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1979–80 Football League

81st season of the Football League

Field	Value
competition	The Football League
season	[1979–80](1979-80-in-english-football)
winners	Liverpool
prevseason	[1978–79](1978-79-football-league)
nextseason	[1980–81](1980-81-football-league)

The 1979–80 season was the 81st completed season of The Football League.

Bob Paisley's Liverpool retained their league championship trophy after fighting off a determined challenge by Dave Sexton's Manchester United. Nottingham Forest failed to make a sustained title challenge but compensated for this by retaining the European Cup.

Bristol City and Bolton Wanderers were relegated after brief, uneventful spells in the First Division notable only because Bristol City’s relegation ends the last time South West England had a team in the top tier until Swindon Town's promotion to the Premier League in 1993. On the other hand, Derby County's relegation came just five years after they had been league champions.

Kevin Keegan ended his three-year spell with Hamburger SV in Germany and returned to England in a shock £400,000 move to Southampton. Lawrie McMenemy's new signing was the transfer surprise of the season. Keegan was the current European Footballer of the Year and rated as one of the best strikers in the world, while Southampton were still struggling to establish themselves as a First Division side. But this move showed that Southampton had ambition and were determined to compete with the best.

Leicester City, Sunderland and Birmingham City ended their relatively short spells in the Second Division and occupied the division's three promotion places. Going down were Fulham, Burnley and Charlton Athletic.

Grimsby Town, Blackburn Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday all achieved some long-awaited success by gaining promotion from the Third Division. Bury, Southend United, Mansfield Town and Wimbledon occupied the Third Division's relegation places.

Fallen giants Huddersfield Town and Portsmouth finally achieved some success by gaining promotion from the Fourth Division. Newport County achieved their first promotion since 1939 and Walsall were also promoted. Re-election results are given at the end of this article.

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 with home and away statistics separated.

First Division

12th English title Derby County Bolton Wanderers Nottingham Forest (as defending champions) Ipswich Town Wolverhampton Wanderers (23 goals) (1 March 1980) (18 August 1979) West Bromwich Albion 1–5 Nottingham Forest (1 September 1979) Everton 0–4 Ipswich Town (9 February 1980) Norwich City 0–4 Wolverhampton Wanderers (23 February 1980) (9 February 1980) Liverpool won the First Division title for the fourth time in five seasons, finishing two points above Manchester United, who had their best league campaign for more than a decade. Ipswich Town, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest completed the top five, with Forest also retaining the European Cup, while Arsenal were on the losing side in the finals of both the FA Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup. Wolves, who finished sixth, won the League Cup.

Bolton Wanderers, Derby County and Bristol City were relegated to the Second Division.

Results

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Derby County	SCO Tommy Docherty	Resigned	20 May 1979	Pre-season	ENG Colin Addison	6 July 1979
Manchester City	ENG Tony Book	Became general manager	31 May 1979	ENG Malcolm Allison	31 May 1979
Bolton Wanderers	ENG Ian Greaves	Sacked	28 January 1980	22nd	ENG Stan Anderson	28 January 1980

Maps

Arsenal Crystal Palace Tottenham

Arsenal Aston Villa Bolton Brighton & Hove Bristol City Coventry Crystal Palace Derby County Everton Ipswich Town Leeds United Liverpool Middlesbrough Manchester City Manchester United Norwich City Nottingham Forest Southampton Stoke Tottenham West Bromwich Albion Wolverhampton Wanderers

Second Division

Sunderland Birmingham City Burnley Charlton Athletic (28 goals) (27 October 1979) (1 January 1980) Charlton Athletic 0–4 Sunderland (15 March 1980) (10 November 1979) Leicester City won the Second Division title for a record sixth time to reclaim their First Division status after a two-year exile. Birmingham City achieved an instant return to the elite in third place, while the final promotion place went to Sunderland.

