2007–08 Football League Championship

Football League Championship
Season 2007–08
Promoted West Bromwich Albion (champions)
Stoke City (runners up)
Hull City (play-off winners)
Relegated Leicester City
Colchester United
Scunthorpe United
Goals scored 1,394
Average goals/game 2.53
Top goalscorer Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (23)
Biggest home win Ipswich Town 6–0 Bristol City
(2007-11-10)
Highest attendance 36,208
Sheffield Wednesday v Norwich City
Average attendance 17,067[1]

The 2007–08 Football League Championship (known as the Coca-Cola Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the sixteenth season under its current league division format and its fourth with its current sponsorship. The leagues started in August 2007 and concluded in May 2008, with the promotion play-off finals.

The Football League is contested through three Divisions. The top divisions of these is the League Championship. The winner and the runner up of the League Championship will be automatically promoted to the Premiership and they will be joined by the winner of the League Championship play-off. The bottom three teams in the Championship will be relegated to the second division, League One.

West Bromwich Albion finished top of the league with 81 points, closely followed by Stoke City who had 79 points. Hull City were promoted through the play-offs. Colchester and Scunthorpe United were both relegated several weeks before the end of the season. However, in a very tight league, with a gap of only 29 points between top and 22nd place, the final team to be relegated, Leicester City, went down on the final day while six other teams were within three points of them, despite the fact that only Crystal Palace had conceded less goals.

Changes from last season

From Championship

Promoted to Premier League

Relegated to League One

To Championship

Relegated from Premier League

Promoted from League One

League table

Pos
Team
Pld
W
D
L
GF
GA
GD
Pts
Promotion or relegation
1 West Bromwich Albion (C) (P) 46 23 12 11 88 55+33 81 Promotion to Premier League
2 Stoke City (P) 46 21 16 9 69 55+14 79
3 Hull City (P) 46 21 12 13 65 47+18 75 Qualification to League Championship playoffs
4 Bristol City 46 20 14 12 54 53+1 74
5 Crystal Palace 46 18 17 11 58 42+16 71
6 Watford 46 18 16 12 62 56+6 70
7 Wolverhampton Wanderers 46 18 16 12 53 48+5 70
8 Ipswich Town 46 18 15 13 65 56+9 69
9 Sheffield United 46 17 15 14 56 51+5 66
10 Plymouth Argyle 46 17 13 16 60 50+10 64
11 Charlton Athletic 46 17 13 16 63 58+5 64
12 Cardiff City 46 16 16 14 59 55+4 64
13 Burnley 46 16 14 16 60 677 62
14 Queens Park Rangers 46 14 16 16 60 666 58
15 Preston North End 46 15 11 20 50 566 56
16 Sheffield Wednesday 46 14 13 19 54 551 55
17 Norwich City 46 15 10 21 49 5910 55
18 Barnsley 46 14 13 19 52 6513 55
19 Blackpool 46 12 18 16 59 645 54
20 Southampton 46 13 15 18 56 7216 54
21 Coventry City 46 14 11 21 52 6412 53
22 Leicester City (R) 46 12 16 18 42 453 52 Relegation to League One
23 Scunthorpe United (R) 46 11 13 22 46 6923 46
24 Colchester United (R) 46 7 17 22 62 8624 38

Updated to games played on 4 May 2008.
Source: The Football League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.

Play-offs

The Football League Championship Playoffs took place at the end of May 2008. They involved the teams that finished third to sixth in the table. Hull (3rd) and Bristol City (4th) qualified from their semi-finals against Watford (6th) and Crystal Palace (5th) respectively over two legs. Hull City won the final with a single Dean Windass goal to win promotion to the Premier League.

