1986–87 Football League

Football League, Second Division
Season	1986–87
Champions	Derby County (4th title)
Promoted	Portsmouth
Relegated	Brighton & Hove Albion,; Grimsby Town,; Sunderland
Matches played	462
Goals scored	1,131 (2.45 per match)
Top goalscorer	Micky Quinn (Portsmouth), 22
	← 1985–86 1987–88 →

Football League, First Division
Season	1986–87
Champions	Everton (9th English title)
Relegated	Aston Villa,; Leicester City; Manchester City
FA Cup winners	Coventry City (1st FA Cup title)
1987–88 European Cup	No qualifications
Matches played	462
Goals scored	1,215 (2.63 per match)
Top goalscorer	Clive Allen (Tottenham Hotspur), 33
Biggest home win	Sheff Wed – QPR 7–1 (2 May 1987);; Nottingham Forest – Aston Villa 6–0 (20 Sept 1986)
Biggest away win	Chelsea – Nottingham Forest 2–6 (20 Sep 1986);; Aston Villa – Arsenal 0–4 (29 Nov 1986);; Chelsea – Wimbledon 0–4 (6 Dec 1986);; Newcastle – Everton 0–4 (26 Dec 1986);; Southampton – Arsenal 0–4 (15 Nov 1986)
Highest scoring	Sheff Wed – QPR 7–1 (2 May 1987);; Liverpool – Norwich City 6–2 (1 Nov 1986);; West Ham – Chelsea 5–3 (11 Oct 1986);; Chelsea – Nottingham Forest 2–6 (20 Sep 1986)
Longest winning run	Everton (7 games)
Longest unbeaten run	Arsenal (17 games)
Longest losing run	Newcastle United (6 games)
	← 1985–86 1987–88 →

The Football League
Season	1986–87
Champions	Everton
Relegated	Lincoln City
	← 1985–86 1987–88 →

The 1986–87 season was the 88th completed season of The Football League.

Play-offs to determine promotion places were introduced in 1987 so that more clubs remained eligible for promotion closer to the end of the season, and at the same time to aid in the reduction over two years of the number of clubs in the First Division from 22 to 20.

At the same time, automatic promotion and relegation between the Fourth Division and the Football Conference was introduced for one club, replacing the annual application for re-election to the League of the bottom four clubs and linking the League to the developing National League System pyramid.

Overview

The First Division

The First Division championship went to Everton in their final season under the management of Howard Kendall before his departure to Athletic Bilbao. To date, this remains Everton's last league title. His side overcame a spate of injuries to fight off competition from runners-up Liverpool and third-placed Tottenham. Fourth place went to George Graham’s emerging young Arsenal side who also won the League Cup in his first season in charge. Fifth place in the league went to newly promoted Norwich City, whose manager Ken Brown built a strong squad on a limited budget to achieve a finish which would have been enough to qualify for UEFA Cup had it not been for the ongoing ban on English clubs in European competitions.

Wimbledon finished sixth in the First Division in only their tenth season as a Football League club. Dave Bassett’s men had led the league for the first two weeks of September, but sixth place was still much higher than most pundits had tipped them for at the start of the season.

Aston Villa were relegated to the Second Division just five years after they won the European Cup. Chairman Doug Ellis had sensed from the start that 1986-87 would be a tough season for the club, so he axed manager Graham Turner in September and replaced him with Manchester City’s Billy McNeill. But McNeill was unable to stop the rot and Villa went down in bottom place. McNeill was subsequently sacked and replaced by Watford’s Graham Taylor.

Villa were joined on the way down by Manchester City and Leicester City. In the first season of the relegation/promotion play-offs, Charlton Athletic beat Second Division Leeds United to retain their top flight status.

Manchester United, whose blistering start to the previous season had ended in failure, started the 1986-87 season badly and entered November second from bottom in the league. Manager Ron Atkinson paid for these failings with his job and in came the Aberdeen manager Alex Ferguson to replace him. Ferguson rejuvenated United and they climbed up the table to finish in a secure 11th place.

The Second Division

Just two clubs were promoted from the Second Division this season. Champions Derby County were promoted for a second successive season; 12 seasons after they were last crowned champions of the First Division. Under the management of Arthur Cox they arrested an alarming slide which had seen them spend their centenary season (1984–85) in the 3rd Division. Runners-up spot went to Portsmouth, who were also automatically promoted.

The three playoff places were occupied by Oldham Athletic, Leeds United and Ipswich Town. Oldham and Ipswich blew their chances in the semi-finals, while Leeds were defeated by Charlton in the final to miss out on promotion — an FA Cup semi-final defeat had ended their chances of success in the cup competitions.

