League One Round-Up: Leicester's New Reality and a Seven-Goal Epic

A decade on from their Premier League title, Leicester City walked out at a sold-out Meadow Lane and discovered what everyone else discovers about League One: the division does not care who you used to be. Notts County hit the woodwork in each half, equalised with nine minutes left and sent the promotion favourites home with a point that felt like a warning. Elsewhere on the opening afternoon a man scored a first-half hat-trick and lost, a team went down to ten men after 29 minutes and won 3-0, and Bromley collected the first League One win in their history. Twelve games. Not one dull one.

The shape of the round

Huddersfield Town sit top of the first table of the season on goal difference from Stockport County, with Bradford City, Luton Town, Cambridge United, Sheffield Wednesday, Mansfield Town and Bromley completing the set of opening-day winners. The other four games were drawn, which means Leicester, Stevenage, Notts County and the rest of that middle block begin the year with a point and a list of things to fix. At the bottom sit AFC Wimbledon, beaten 3-0 by ten men, which is not the sort of line a club wants attached to matchday one.

If the Championship's opening weekend belonged to late goals, League One matched it. Ciaron Brown rescued Oxford United in the fifth minute of stoppage time. Olly Sanderson rescued Stevenage in the first. Gideon Kodua went one better at Reading and won the game in the sixth. The lesson travels well between divisions: managers here will be coaching their teams to defend stoppage time before they coach anything else.

Notts County 1-1 Leicester: the favourites meet the furniture

Leicester's second season in England's third tier in their 142-year history began in front of 17,172 at Meadow Lane, against a Notts County side back at this level after an 11-year absence. Jayden Joseph, aged 20, gave Russell Martin's team the lead in the 62nd minute with his first senior goal for the club, from Sammy Braybrooke's pass. The hosts hit the woodwork in each half, the second time when Emile Acquah's diving header struck the right post with nine minutes remaining, and Conor Grant was there to finish the rebound.

The context around the visitors is heavy furniture: the club is up for sale with a price tag of more than £200m, Harry Winks was sold in the summer clear-out, and only three players who started April's relegation-sealing draw against Hull City started here. Martin's verdict in the BBC's post-match clip ran to six words: "I said it wouldn't be easy." On this evidence he undersold it.

Reading 3-4 Luton: a hat-trick wasted, a game stolen

Jack Marriott did the thing every striker dreams about, a first-half hat-trick inside 38 minutes, and still finished the day a loser. His first arrived in the 8th minute when Luton captain Kal Naismith's backpass fell short and Marriott nipped in to slot past Josh Keeley. By half-time Reading led 3-1. Then Kasey Palmer scored twice in three minutes early in the second half to level, and the game sat at 3-3 daring somebody to be brave.

Gideon Kodua, a substitute, hit the bar first. Moments later, in the sixth of nine added minutes, he scrambled home from a goalmouth scramble and was promptly booked for excessive celebration, which given the circumstances reads less like a punishment than a receipt. Jack Wilshere left with four goals, three points and a straight face: "We have to do a lot of things better," he said in the BBC's post-match clip. The same clips had Leam Richardson on a "sickening" defeat, and a man whose striker scored three by the 38th minute is entitled to the word.

Huddersfield 3-0 Wimbledon: an hour with ten men, barely a scratch

Huddersfield's afternoon should have collapsed in the 29th minute, when Bali Mumba dived into a challenge and was shown a straight red card. Instead it never wobbled. Derensili Sanches Fernandes had already scored twice by then, in the 4th and 16th minutes of his league debut, the first after Joe Taylor robbed Zack Nelson, the second a curling finish. Bojan Radulovic added a simple third in the 78th at the end of a brilliant run up the wing by centre-back Radinio Balker.

Wimbledon's response to an hour of numerical advantage was 60.4% possession and one shot on target, plus a Ryan Johnson header ruled out for offside against Marcus Browne, who was standing in the goalkeeper's line of sight. Martin Drury thought his players were magnificent. Johnnie Jackson's summary of the ten men who beat him was blunter still: "They were the better team." The table agrees; Huddersfield top it.

Barnsley 0-1 Bromley: history, against the run of play

Bromley's first ever League One win arrived at Oakwell in their first ever competitive meeting with Barnsley, and it arrived against the run of play, which is how promoted clubs tend to write their early history. Barnsley had 22 shots to 12, two-thirds of the ball and 12 corners to two. Luke Alker rattled the crossbar from 30 yards. Shamal George kept saving, eight times in all, and in the 70th minute two substitutes built the goal: Ethon Archer crossed, and Victor Adeboyejo, once of Barnsley, tapped in against his former club.

