1971-72 in English football
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "1971-72_in_English_football".

The 1971-72 season was the 92nd season of competitive football in England.

content

Contents

Overview

First Division

Brian Clough, 37, won the first major trophy of his managerial career by guiding Derby County to their first ever league championship. They overcame Leeds United to win a four-horse race also contested with Liverpool and Manchester City. There were later bribery allegations from The Sun newspaper regarding Leeds manager Don Revie and Leeds' final opponents Wolverhampton Wanderers. The footballing authorities never investigated these allegations to decide whether they were true or not.

Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield Town lost their First Division status. By the end of the decade, Forest had made an explosive comeback to the top flight. 1971-72 was Huddersfield's last season in the top flight to date, and within a few seasons they would be in the Fourth Division - most of their existence since 1972 has been spent in the league's lower two divisions.

Second Division

Norwich City and Birmingham City were promoted. This marked the first time that Norwich City reached the top flight in their history, less than 70 years after the club was founded. Charlton Athletic and Watford were relegated.

Third Division

Aston Villa ended their two-year spell in the Third Division by gaining promotion as champions, and by the end of the decade would be firmly re-established as a First Division club. Brighton & Hove Albion followed Villa into the Second Division, but would not reach the heady heights that the midlanders would experience. Mansfield Town, Barnsley, Torquay United and Bradford City were relegated.

Fourth Division

Grimsby Town, Southend United, Brentford and Scunthorpe United were promoted. Barrow were voted out of the Football League and replaced by Hereford United, who a short time earlier had achieved a shock FA Cup victory over Newcastle United.

Ernie Tagg sacked himself as manager of Crewe Alexandra because he felt that a younger manager should take charge of the club.

FA Cup

Leeds United overcame holders Arsenal to win the FA Cup. Allan Clarke got the solitary goal.

Birmingham City beat Stoke City 5-4 on penalties after a 0-0 draw at The Hawthorns in a third-place playoff, held three months after the final.

League Cup

Stoke City won the League Cup to claim the only major trophy in their history so far.

Star players

Star managers

National team

England were eliminated from Euro 72 in the quarter finals after losing 3-1 on aggregate over two legs (1-3 at Wembley and 0-0 in West Berlin) to West Germany, who went on to win the tournament.

Honours

Competition Winner Runner-up
First Division Derby County Leeds United
Second Division Norwich City Birmingham City
Third Division Aston Villa Brighton & Hove Albion
Fourth Division Grimsby Town Southend United
FA Cup Leeds United Arsenal
League Cup Stoke City Chelsea
Charity Shield Leicester City Liverpool
Home Championship Shared by  England and  Scotland

League table

First Division

P W D L F A GA Pts
1 Derby County 42 24 10 8 69 33 2.091 58
2 Leeds United 42 24 9 9 73 31 2.355 57
3 Liverpool 42 24 9 9 64 30 2.133 57
4 Manchester City 42 23 11 8 77 45 1.711 57
5 Arsenal 42 22 8 12 58 40 1.450 52
6 Tottenham Hotspur 42 19 13 10 63 42 1.500 51
7 Chelsea 42 18 12 12 58 49 1.184 48
8 Manchester United 42 19 10 13 69 61 1.131 48
9 Wolverhampton Wanderers 42 18 11 13 65 57 1.140 47
10 Sheffield United 42 17 12 13 61 60 1.017 46
11 Newcastle United 42 15 11 16 49 52 0.942 41
12 Leicester City 42 13 13 16 41 46 0.891 39
13 Ipswich Town 42 11 16 15 39 53 0.736 38
14 West Ham United 42 12 12 18 47 51 0.922 36
15 Everton 42 9 18 15 37 48 0.771 36
16 West Bromwich Albion 42 12 11 19 42 54 0.778 35
17 Stoke City 42 10 15 17 39 56 0.696 35
18 Coventry City 42 9 15 18 44 67 0.657 33
19 Southampton 42 12 7 23 52 80 0.650 31
20 Crystal Palace 42 8 13 21 39 65 0.600 29
21 Nottingham Forest 42 8 9 25 47 81 0.580 25
22 Huddersfield Town 42 6 13 23 27 59 0.458 25

Second Division

P W D L F A GA Pts
1 Norwich City 42 21 15 6 60 36 1.667 57
2 Birmingham City 42 19 18 5 60 31 1.935 56
3 Millwall 42 19 17 6 64 46 1.391 55
4 Queens Park Rangers 42 20 14 8 57 28 2.036 54
5 Sunderland 42 17 16 9 67 57 1.175 50
6 Blackpool 42 20 7 15 70 50 1.400 47
7 Burnley 42 20 6 16 70 55 1.273 46
8 Bristol City 42 18 10 14 61 49 1.245 46
9 Middlesbrough 42 19 8 15 50 48 1.042 46
10 Carlisle United 42 17 9 16 61 57 1.070 43
11 Swindon Town 42 15 12 15 47 47 1.000 42
12 Hull City 42 14 10 18 49 53 0.925 38
13 Luton Town 42 10 18 14 43 48 0.896 38
14 Sheffield Wednesday 42 13 12 17 51 58 0.879 38
15 Oxford United 42 12 14 16 43 55 0.782 38
16 Portsmouth 42 12 13 17 59 68 0.868 37
17 Orient 42 14 9 19 50 61 0.820 37
18 Preston North End 42 12 12 18 52 58 0.897 36
19 Cardiff City 42 10 14 18 56 69 0.812 34
20 Fulham 42 12 10 20 45 68 0.662 34
21 Charlton Athletic 42 12 9 21 55 77 0.714 33
22 Watford 42 5 9 28 24 75 0.320 19