The relegation/promotion play-offs which operated between the Second and Third Divisions saw Sunderland go down to the Third Division for the first time in their history after losing to Gillingham in the promotion-relegation play-offs. Gillingham were subsequently defeated in a play-off final replay that saw Swindon Town promoted to the second tier. Lawrie McMenemy was sacked by the Rokerites at the end of March and Bob Stokoe, manager of the 1973 FA Cup winning team, was brought in as his successor, but was unable to keep Sunderland clear of the drop. Brighton and Grimsby were automatically relegated to the Third Division.

The Third Division

The three promotion places in this division were gained by three clubs who were among the least fancied promotion contenders at the start of the season. Champions Bournemouth were promoted to the Second Division for the first time in their history thanks to the efforts of hard working manager Harry Redknapp. Runners-up spot went to Bruce Rioch’s Middlesbrough, who had begun the season on the verge of extinction and had been forced to play their first home game of the season at Hartlepool’s ground because the official receiver had locked them out of Ayresome Park.

The relegation/promotion play-offs between the Third and Fourth Divisions saw Bolton Wanderers go down to the bottom division for the first time. Carlisle, Darlington and Newport County were also relegated.

The Fourth Division

The stars of the Fourth Division during 1986-87 were Graham Carr’s runaway champions Northampton Town, with young midfielder Eddie McGoldrick being the key player in his side’s season of success. Also automatically promoted were Preston and Southend with Aldershot winning the promotion/relegation playoffs.

Down at the bottom end of the division, an injury time winner for Torquay United kept them in the Football League after a police dog had bitten one of their players. The introduction of automatic relegation to the Conference saw Lincoln City lose their league status in favour of Conference champions Scarborough.

1986-87 saw many famous clubs reach their lowest ebb throughout the league. In the Fourth Division it was Burnley — league champions 27 years earlier — who plummeted to new depths. They finished third from bottom in the league and only a win on the last day of the season prevented them from going down to the Conference.

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.

As of this season, there were no more re-election procedures, but instead, the club finishing last in the Fourth Division was demoted to Conference. The first casualty of this new practice were Lincoln City.

First Division

No European qualification took place due to the Heysel Stadium disaster suspension in place.

Everton finished as champions for the second time in three seasons. Liverpool finished runners-up and were also runners-up in the Football League Cup to fourth-placed Arsenal, who won their first major trophy for eight years. Tottenham Hotspur finished third and failed to win any trophies despite being in strong contention for all three domestic trophies, reaching the semi-finals of the Football League Cup and the final of the FA Cup. Newly-promoted Norwich City completed the top five.

Aston Villa, who had been league champions in 1981 and European Cup winners in 1982, finished the season relegated in bottom place. Going down with them were Manchester City and Leicester City. Charlton Athletic survived their first top division season in 30 years by defeating Second Division Leeds United in the playoffs.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	F	A	GD	Pts	Notes
1	Everton	42	16	4	1	49	11	10	4	7	27	20	76	31	+45	86	Excluded from the 1987–88 European Cup^{[notes 1]}
2	Liverpool	42	15	3	3	43	16	8	5	8	29	26	72	42	+30	77	Excluded from the 1987–88 UEFA Cup^{[notes 1]}
3	Tottenham Hotspur	42	14	3	4	40	14	7	5	9	28	29	68	43	+25	71	Excluded from the 1987–88 UEFA Cup^{[notes 1]}
4	Arsenal	42	12	5	4	31	12	8	5	8	27	23	58	35	+23	70	Excluded from the 1987–88 UEFA Cup^{[notes 1]}
5	Norwich City	42	9	10	2	27	20	8	7	6	26	31	53	51	+2	68
6	Wimbledon	42	11	5	5	32	22	8	4	9	25	28	57	50	+7	66
7	Luton Town	42	14	5	2	29	13	4	7	10	18	32	47	45	+2	66
8	Nottingham Forest	42	12	8	1	36	14	6	3	12	28	37	64	51	+13	65
9	Watford	42	12	5	4	38	20	6	4	11	29	34	67	54	+13	63
10	Coventry City	42	14	4	3	35	17	3	8	10	15	28	50	45	+5	63	Excluded from the 1987–88 European Cup Winners' Cup^{[notes 1]}
11	Manchester United	42	13	3	5	38	18	1	11	9	14	27	52	45	+7	56
12	Southampton	42	11	5	5	44	24	3	5	13	25	44	69	68	+1	52
13	Sheffield Wednesday	42	9	7	5	39	24	4	6	11	19	35	58	59	–1	52
14	Chelsea	42	8	6	7	30	30	5	7	9	23	34	53	64	–11	52
15	West Ham United	42	10	4	7	33	28	4	6	11	19	39	52	67	–15	52
16	Queens Park Rangers	42	9	7	5	31	27	4	4	13	17	37	48	64	–16	50
17	Newcastle United	42	10	4	7	33	29	2	7	12	14	36	47	65	–18	47
18	Oxford United	42	8	8	5	30	25	3	5	13	14	44	44	69	–25	46
19	Charlton Athletic	42	7	7	7	26	22	4	4	13	19	33	45	55	–10	44	^{[notes 2]}
20	Leicester City	42	9	7	5	39	24	2	2	17	15	52	54	76	–22	42
21	Manchester City	42	8	6	7	28	24	0	9	12	8	33	36	57	–21	39
22	Aston Villa	42	7	7	7	25	25	1	5	15	20	54	45	79	–34	36

