The EFL League Two season is approaching the business end, and Stockport County are top of the table. Wrexham, pushing for back-to-back promotions, occupy third place, while Mansfield Town, who missed out on the playoffs on goal difference last time around, are in second place.

The visualisation below looks at the major defensive numbers of all 24 teams in England’s fourth tier this season.

Bradford City — 13th in the table — surprisingly top the clean sheets chart with 12 so far this term, along with Mansfield Town, who also have 12 to their name.

Mansfield have conceded the fewest goals (28), while Bradford have conceded 39 and rank second-best for that metric. Stockport County and AFC Wimbledon, who have 10 and 11 clean sheets, respectively, rank joint-second for goals conceded (37).

Wrexham’s games have seen a lot of goals at both ends of the pitch, but they have 11 clean sheets and rank joint-second in that area.

Gillingham and Barrow also have a solid defensive record and rank among the best defensive units in the league. When it comes to shots against, Stockport (295), AFC Wimbledon (314), and Bradford (325) have conceded fewer shots than the rest.

Gillingham rank 10th for this metric with 368 shots against, but their strong defensive unit means they have prevented a lot of those shots from finding the back of the net.

Gillingham and Bradford deserve to be higher up the table for their defensive records alone but given that they are in the wrong end of the table for attacking metrics, they are where they are in the table. Stockport and Mansfield Town have been the best two teams overall and are rightly at the top end of the table. At the same time, the few immediately below have mainly been inconsistent defensively and offensively.