1992–93 Football League

Football League, Second Division
Season	1992–93
Champions	Stoke City (3rd third tier title)
Direct promotion	Stoke City,; Bolton Wanderers
Promoted through play-offs	West Bromwich Albion
Relegated	Chester,; Mansfield Town,; Preston North End,; Wigan Athletic
Matches played	552
Goals scored	1,479 (2.68 per match)
Top goalscorer	Bob Taylor (West Bromwich Albion), 30
	← 1991–92 1993–94 →

Football League, First Division
Season	1992–93
Champions	Newcastle United (2nd second tier title)
Direct promotion to FA Premier League	Newcastle United,; West Ham United
Promoted to FA Premier League through play-offs	Swindon Town
Relegated	Brentford,; Bristol Rovers,; Cambridge United
Matches played	552
Goals scored	1,449 (2.63 per match)
Top goalscorer	Guy Whittingham (Portsmouth), 42
	← 1991–92 1993–94 →

The Football League
Season	1992–93
Champions	Newcastle United
Promoted	Newcastle United; West Ham United; Swindon Town
Relegated	Halifax Town
	← 1991–92 1993–94 →

The 1992–1993 season was the 93rd completed season of The Football League.

This season saw the birth of the FA Premier League. This meant a break-up of the 104-year-old Football League that had operated until then with four divisions.

In 1992 all of the First Division Clubs resigned from the football league and, on 27 May 1992, the FA Premier League was formed as a limited company, which worked out of an office at the then Football Association’s headquarters, Lancaster Gate.

The three divisions which remained in the Football League were renamed. The old Division Two was now called Division One. The old Division Three was now called Division Two, and the old Division Four was now Division Three. The league was sponsored this season by Barclays.

Football League Division One

Newcastle United’s first full season under the management of Kevin Keegan ended in Division One championship glory and promotion to the Premiership, where they remained for 16 seasons until relegation at the end of the 2008–09 season. Following the Geordies into football’s big-money league were West Ham United and Swindon Town. West Ham had suffered relegation just one season earlier, and had been many people’s favourites for an automatic return to the elite. Swindon, meanwhile, had finally reached the top flight after 73 years of trying — they had actually won promotion via the play-offs three years earlier, but promotion had been denied a few weeks later due to financial irregularities.

Going down were Cambridge United (who had just missed out on promotion a year earlier and are now in the Conference), Brentford and Bristol Rovers. Brentford, newly promoted a season earlier, had stood in 10th place at the turn of 1993, but a sharp decline in form during the final few months of the season saw them relegated on the final day of the season.

Third-placed Portsmouth had opened up a 9-point gap over fourth-placed Tranmere Rovers, but lost to Leicester City in the playoff semi-finals and this ended any promotion hopes for a club who had begun the season as favourites for promotion, and ended it with 88 points.

Football League Division Two

Lou Macari guided Stoke City to their first successful season in years as they were crowned Division Two champions. Bruce Rioch brought some long-awaited success to Bolton Wanderers as they occupied the division’s second promotion place. Osvaldo Ardiles guided West Bromwich Albion to promotion via the play-offs, bringing some long-awaited success to another club who had once enjoyed better times.

Preston North End, Wigan Athletic, Mansfield Town and Chester City occupied Division Two’s four relegation places. Mansfield were newly promoted, while the other three teams had been established at this level for no less than six years.

Football League Division Three

Cardiff City and Wrexham continued their good progress by occupying Division Three’s top two places. They were joined in third place by Barnet, who had spent most of the season on the brink of expulsion from the league due to financial problems. The final promotion place went to York City, who won the play-offs just weeks after Alan Little was appointed manager.

Halifax Town, after 72 years of league membership, finished bottom of the league and were replaced by Conference champions Wycombe Wanderers. Maidstone United went out of business on 17 August after their first game was postponed, and were not replaced.

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,^[1] with home and away statistics separated. Play-off results are from the same website.

First Division

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Newcastle United	46	16	6	1	58	15	13	3	7	34	23	92	38	+44	96
2	West Ham United	46	16	5	2	50	17	10	5	8	31	24	81	41	+40	88
3	Portsmouth	46	19	2	2	48	9	7	8	8	32	37	80	46	+34	88
4	Tranmere Rovers	46	15	4	4	48	24	8	6	9	24	32	72	56	+16	79
5	Swindon Town	46	15	5	3	41	23	6	8	9	33	36	74	59	+15	76
6	Leicester City	46	14	5	4	43	24	8	5	10	28	40	71	64	+7	76
7	Millwall	46	14	6	3	46	21	4	10	9	19	32	65	53	+12	70
8	Derby County	46	11	2	10	40	33	8	7	8	28	24	68	57	+11	66
9	Grimsby Town	46	12	6	5	33	25	7	1	15	25	32	58	57	+1	64
10	Peterborough United	46	7	11	5	30	26	9	3	11	25	37	55	63	– 8	62
11	Wolverhampton Wanderers	46	11	6	6	37	26	5	7	11	20	30	57	56	+1	61
12	Charlton Athletic	46	10	8	5	28	19	6	5	12	21	27	49	46	+3	61
13	Barnsley	46	12	4	7	29	19	5	5	13	27	41	56	60	– 4	60
14	Oxford United	46	8	7	8	29	21	6	7	10	24	35	53	56	– 3	56
15	Bristol City	46	10	7	6	29	25	4	7	12	20	42	49	67	– 18	56
16	Watford	46	8	7	8	27	30	6	6	11	30	41	57	71	– 14	55
17	Notts County	46	10	7	6	33	21	2	9	12	22	49	55	70	– 15	52
18	Southend United	46	9	8	6	33	22	4	5	14	21	42	54	64	– 10	52
19	Birmingham City	46	10	4	9	30	32	3	8	12	20	40	50	72	– 22	51
20	Luton Town	46	6	13	4	26	26	4	8	11	22	36	48	62	– 14	51
21	Sunderland	46	9	6	8	34	28	4	5	14	16	36	50	64	– 14	50
22	Brentford	46	7	6	10	28	30	6	4	13	24	41	52	71	– 19	49
23	Cambridge United	46	8	6	9	29	32	3	10	10	19	37	48	69	– 21	49
24	Bristol Rovers	46	6	6	11	30	42	4	5	14	25	45	55	87	– 32	41

Pld = Matches ; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points

Key
	Football League Champions, promoted to FA Premier League
	Promoted to FA Premier League
	Participated in play-offs
	Promoted to Premier League through play-offs
	Relegated

^[1]

First Division results

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Semifinals 1st leg – 16 May; 2nd leg – 19 May 1993			Final at Wembley 31 May 1993

3rd	Portsmouth	0

6th	Leicester City	1
			5th	Swindon Town	4

			6th	Leicester City	3
4th	Tranmere Rovers	1

5th	Swindon Town	3

Semifinals 1st leg – 16 May; 2nd leg – 19 May 1993			Final at Wembley Stadium 30 May 1993

3rd	Port Vale	1

6th	Stockport County	1
			3rd	Port Vale	0

			4th	West Bromwich Albion	3
4th	West Bromwich Albion	1

5th	Swansea City	2

Semifinals 1st leg – 16 May; 2nd leg – 19 May 1993			Final at Wembley Stadium 29 May 1993

4th	York City	0

7th	Bury	0
			4th	York City (pens.)	1 (5)

			6th	Crewe Alexandra	1 (3)
5th	Walsall	1

6th	Crewe Alexandra	5

Final league tables and results

First Division results

First Division maps

Second Division results

Second Division maps

Third Division results

Third Division maps

See also

References