  Semifinals Final
                     
3 Hull City 2 4 6  
6 Watford 0 1 1  
    3 Hull City 1
  4 Bristol City 0
4 Bristol City 2 2 4
5 Crystal Palace 1 1 2  

Results

Home ╲ Away BAR BLP BRIBURCARCHACOLCOVCRYHULIPSLEINORPLYPNEQPRSCUSHUSHWSOUSTKWATWBAWOL
Barnsley 21 30 11 11 30 10 14 00 13 41 01 13 32 10 00 20 01 00 22 33 32 21 10
Blackpool 11 11 30 01 53 22 40 11 21 11 21 13 00 00 10 10 22 21 22 23 11 13 00
Bristol City 32 10 22 10 01 11 21 11 21 20 02 21 12 30 22 21 20 21 21 10 00 11 00
Burnley 21 22 01 33 10 11 20 11 01 22 11 21 10 23 02 20 12 11 23 00 22 21 13
Cardiff City 30 31 21 21 02 41 01 11 10 10 01 12 10 22 31 11 10 10 10 01 12 00 23
Charlton Athletic 11 41 11 13 30 12 41 20 11 31 20 20 12 12 01 11 03 32 11 10 22 11 23
Colchester United 22 02 12 23 11 22 15 12 13 20 11 11 11 21 42 01 22 12 11 01 23 32 01
Coventry City 40 31 03 12 00 11 10 02 11 21 20 10 31 21 00 11 01 00 11 12 03 04 11
Crystal Palace 20 00 20 50 00 01 21 11 11 01 22 11 21 21 11 20 32 21 11 13 02 11 02
Hull City 30 22 00 20 22 12 11 10 21 31 20 21 23 30 11 20 11 10 50 11 30 13 20
Ipswich Town 00 21 60 00 11 20 31 41 10 10 31 21 00 21 00 32 11 41 20 11 12 20 30
Leicester City 20 01 00 01 00 11 11 20 10 02 20 40 01 01 11 10 01 13 12 11 41 12 00
Norwich City 10 12 13 20 12 11 51 20 10 11 22 00 21 10 30 00 10 01 21 01 13 12 11
Plymouth Argyle 30 30 11 31 22 12 41 10 10 01 11 00 30 22 21 30 01 12 11 22 11 12 11
Preston North End 12 01 00 21 12 02 03 10 01 30 22 11 00 20 00 01 31 10 51 20 10 21 21
Queens Park Rangers 20 32 30 24 02 10 21 12 12 20 11 31 10 02 22 31 11 00 03 30 11 02 00
Scunthorpe United 22 11 01 20 32 10 33 21 00 12 12 00 01 10 21 22 32 11 11 23 13 23 02
Sheffield United 10 11 21 00 33 02 22 21 01 20 31 30 20 01 11 21 00 22 12 03 11 10 31
Sheffield Wednesday 10 21 01 02 10 00 12 11 22 10 12 02 41 11 21 21 12 20 50 11 01 01 13
Southampton 23 10 20 01 10 01 11 00 14 40 11 10 01 02 01 23 10 32 00 32 03 32 00
Stoke City 00 11 21 11 21 21 21 13 12 11 10 00 21 32 31 31 32 01 24 32 00 31 00
Watford 13 11 12 12 22 11 22 21 02 10 20 10 11 01 00 24 01 10 21 32 00 03 30
West Brom 20 21 41 21 33 42 43 24 11 12 40 14 20 30 20 51 50 00 11 11 11 11 00
Wolverhampton Wanderers 10 21 11 23 30 20 10 10 03 01 11 11 20 10 10 33 21 00 21 22 24 12 01

Source: The Football League
1 ^ The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Top scorers

PosPlayerTeamGoals
1 Sylvan Ebanks-BlakePlymouth Argyle
Wolverhampton Wanderers
23
2 James BeattieSheffield United22
Kevin PhillipsWest Bromwich Albion22
4 Stern JohnSouthampton19
5 Kevin LisbieColchester United17
6 Clinton MorrisonCrystal Palace16
7 Fraizer CampbellHull City15
Ricardo FullerStoke City15
9 Liam LawrenceStoke City14

Team of the Year

Pos.PlayerClub
GK Wayne Hennessey Wolverhampton Wanderers
DF Bradley Orr Bristol City
DF Danny Shittu Watford
DF Paul Robinson West Bromwich Albion
DF Ryan Shawcross Stoke City
MF Brian Howard Barnsley
MF Marvin Elliott Bristol City
MF Liam Lawrence Stoke City
MF Jonathan Greening West Bromwich Albion
ST Ricardo Fuller Stoke City
ST Kevin Phillips West Bromwich Albion