Chelsea missed out on promotion on goal difference, while QPR weren't far behind. West Ham United's failure to win promotion at the second attempt was compensated for by victory in the FA Cup.

Charlton Athletic, Burnley and Fulham went down to the Third Division.

Results

Maps

Charlton Athletic Chelsea Fulham Orient Queens Park Rangers Watford West Ham

Birmingham Bristol Rovers Burnley Cambridge Utd Cardiff City Charlton Chelsea Fulham Leicester City Orient Luton Town Newcastle Notts County Oldham Preston North End QPR Shrewsbury Sunderland Swansea City Watford West Ham Wrexham

Third Division

Third Division Sheffield Wednesday Mansfield Town Southend United Wimbledon

Results

Maps

Brentford Millwall Wimbledon

Barnsley Blackburn Rovers Blackpool Brentford Bury Carlisle United Chester Chesterfield Colchester Exeter City Gillingham Grimsby Town Hull Mansfield Town Millwall Oxford Plymouth Argyle Reading Rotherham Sheffield United Sheffield Wednesday Southend Swindon Wimbledon

Fourth Division

Fourth Division Portsmouth Walsall

Results

Maps

Aldershot Bournemouth Bradford City Crewe Alexandra Darlington Doncaster Halifax Town Hartlepool Hereford United Huddersfield Lincoln City Newport County Northampton Town Peterborough Portsmouth Port Vale Rochdale Scunthorpe & Lindsey Stockport Torquay Tranmere York City Walsall Wigan Athletic

Election/Re-election to the Football League

Winners of the Alliance Premier League, Altrincham, won the right to apply for election to the Football League to replace one of the four bottom teams in the 1979–80 Football League Division Four. The vote went as follows:

Club	Final Position	Votes
Darlington	22nd (Division Four)	49
Crewe Alexandra	23rd (Division Four)	48
Hereford United	21st (Division Four)	48
Rochdale	24th (Division Four)	26
Altrincham	1st (Alliance Premier League)	25

As a result of this, all four Football League teams were re-elected, and Altrincham were denied membership of the League.

Attendances

Source:

Division One

No.	Club	Average	Highest	Lowest
1	Manchester United	51,608	58,348	43,329
2	Liverpool FC	44,586	52,201	36,415
3	Manchester City FC	35,272	50,067	27,664
4	Arsenal FC	33,596	55,561	18,869
5	Tottenham Hotspur FC	32,018	51,389	19,843
6	Crystal Palace FC	29,794	45,746	19,453
7	Everton FC	28,711	53,018	20,356
8	Aston Villa FC	27,976	41,160	15,319
9	Nottingham Forest FC	26,350	32,266	21,242
10	Wolverhampton Wanderers FC	25,731	36,693	15,807
11	Brighton & Hove Albion FC	24,745	29,690	18,361
12	Leeds United FC	22,788	39,779	14,967
13	West Bromwich Albion FC	22,418	34,993	11,655
14	Ipswich Town FC	21,620	30,229	16,878
15	Southampton FC	21,335	23,259	16,309
16	Stoke City FC	20,176	32,699	14,422
17	Derby County FC	19,904	27,783	15,381
18	Coventry City FC	19,315	31,644	14,310
19	Bristol City FC	18,932	28,305	12,013
20	Middlesbrough FC	18,739	30,587	11,789
21	Norwich City FC	17,225	25,418	11,657
22	Bolton Wanderers FC	16,353	31,902	8,995

