Wimbledon’s ratings have been high for some time and with their fourth win on the bounce they look to be finally converting their performances into results. The first half an hour of this match was a relatively close and tense affair, but the visitors then burst into life and had by far the better of the contest. Notts County’s leaky defence has often undermined their relatively strong attack this season, but both looked off the pace here.

A meeting of the division’s two highest-rated teams was likely to be a tense affair, but both looked to have been more concerned with not losing than winning here. Portsmouth and Oxford created chances of similar quality overall but the hosts will perhaps be disappointed to have only threatened once in the entire first half, although whoever won here would have been fortunate to do so.

Stevenage’s defence has looked the most accommodating in the division so it’s surprising that Barnet created so little here. The Bees’ attack looks to have been in decline for some time, but creating just two chances – with the first arriving on the hour mark – is concerning. Stevenage were hardly electric themselves going forward but can be the more disappointed with the end result.

Creating chances has been Wycombe’s biggest problem this season – if their attack was as effective as their defence then they’d surely be among the promotion challengers – and they failed to threaten significantly until the closing stages here. Leyton Orient also had a quiet day by their standards, having not gotten a shot away until the back end of the first half and creating little overall, but looked worthier of the points overall.

This was a massive win for Yeovil and it looks to have been one they deserved. Neither they nor Crawley had created much to cheer about until early in the second half, but the Glovers carved out the better opportunities as the game drew to a close. The result lifts the victors out of the bottom two but they will need a few more results like this to start climbing further away from danger.