Third Division

P W D L F A GA Pts
1 Aston Villa 46 32 6 8 85 32 2.656 70
2 Brighton & Hove Albion 46 27 11 8 82 47 1.745 65
3 Bournemouth 46 23 16 7 73 37 1.973 62
4 Notts County 46 25 12 9 74 44 1.682 62
5 Rotherham United 46 20 15 11 69 52 1.327 55
6 Bristol Rovers 46 21 12 13 75 56 1.339 54
7 Bolton Wanderers 46 17 16 13 51 41 1.244 50
8 Plymouth Argyle 46 20 10 16 74 64 1.156 50
9 Walsall 46 15 18 13 62 57 1.088 48
10 Blackburn Rovers 46 19 9 18 54 57 0.947 47
11 Oldham Athletic 46 17 11 18 59 63 0.937 45
12 Shrewsbury Town 46 17 10 19 73 65 1.123 44
13 Chesterfield 46 18 8 20 57 57 1.000 44
14 Swansea City 46 17 10 19 46 59 0.780 44
15 Port Vale 46 13 15 18 43 59 0.729 41
16 Wrexham 46 16 8 22 59 63 0.937 40
17 Halifax Town 46 13 12 21 48 61 0.787 38
18 Rochdale 46 12 13 21 57 83 0.687 37
19 York City 46 12 12 22 57 66 0.864 36
20 Tranmere Rovers 46 10 16 20 50 71 0.704 36
21 Mansfield Town 46 8 20 18 41 63 0.651 36
22 Barnsley 46 9 18 19 32 64 0.500 36
23 Torquay United 46 10 12 24 41 69 0.594 32
24 Bradford City 46 11 10 25 45 77 0.584 32

Fourth Division

P W D L F A GA Pts
1 Grimsby Town 46 28 7 11 88 56 1.571 63
2 Southend United 46 24 12 10 81 55 1.473 60
3 Brentford 46 24 11 11 76 44 1.727 59
4 Scunthorpe United 46 22 13 11 56 37 1.514 57
5 Lincoln City 46 21 14 11 77 59 1.305 56
6 Workington 46 16 19 11 50 34 1.471 51
7 Southport 46 18 14 14 66 46 1.435 50
8 Peterborough United 46 17 16 13 82 64 1.281 50
9 Bury 46 19 12 15 73 59 1.237 50
10 Cambridge United 46 17 14 15 62 60 1.033 48
11 Colchester United 46 19 10 17 70 69 1.014 48
12 Doncaster Rovers 46 16 14 16 56 63 0.889 46
13 Gillingham 46 16 13 17 61 67 0.910 45
14 Newport County 46 18 8 20 60 72 0.833 44
15 Exeter City 46 16 11 19 61 68 0.897 43
16 Reading 46 17 8 21 56 76 0.737 42
17 Aldershot 46 9 22 15 48 54 0.889 40
18 Hartlepool 46 17 6 23 58 69 0.841 40
19 Darlington 46 14 11 21 64 82 0.780 39
20 Chester City 46 10 18 18 47 56 0.839 38
21 Northampton Town 46 12 13 21 66 79 0.835 37
22 Barrow 46 13 11 22 40 71 0.563 37
23 Stockport County 46 9 14 23 55 87 0.632 32
24 Crewe Alexandra 46 10 9 27 43 69 0.623 29

P = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GA = Goal average; Pts = Points


1967–68 | 1968–69 | 1969–70 | 1970–71 | 1971–72 | 1972–73 | 1973–74 | 1974–75 | 1975–76
Football in England Flag of England
v • d • e
League competitions The FA Cup competitions
Premier League England (B) (C) FA Cup
The Football League (Champ, 1, 2) (U-21) (U-20) (U-19) Football League Cup
Football Conference (Nat, N, S) (U-18) (U-17) (U-16) FA Community Shield
Northern Premier (Prem, 1N, 1S) List of clubs Football League Trophy
Southern League (Prem, 1Mid, 1S&W) List of venues FA Trophy
Isthmian League (Prem, 1N, 1S) (by capacity) Conference League Cup
English football league system List of leagues FA Vase
Records FA NLS Cup
Foreign players
© jGames.co.uk 2007 (some content from Wikipedia under GDL ) !-- ValueClick Media 468x60 and 728x90 Banner CODE for jgames.co.uk -->
Your Ad Here