Gillingham manager Mark Bonner expects the likes of Doncaster Rovers, MK Dons, Notts County and Bradford City to be in the League 2 promotion mix alongside Gillingham next season

Gillingham manager Mark Bonner is predicting League 2 to be wide open next season.

With plenty of summer transfer business yet to be done across the division it’s hard to predict who will be the front-runners, although the bookies have installed Chesterfield as the early title favourites.

The Gills are well-fancied, too, particularly after making some attacking additions that should help improve their goalscoring fortunes which have hindered them in recent seasons. The likes of MK Dons, Notts County and Doncaster Rovers should also be in the mix.

Bonner said: “I think people will look and say it’s an open league, some real big hitters went out of it last year and I thought Crawley did amazing in the play-offs.

“I was at the final and they had an amazing run to get themselves up but probably the fact that it is open means lots of clubs will fancy themselves.

“Lots of clubs will have more of a chance because it is more open, it will become really competitive.”

Judging things early on might be a mistake, if last season is anything to go by. The Gills were the early pacesetters with a flurry of 1-0 wins but eventually slipped out of contention, while Doncaster soared into the play-offs with a 10-game winning run late on.

“That run was incredible,” said the Gills boss, who led Cambridge United to promotion as League 2 runners-up in 2021.

“It shows that you can have strong seasons where you’re up there and fall away or you can have weak seasons where you take a bit of time to get going and then fly and have a really strong season in the end.

“The truth is, it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish and how consistent you can be over a long period of time is important.

“Anyone beats anyone in the league, that is