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1978–79 Football League

80th season of the Football League

80th season of the Football League

FieldValue
competitionThe Football League
season[1978–79](1978-79-in-english-football)
winnersLiverpool
continentalcup1New Club in League
continentalcup1 qualifiersWigan Athletic
prevseason[1977–78](1977-78-football-league)
nextseason[1979–80](1979-80-football-league)

The 1978–79 season was the 80th completed season of the Football League.

Bob Paisley won his third league title at Liverpool as his side fought off competition from Nottingham Forest and West Bromwich Albion. Albion were in their first season under the management of Ron Atkinson, and pulled off a famous 5–3 away win over Manchester United with a team that included Bryan Robson, Brendan Batson, Cyrille Regis and Laurie Cunningham.

The three relegation places went to Queens Park Rangers, Birmingham City and Chelsea. QPR had declined since the departure of Dave Sexton in 1977 and were relegated just three years after finishing runners-up in the league. Meanwhile, Chelsea's manager Danny Blanchflower paid for his team's shortcomings by losing his job.

Money dominated the headlines during the season: Trevor Francis became England's first million-pound footballer after joining Nottingham Forest from Birmingham City. Liverpool became one of the first English clubs to have a shirt sponsor when they agreed a sponsorship deal with Japanese hi-fi manufacturer Hitachi.

Crystal Palace won the Second Division title, followed by Brighton & Hove Albion, who were promoted to the top division for the first time, and third-placed Stoke City. Going down were Sheffield United, Millwall and Blackburn Rovers.

Shrewsbury Town were champions of the Third Division. The other two promotion spots were occupied by Watford and Swansea City. Peterborough United, Walsall, Tranmere Rovers and Lincoln City were relegated to the Fourth Division.

Reading, Grimsby Town, Wimbledon and Barnsley occupied the Fourth Division promotion places. The success came for Wimbledon in only their second season as a league club.

Final league tables and results

The tables and results below are reproduced here in the exact form that they can be found at The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation website and in Rothmans Book of Football League Records 1888–89 to 1978–79, with home and away statistics separated.

During the first five seasons of the league, that is, until the season 1893–94, re-election process concerned the clubs which finished in the bottom four of the league. From the 1894–95 season and until the 1920–21 season the re-election process was required of the clubs which finished in the bottom three of the league. From the 1922–23 season on it was required of the bottom two teams of both Third Division North and Third Division South. Since the Fourth Division was established in the 1958–59 season, the re-election process has concerned the bottom four clubs in that division.

First Division

11th English title Birmingham City Chelsea Nottingham Forest (defending champions) Everton Leeds United Ipswich Town (24 goals) (2 September 1978) (23 December 1978) (16 December 1978) Bob Paisley guided Liverpool to their third league title in four seasons with the highest points total (68), best home record (40 points from 21 games) and highest goals scored to conceded ratio (85 scored, 16 conceded, ratio 5.3:1) ever attained in First Division history. Nottingham Forest built on their first league title triumph by winning the European Cup and retaining the League Cup under the management of Brian Clough, who in February signed striker Trevor Francis from Birmingham City in Britain's first million-pound transfer, although Forest finished eight points behind Liverpool in second place. West Bromwich Albion's first full season under Ron Atkinson brought an impressive third-place finish and a run to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup, as well as a famous 5-3 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford just after Christmas.

Everton and Leeds United completed the top five. Seventh placed Arsenal compensated for a lack of a title challenge by beating Manchester United 3-2 in a memorable final of the FA Cup.

Chelsea, Birmingham City and QPR were relegated, while Derby County (champions just four years ago) only narrowly stayed up.

Results

Managerial changes

TeamOutgoing managerManner of departureDate of vacancyPosition in tableIncoming managerDate of appointment
Leeds UnitedENG Jimmy ArmfieldSacked30 June 1978*Pre-season*SCO Jock Stein21 August 1978
Queens Park RangersENG Frank SibleyMutual consent11 July 1978ENG Steve Burtenshaw10 August 1978
Leeds UnitedSCO Jock SteinSigned by Scotland4 October 197811thENG Jimmy Adamson25 October 1978
Wolverhampton WanderersENG Sammy ChungSacked8 November 197821stENG John Barnwell20 November 1978
ChelseaENG Ken Shellito13 December 197822ndNIR Danny Blanchflower14 December 1978