Division Two

No.	Club	Average	Highest	Lowest
1	Sunderland AFC	27,119	47,129	19,456
2	Newcastle United FC	23,345	38,784	13,765
3	Chelsea FC	23,266	32,467	16,519
4	West Ham United FC	22,872	37,167	11,721
5	Birmingham City FC	20,427	33,863	13,997
6	Leicester City FC	18,636	26,075	12,877
7	Watford FC	15,462	25,502	11,589
8	Swansea City AFC	14,391	21,306	10,442
9	Queens Park Rangers FC	14,087	26,598	8,372
10	Luton Town FC	11,676	20,040	6,705
11	Wrexham AFC	10,090	15,601	4,357
12	Cardiff City FC	9,926	19,834	6,342
13	Preston North End FC	9,751	13,150	7,407
14	Notts County FC	8,818	14,849	5,505
15	Shrewsbury Town FC	8,782	14,801	5,670
16	Fulham FC	8,419	22,258	3,566
17	Burnley FC	8,118	16,634	5,353
18	Oldham Athletic FC	7,918	11,485	5,198
19	Bristol Rovers FC	7,399	14,176	4,596
20	Leyton Orient FC	7,245	23,883	3,781
21	Charlton Athletic FC	7,175	19,021	3,672
22	Cambridge United FC	6,127	8,863	4,423

Division Three

No.	Club	Average	Highest	Lowest
1	Sheffield Wednesday FC	18,289	49,309	10,753
2	Sheffield United FC	16,584	42,526	8,621
3	Barnsley FC	11,890	22,360	8,567
4	Grimsby Town FC	10,618	19,566	6,166
5	Blackburn Rovers FC	10,311	26,130	5,759
6	Swindon Town FC	8,902	16,658	6,318
7	Brentford FC	7,818	13,764	4,992
8	Chesterfield FC	7,760	14,950	4,126
9	Reading FC	6,713	10,194	5,166
10	Gillingham FC	6,131	8,769	3,479
11	Rotherham United FC	5,993	20,355	3,061
12	Hull City AFC	5,986	14,176	3,297
13	Millwall FC	5,918	7,940	3,997
14	Blackpool FC	5,818	10,392	3,302
15	Plymouth Argyle FC	5,776	10,214	4,095
16	Mansfield Town FC	5,467	16,019	2,973
17	Oxford United FC	4,832	9,645	2,848
18	Southend United FC	4,758	7,756	2,966
19	Exeter City FC	4,574	10,589	2,648
20	Carlisle United FC	4,406	6,297	3,267
21	Bury FC	4,239	13,360	2,443
22	Colchester United FC	3,816	6,135	2,346
23	Chester City FC	3,726	6,638	2,187
24	Wimbledon FC	3,426	6,009	1,759

Division Four

No.	Club	Average	Highest	Lowest
1	Portsmouth FC	15,850	23,691	11,430
2	Huddersfield Town AFC	8,714	17,233	3,134
3	Wigan Athletic FC	5,905	8,198	4,316
4	Bradford City AFC	5,744	10,509	3,668
5	Walsall FC	5,549	9,251	3,786
6	Newport County AFC	5,139	8,383	3,185
7	Doncaster Rovers FC	4,321	9,801	2,327
8	Peterborough United FC	4,135	5,371	2,641
9	AFC Bournemouth	3,924	14,114	2,335
10	Aldershot Town FC	3,859	11,989	2,057
11	Lincoln City FC	3,713	5,011	2,440
12	Port Vale FC	3,462	6,756	2,338
13	Hereford United FC	3,355	7,945	1,995
14	Torquay United FC	3,184	5,729	1,581
15	Northampton Town FC	3,024	10,713	1,852
16	Hartlepool United FC	2,915	5,959	1,706
17	Stockport County FC	2,911	5,369	1,789
18	Crewe Alexandra FC	2,745	5,632	1,909
19	York City FC	2,716	5,742	1,791
20	Halifax Town AFC	2,582	10,061	1,022
21	Scunthorpe United FC	2,266	4,640	1,586
22	Tranmere Rovers	2,246	3,550	1,214
23	Darlington FC	1,972	4,628	1,238
24	Rochdale AFC	1,926	4,979	958

References

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

References

"England 1979–80". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation.
"English League Leading Goalscorers".
https://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn/archive/eng/aveeng1980.htm

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