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

^ All English teams were banned by UEFA from its competitions from the season 1985–86 on until the season 1990–91 because of the Heysel Disaster in 1985
^ Charlton Athletic were able to retain their place in the 1st Division through play-offs.

Key
	League Champions, excluded from the European Cup
	FA Cup Winners, but excluded from the Cup Winners' Cup
	UEFA Cup spot, but excluded
	League Cup winners, excluded from UEFA Cup
	Into play-offs
	Relegated

Second Division play-offs

Both the semifinals and the finals were decided over two legs.
The full results can be found at: Football League Division Two play-offs 1987.

Semi-finals 1st leg –14 May; 2nd leg –17 May 1987					Finals 1st leg –23 May; 2nd leg –25 May 1987

19th	Charlton Athletic (Div 1)	0	2	2

5th	Ipswich Town	0	1	1
					19th	Charlton Athletic (Div 1)	1	0	1

					4th	Leeds United	0	1	1
3rd	Oldham Athletic	0	2	2

4th	Leeds United ^{[notes2 1]}	1	1	2

^ Leeds United won on away goals.

Replay

29 May 1987

Leeds United	1 –2 (a.e.t.)	Charlton Athletic (Div 1)
	Report/Soccerbase [1]

St. Andrews, Birmingham

Attendance: 18,000

Charlton Athletic remained in the First Division and Leeds United in the Second Division.

First Division results

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	F	A	GD	Pts	Notes
1	Bournemouth	46	19	3	1	44	14	10	7	6	32	26	76	40	+36	97
2	Middlesbrough	46	16	5	2	38	11	12	5	6	29	19	67	30	+37	94
3	Swindon Town	46	14	5	4	37	19	11	7	5	40	28	77	47	+30	87	^{[notes5 1]}
4	Wigan Athletic	46	15	5	3	47	26	10	5	8	36	34	83	60	+23	85
5	Gillingham	46	16	5	2	42	14	7	4	12	23	34	65	48	+17	78
6	Bristol City	46	14	6	3	42	15	7	8	8	21	21	63	36	+27	77
7	Notts County	46	14	6	3	52	24	7	7	9	25	32	77	56	+21	76
8	Walsall	46	16	4	3	50	27	6	5	12	30	40	80	67	+13	75
9	Blackpool	46	11	7	5	35	20	5	9	9	39	39	74	59	+15	64
10	Mansfield Town	46	9	9	5	30	23	6	7	10	22	32	52	55	–3	61
11	Brentford	46	9	7	7	39	32	6	8	9	25	34	64	66	–2	60
12	Port Vale	46	8	6	9	43	36	7	6	10	33	34	76	70	+6	57
13	Doncaster Rovers	46	11	8	4	32	19	3	7	13	24	43	56	62	–6	57
14	Rotherham United	46	10	6	7	29	23	5	6	12	19	34	48	57	–9	57
15	Chester City	46	7	9	7	32	28	6	8	9	29	31	61	59	+2	56
16	Bury	46	9	7	7	30	26	5	6	12	24	34	54	60	–6	55
17	Chesterfield	46	11	5	7	36	33	2	10	11	20	36	56	69	–13	54
18	Fulham	46	8	8	7	35	41	4	9	10	24	36	59	77	–18	53
19	Bristol Rovers	46	7	8	8	26	29	6	4	13	23	46	49	75	–26	51
20	York City	46	11	8	4	34	29	1	5	17	21	50	55	79	–24	49
21	Bolton Wanderers	46	8	5	10	29	26	2	10	11	17	32	46	58	–12	45	^{[notes5 2]}
22	Carlisle United	46	7	5	11	26	35	3	3	17	13	43	39	78	–39	38
23	Darlington	46	6	10	7	25	28	1	6	16	20	49	45	77	–32	37
24	Newport County	46	4	9	10	26	34	4	4	15	23	52	49	86	–37	37

Overview

The First Division

The Second Division

The Third Division

The Fourth Division

Final league tables and results

First Division

Second Division play-offs

First Division results

First Division maps

Second Division

Third Division play-offs

Second Division results

Second Division maps

Third Division

Fourth Division play-offs

Third Division maps

Fourth Division

Fourth Division maps

See also

References