Stadia

Team Stadium Capacity
Sheffield Wednesday Hillsborough Stadium 39,814
Southampton St Mary's Stadium 32,689
Coventry City Ricoh Arena 32,609
Sheffield United Bramall Lane 32,609
Leicester City Walkers Stadium 32,500
Ipswich Town Portman Road 30,311
Wolverhampton Wanderers Molineux Stadium 28,525
Stoke City Britannia Stadium 28,383
West Brom The Hawthorns 28,003
Charlton Athletic The Valley 27,111
Crystal Palace Selhurst Park 26,309
Norwich City Carrow Road 26,034
Hull City KC Stadium 25,404
Preston North End Deepdale 24,500
Barnsley Oakwell 23,009
Burnley Turf Moor 22,546
Cardiff City Ninian Park 22,008
Bristol City Ashton Gate 21,497
Watford Vicarage Road 19,920
Plymouth Argyle Home Park 19,500
Queens Park Rangers Loftus Road 19,128
Blackpool Bloomfield Road 9,788
Scunthorpe United Glanford Park 9,183
Colchester United Layer Road 6,320

Managerial changes

Team Outgoing manager Manner of departure Date of vacancy Replaced by Date of appointment Position in table
Crystal Palace Peter Taylor Contract terminated 8 October 2007[2] Neil Warnock 11 October 2007[3] 19th
Leicester City Martin Allen Mutual consent 29 August 2007[4] Gary Megson 13 September 2007[5] 9th
Queens Park Rangers John Gregory Contract terminated 1 October 2007[6] Luigi De Canio 29 October 2007[7] 24th
Norwich City Peter Grant Mutual consent 8 October 2007[8] Glenn Roeder 30 October 2007[9] 22nd
Leicester City Gary Megson Mutual consent (hired by Bolton Wanderers) 24 October 2007[10] Ian Holloway 22 November 2007[11] 19th
Burnley Steve Cotterill Mutual consent 8 November 2007[12] Owen Coyle 22 November 2007[13] 15th
Preston North End Paul Simpson Contract terminated 13 November 2007[14] Alan Irvine 20 November 2007[15] 21st
Plymouth Argyle Ian Holloway Resigned (hired by Leicester City) 21 November 2007[16] Paul Sturrock 27 November 2007[17] 7th
Coventry City Iain Dowie Contract terminated 11 February 2008[18] Chris Coleman 19 February 2008[19] 19th
Sheffield United Bryan Robson Mutual consent 14 February 2008[20] Kevin Blackwell 14 February 2008[20] 16th
Queens Park Rangers Luigi De Canio Mutual consent 8 May 2008[21] Iain Dowie 14 May 2008[22] 14th

Notes

  1. "Football League Attendance Report" (PDF). The Football League. 25 July 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 August 2012.
  2. "Crystal Palace boss Taylor sacked". BBC Sport. 8 October 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  3. "Warnock appointed new Palace boss". BBC Sport. 11 October 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  4. "Allen ends brief Leicester reign". BBC Sport. 29 August 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  5. "Megson excited by Leicester job". BBC Sport. 13 September 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  6. "Gregory sacked as manager of QPR". BBC Sport. 1 October 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  7. "Former Napoli boss takes QPR role". BBC Sport. 29 October 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  8. "Grant parts company with Canaries". BBC Sport. 8 October 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  9. "Norwich name Roeder as new boss". BBC Sport. 30 October 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  10. "Bolton target Megson leaves Foxes". BBC Sport. 24 October 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  11. "Holloway appointed Leicester boss". BBC Sport. 22 November 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  12. "Burnley manager Cotterill departs". BBC Sport. 8 November 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  13. "Coyle named new Burnley manager". BBC Sport. 22 November 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  14. "Struggling Preston sack Simpson". BBC Sport. 13 November 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  15. "Preston unveil Irvine as new boss". BBC Sport. 20 November 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  16. "Holloway resigns as Plymouth boss". BBC Sport. 21 November 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  17. "Sturrock returns as Plymouth boss". BBC Sport. 27 November 2007. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  18. "Dowie sacked as Coventry manager". BBC Sport. 11 February 2008. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  19. "Coleman unveiled as Coventry boss". BBC Sport. 19 February 2008. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  20. 1 2 "Blackwell in for Robson at Blades". BBC Sport. 14 February 2008. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  21. "De Canio parts company with QPR". BBC Sport. 8 May 2008. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
  22. "QPR bring in Dowie as new coach". BBC Sport. 14 May 2008. Retrieved 22 September 2008.
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