Mike White
BBC Radio Humberside Sport

Let’s not sugar coat it, Scunthorpe were saved last season by the fact they ran out of games to play and were lucky not to join rivals Grimsby Town in dropping out of the league.

Year two of Neil Cox’s reign as manager of his hometown club has fans fearing a similar season of struggle, although Cox himself has had greater input into summer recruitment and has added experience with the likes of newly-appointed captain Harry Davis, Alex Kenyon and former Manchester City youngster Harry Bunn.

The big and all-too-frequent question in football: where are the goals coming from?

Last season Ryan Loft didn’t hit double figures and while he showed some positives, grabbing nine goals (all competitions) when service was often limited to non-existent, the 23-year old is still a piece of clay that needs moulding to become a more reliable striking option.

Steve Watkins
BBC Three Counties Radio

Stevenage will be looking to continue the form that they showed over the last 30 games of last season, which was equal to any of the eventual top five after the last ball had been kicked.

They have lost Tom Pett, but the signing of midfielders Jake Taylor from Exeter and Jake Reeves from Notts County have been shrewd, and with Jamie Reid coming in from Mansfield and showing good form in pre-season, the Stevenage fans can be optimistic for good reason.

The question will be whether the defence, led by veteran Scott Cuthbert, can remain as solid and miserly as last term.

Traditionally Boro have proven to be slow starters. If they can get up and running early, they could well be a surprise package.

There is a good balance of youth and experience at the Lamex. This should be enough to see them into at least the top seven come May.

Continuity will be key for Sutton United’s debut season in the EFL, with 18 players staying on from their surprise National League title win.

Five new faces have also arrived, notably Dutch winger Enzio Boldewijn, who joined from Notts County.

Manager Matt Gray has talked of his delight at his summer business with the new recruits adding to an exciting squad that already had a good blend of youth and league experience, led by inspirational midfielder and captain Craig Eastmond.

The unity and spirit that shone last term will be much needed after several weeks of upheaval and uncertainty, with much of the club’s focus devoted to getting the ground and facilities ready for the new challenge.

Sutton will no longer have the home advantage of their 3G pitch and delays to installing the new grass surface means their first four games will all be played away from home.

A good start following a testy close-season seems even more crucial than normal, but belief is not lacking around Gander Green Lane and they are aiming for more than simply scraping through to safety.

Andrew Hawes
BBC Wiltshire's Swindon Town commentator

Image source, Rex Features

No team across the EFL goes into the new season as ill-prepared as Swindon – which is no fault of head coach Ben Garner, or the pint-pulling Australian Clem Morfuni who eventually prevailed in a long battle to take over the club.

Previous owner Lee Power let the club decay to an appalling degree, with pre-season starting late, a handful of contracted players and newly appointed manager John McGreal leaving having not taken charge of a single game.

Former Bristol Rovers boss Garner takes over clearly aiming to play an attractive style, but also with the challenge of proving his credentials as an effective number one rather than as a successful Premier League assistant – this was hardly the soft option.

A midfield featuring Ben Gladwin, Jack Payne and Jordan Lyden offers quality at this level, but the full cast of characters for this season is a mystery even at this point. Survival is success.

Ian Kennedy
Reporter, BBC Radio Merseyside Sport

The return of their successful manager Micky Mellon after a season-long absence at Dundee United has left Tranmere fans confident of another promotion push.

He’s had to re-build his squad after a host of summer departures but the exciting signing of Callum McManaman, man-of-the-match in Wigan’s famous 2013 FA Cup Final victory over Manchester City, signals the height of the club’s ambition.

Nathaniel Knight-Percival won promotion with Morecambe last season, but the central defender has switched to Prenton Park with the aim of repeating that success.

The goals of James Vaughan were a key factor in Rovers making the play-offs last season but his retirement leaves a gap which they will find hard to fill.

Youngsters Paul Glatzel, on loan from Liverpool, and Elliott Nevitt are ones for the future but Mellon’s insistence that he still needs to add to his squad suggests a proven striker is still high on his priority list.

Jay Spearing, Peter Clarke and keeper Joe Murphy means the core of experience from last season remains, with the addition of proven midfielders Ryan Watson and Sam Foley along with talented full-back Josh Cogley from Birmingham providing them with depth.

A bit of patience will be required as the new players settle in but I expect Tranmere to be competitive again with their usual post-Christmas push towards promotion the likely outcome.

Tom Marlow
BBC WM

Level with the play-off places on Boxing Day, Walsall collapsed in the new year, winning just four of their remaining 27 matches to end the season in the club’s worst position since the creation of a four-tier Football League.

Just as well, perhaps, that Saddlers fans couldn’t witness last season’s depressing decline in person, but optimism now reigns again among returning supporters to the Banks’s Stadium thanks to a huge shake-up in personnel on and off the pitch.

An exciting, new management team sees former Portsmouth and Bolton midfielder Matthew Taylor embark on his first season as a head coach in the EFL, ably assisted by his experienced, right-hand man Neil McDonald and technical director Jamie Fullarton.

A dozen new players – including former Republic of Ireland international Stephen Ward – have followed Taylor through the door so far, and with a new spine of Ash Taylor, Joss Labadie and Conor Wilkinson, the Saddlers should have the know-how to set sights on a top seven spot.

And of course we want to hear what you think.

The start of the season is supposedly when supporters are at their most optimistic - dreaming of glory before things inevitably start to unravel.

Disagree with what our experts have to say about your club? Send through your comments using #bbcefl on social media and we'll use some of them.

The plan for the next few hours?

We've tapped into our wide network of BBC local radio reporters, commentators and sports editors - including a couple ex-players - for their insight into how the teams on their patch are shaping up for the new campaign.

We'll start with League Two and go in reverse alphabetical order, while also sprinkling in some of the preview content we've been publishing on the website this week.

Image source, Getty Images

Here we are again. Only this time, we have the long-awaited return of fans.

Sixty-seven days have passed since Morecambe beat Newport in the League Two play-off final - signalling the end of the 2020-21 EFL campaign - but now we're back.

Scott Parker's Bournemouth host relegated West Brom in the Championship curtain-raiser at 19:45 BST but we're here nice and early to help you fill the next few hours..

Welcome along, it's like we never went away.