Andy Woodman's hope afterwards, in the BBC's post-match clip, was that "teams will show us respect". Last season's League Two champions have started their case in the most persuasive way available: away from home, outshot, unbothered.

The rest of the opening day

Plymouth 1-3 Stockport

Stockport eased to a win at Home Park built almost entirely around Jack Diamond. His 13th-minute shot took a late deflection off Matty Sorinola for the opener, his cross produced the saved shot that Kyle Wootton tapped in for the second in the 26th, and he teed up Ryan Glover to cut in and fire the third four minutes after the break. Xavier Amaechi's 79th-minute strike was a consolation, and Tom Cleverley's post-match clip did not dress it up: "We conceded soft goals."

Leyton Orient 1-2 Sheffield Wednesday

Wednesday marked their League One return with a win that began strangely: Callum Slattery charged down keeper Nathan Baxter's clearance in the 19th minute and the ball deflected in. Joseph Olowu poked Orient level in the 26th, and Jamal Lowe settled it from the spot in the 66th after James Morris fouled him. Barry Bannan should have made it three with an empty net waiting in the 70th minute and somehow found the side netting instead. Wednesday held on anyway.

Cambridge 3-2 Wigan

Cambridge marked their return to League One by leading 2-0 at half-time through Kell Watts inside three minutes and Louis Appere, then adding a third through Isaac Heath. Wigan, who had offered little, suddenly scored twice in four minutes through Sonny Perkins and Akeel Higgins, and finished the day with 18 shots and 66.3% of the ball. Gary Caldwell's verdict in the BBC's post-match clip, "we were too easy to play against", is a hard sentence to argue with when the possession count and the scoreline point in opposite directions.

Bradford 2-0 Peterborough

Last season's play-off semi-finalists made a winning start once the second half loosened the game. Macaulay Gillesphey headed in from Callum Connolly's corner in the 54th minute after keeper Alex Bass was caught out, and substitute Nick Powell turned in Adam Phillips' low cross in the 75th. Peterborough's afternoon ended a man short when David Okagbue collected a second booking in the 85th for a high boot to Connolly's head. Their closest moment, Harry Leonard's close-range attempt, was deflected onto the bar by Jon McCracken.

Mansfield 2-1 Doncaster

Rhys Oates swept Mansfield ahead in the 26th minute, Jack Senior drilled Doncaster level four minutes after the break, and a training-ground free-kick decided it: Regan Hendry, wide on the right, rolled a 74th-minute free-kick into Louis Reed's path and the first-time finish found the bottom-left corner from the edge of the box. Doncaster will replay Brandon Hanlan's 59th-minute miss from eight yards for a while. Grant McCann's caption-length verdict, "football is defined on moments", is the polite version of that.

Oxford 2-2 MK Dons

Relegated Oxford led through Mark Harris in the 20th minute, then conceded headers to Charlie Goode and Aaron Collins inside 14 minutes and spent the rest of the afternoon chasing the game. Collins headed against a post and newly-promoted MK Dons stood minutes from a statement win until the fifth minute of stoppage time, when Gatlin O'Donkor crossed and Ciaron Brown turned it in. MK Dons manager Paul Warne's reading in the BBC's post-match clip still leaned forward: "Hopefully it's a sign of things to come."

Blackpool 1-1 Wycombe

Fred Onyedinma flicked in Aaron Morley's corner on Wycombe's first venture forward after seven minutes, and for a long time that looked like the afternoon's only entry. Finley Munroe, a substitute following his loan move from Middlesbrough last week, made an instant impact by tucking home at the back post in the 77th. Michael Duff valued the away point. Bloomfield Road's 9,911 probably valued the fact their new loanee needed one game to matter.

Burton 1-1 Stevenage

The Pirelli Stadium's 3,001 watched a game of few clear-cut chances tilt late and then level later. Jack Armer fired Burton ahead at the back post in the 74th minute, and Olly Sanderson, a substitute making his Stevenage debut, bundled home in the first minute of stoppage time after fellow substitute Josh Magennis unsettled the defence. Alex Revell wanted a win; last season's play-off semi-finalists settled for the draw their finishing earned.

What the first table says

Tables in August are a photograph of one afternoon, and this one still manages to say something. Huddersfield lead on goal difference with ten men's work. Stockport, Bradford and Luton fill the places behind them. Leicester, the division's £200m storefront, begin eleventh, level on a point with Notts County, the club that just held them. And at the foot, Wimbledon own the round's heaviest defeat. One matchday decides nothing, which is exactly why the sides that treated it seriously will be pleased with themselves this week.

Sources: BBC Sport, including PA Media match reports.