Derby County and Bolton may have advantage over Portsmouth and Barnsley: View | OneFootball

The race for automatic promotion from League One to the Championship looks set to go right down to the wire.

Table toppers Portsmouth are currently six points clear at the summit, but Derby, Bolton and Barnsley below them have games in hand. Should Bolton win their two games in hand, they will go level on points, and should Derby win theirs they will be just three points behind.

Barnsley, although a further six points behind Bolton and Derby, should not be ruled out as they also have two games in hand on Pompey.

Out of these four teams, you feel that Derby and Bolton hold the advantage because managers Paul Warne and Ian Evatt have experience of winning EFL promotions.

For Portsmouth boss John Mousinho and Barnsley chief Neill Collins, however, this isn't the case as the 2023/24 campaign represents their first full seasons in management.

Still novice coaches, they're doing excellent jobs but are up against two coaches who have been there and done it before. This will no doubt work in Warne and Evatt's favour.

Whatever happens at Fratton Park and Oakwell between now and the end of the season will be a great learning experience for the two young coaches up against two men who have incredible track records when it comes to promotion.

The promotion pedigree of Paul Warne

Two years ago, Warne's Rotherham pipped MK Dons to the post and won automatic promotion to the Championship by a single point.

We could be talking similar margins this year come May, and Warne's experience of such a situation will certainly help him this year as he looks to get the Rams back to the Championship.

The current Rams boss managed Rotherham between 2016 and 2022, and during that time he earned promotion from League One three times – a proven track record that makes him one of the best third-tier managers ever.

His latest promotion came years ago when the Millers looked certain to become League One champions, but four defeats in five league games in March and April saw Warne's men falter. This allowed Wigan to sneak above them.

With MK Dons right on their coattails, Rotherham held their nerve and picked up seven points out of nine from their last three games, meaning they pipped the Dons by a single point.

Such an experience will allow Warne to learn from both the rough patch, and take inspiration from the final games when they got it together.

The Rams have lost just two of their last 19 league games, which has put them right in the picture in terms of winning automatic promotion.

Derby travel to Barnsley on Saturday, and if they win there it will really build the momentum entering the last couple of months of the season.

Three weeks later, they have a huge crunch game with Bolton at Pride Park – a fixture that could go a long way to deciding the outcome of the top two.

Ian Evatt's big plans for Bolton

With Evatt at the helm, the Trotters will fancy their chances as they have lost just one in 12.

Building momentum at this stage of the season is something they're accustomed to.

During the 2020/21 League Two campaign, the club sat 19th after 26 games but went on to take 47 points from their final 20 league matches, which propelled them up to third – just three points off the top at the end of the season.

It signalled back-to-back promotions for Evatt, who in 2020 secured Barrow's return to the Football League for the first time in 48 years.

Last season, 40 points from their final 19 games saw them force their way into the play-offs, where they were narrowly beaten by Barnsley in the semi-finals.

Evatt won't want to go through the play-offs again. He'll want to go one better this time, and will no doubt take inspiration from how his side done in 2020/21 when they strung together an imperious run of form when it really mattered.

Hoping to Trot onto the Championship, he can use this as experience to put together a similar run. With Evatt at the helm, there's every chance of this happening.

Bolton played in the Premier League between 2000 and 2012 and haven't played at that level since. That's where Evatt wants to take the club to.

Last week, he told The Bolton News: “That is our aim and goal, we want to get back to the Premier League, but to be able to achieve that goal takes time and a process. We are part of the way along that journey right now.”

Between 2006 and 2010, Evatt captained a Blackpool squad that earned three promotions in four seasons that took them from League Two to the Premier League.

Evatt returns to Bloomfield Road tomorrow as visiting manager, and he will no doubt be using this as a motive to go on the same journey with Bolton.