Maps

Arsenal Chelsea Queens Park Rangers Tottenham

Arsenal Aston Villa Birmingham Bolton Bristol City Chelsea Coventry Derby County Everton Ipswich Town Leeds United Liverpool Middlesbrough Manchester City Manchester United Norwich City Nottingham Forest QPR Southampton Tottenham West Bromwich Albion Wolverhampton Wanderers

Second Division

Brighton & Hove Albion Stoke City Millwall Blackburn Rovers (24 goals) (16 September 1978) Luton Town 6–0 Notts County (21 October 1978) (2 September 1978) Cardiff City 1–4 Charlton Athletic (4 November 1978) Newcastle United 1–4 Sunderland (24 February 1979) Luton Town 1–4 West Ham United (26 February 1979) Blackburn Rovers 1–4 Cardiff City (28 February 1979) Charlton Athletic 1–4 Stoke City (14 April 1979) 0–3: 9 matches (18 November 1978) Crystal Palace continued to excel under the management of Terry Venables as their exciting young team finished top of a hotly contested Second Division promotion race, a point ahead of Brighton (in the First Division for the first time) and Stoke City. Sunderland missed out on promotion by a single point.

Newcastle United and Leicester City surprisingly failed to feature in the Second Division promotion race.

Blackburn Rovers, Millwall and Sheffield United went down to the Third Division.

Results

|match_BLB_B&HA=1–1

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|match_BRR_B&HA=1–2

|match_BUR_B&HA=3–0

|match_CAM_B&HA=0–0

|match_CAR_B&HA=3–1

|match_CHA_B&HA=0–3

|match_CRY_B&HA=3–1

|match_FUL_B&HA=0–1

|match_LEI_B&HA=4–1

|match_LUT_B&HA=1–1

|match_MIL_B&HA=1–4

|match_NEW_B&HA=1–3

|match_NTC_B&HA=1–0

|match_OLD_B&HA=1–3

|match_ORI_B&HA=3–3

|match_PNE_B&HA=1–0

|match_SHU_B&HA=0–1

|match_STK_B&HA=2–2

|match_SUN_B&HA=2–1

|match_WHU_B&HA=0–0

|match_WRE_B&HA=0–0

Maps

Charlton Athletic Crystal Palace Fulham Orient Millwall West Ham

Blackburn Rovers Brighton & Hove Bristol Rovers Burnley Cambridge Utd Cardiff City Charlton Crystal Palace Fulham Leicester City Orient Luton Town Millwall Newcastle Notts County Oldham Preston North End Sheffield United Stoke Sunderland West Ham Wrexham

Third Division

Third Division Watford Peterborough United, Tranmere Rovers, Walsall

Results

Maps

Brentford Watford

Blackpool Brentford Bury Carlisle United Chester Chesterfield Colchester Exeter City Gillingham Hull Lincoln City Mansfield Town Oxford Peterborough Plymouth Argyle Rotherham Sheffield Wednesday Shrewsbury Southend Swansea City Swindon Tranmere Walsall Watford

Fourth Division

Fourth Division Grimsby Town, Wimbledon

Results

Maps

Aldershot Barnsley Bournemouth Bradford City Crewe Alexandra Darlington Doncaster Grimsby Town Halifax Town Hartlepool Hereford United Huddersfield Newport County Northampton Town Portsmouth Port Vale Reading Rochdale Scunthorpe & Lindsey Stockport Torquay Wigan Athletic Wimbledon York City

Attendances

Source:

Division One

No.ClubAverageHighestLowest
1Manchester United46,43056,13933,678
2Liverpool FC46,40752,35233,754
3Arsenal FC36,37153,89624,288
4Manchester City FC36,20346,71027,366
5Everton FC35,45653,14123,048
6Tottenham Hotspur FC34,90250,54121,560
7Aston Villa FC32,83844,02921,884
8Nottingham Forest FC29,58741,89820,388
9Leeds United FC27,63341,32420,121
10West Bromwich Albion FC26,51735,16617,499
11Chelsea FC24,78242,32812,479
12Bolton Wanderers FC23,20035,20017,394
13Coventry City FC22,63828,58515,083
14Bristol City FC22,30630,19113,559
15Ipswich Town FC21,67328,17916,070
16Derby County FC21,55530,15615,227
17Southampton FC21,33024,25218,957
18Wolverhampton Wanderers FC20,79630,85714,250
19Birmingham City FC20,16436,14512,168
20Middlesbrough FC18,45932,21412,822
21Norwich City FC17,87427,03112,401
22Queens Park Rangers FC16,28726,6269,600

Division Two

No.ClubAverageHighestLowest
1West Ham United FC25,77835,80221,269
2Sunderland AFC25,45436,52616,829
3Crystal Palace FC23,29451,48215,183
4Brighton & Hove Albion FC22,14533,02816,216
5Newcastle United FC20,49434,7337,134
6Stoke City FC19,12524,91215,176
7Sheffield United FC16,33923,11811,913
8Leicester City FC14,18720,74010,363
9Preston North End FC12,11717,8298,906
10Wrexham AFC11,51920,1116,136
11Burnley FC10,74823,1335,837
12Fulham FC10,13526,5566,067
13Charlton Athletic FC9,56322,8165,480
14Notts County FC9,28121,5714,374
15Cardiff City FC9,24614,8515,542
16Luton Town FC8,79214,2056,002
17Blackburn Rovers FC8,64017,7904,684
18Bristol Rovers FC7,59312,4185,410
19Leyton Orient FC7,32319,9454,340
20Oldham Athletic FC7,04511,2844,637
21Millwall FC7,00211,9682,830
22Cambridge United FC6,84911,4064,663

Division Three

No.ClubAverageHighestLowest
1Watford FC14,43426,34710,568
2Swansea City AFC13,74622,8388,086
3Sheffield Wednesday FC10,86013,9307,444
4Swindon Town FC7,97517,2164,558
5Plymouth Argyle FC7,52613,4064,686
6Brentford FC7,45513,8735,140
7Gillingham FC7,14314,9024,157
8Southend United FC6,61013,7033,255
9Shrewsbury Town FC6,09914,4412,346
10Blackpool FC5,6479,4033,136
11Hull City AFC5,23810,3363,418
12Carlisle United FC5,2048,4793,806
13Mansfield Town FC5,15111,3653,671
14Chesterfield FC4,88413,3222,802
15Oxford United FC4,64710,6493,164
16Peterborough United FC4,6408,0481,875
17Rotherham United FC4,46613,7461,996
18Exeter City FC4,4088,0223,195
19Chester City FC4,0528,8551,956
20Walsall FC4,0476,4232,573
21Bury FC3,7825,8522,298
22Colchester United FC3,4196,3172,311
23Lincoln City FC3,1687,0071,571
24Tranmere Rovers2,1795,587984

Division Four

No.ClubAverageHighestLowest
1Barnsley FC11,04821,2615,828
2Portsmouth FC10,12313,9585,863
3Reading FC7,61615,3024,481
4Wigan Athletic FC6,7019,4274,459
5Grimsby Town FC6,52816,1383,903
6Aldershot Town FC4,1638,9672,560
7Stockport County FC4,1469,0542,190
8Bradford City AFC3,9248,3411,950
9AFC Bournemouth3,75910,0582,285
10Newport County AFC3,7316,9302,235
11Wimbledon FC3,7128,0842,374
12Huddersfield Town AFC3,6499,3821,680
13Hereford United FC3,3695,6742,351
14Port Vale FC3,2875,2262,160
15Doncaster Rovers FC3,0009,3801,539
16Hartlepool United FC2,9975,9561,769
17York City FC2,9366,9001,970
18Northampton Town FC2,8954,6941,572
19Scunthorpe United FC2,7218,1651,339
20Torquay United FC2,6694,9641,585
21Crewe Alexandra FC1,9954,6041,121
22Halifax Town AFC1,8215,654980
23Darlington FC1,8073,5131,086
24Rochdale AFC1,7673,627976

References

  • Ian Laschke: Rothmans Book of Football League Records 1888–89 to 1978–79. Macdonald and Jane’s, London & Sydney, 1980.

References

  1. "England 1978–79". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation.
  2. Ian Laschke: ''Rothmans Book of Football League Records 1888–89 to 1978–79''. Macdonald and Jane’s, London & Sydney, 1980.
  3. "English League Leading Goalscorers".
  4. https://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/archive/eng/aveeng1979.htm
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