1976-77 in English football

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The 1976-77 season was the 97th season of competitive football in England.

Contents 1 Overview 1.1 First Division 1.2 Second Division 1.3 Third Division 1.4 Fourth Division 1.5 FA Cup 1.6 League Cup 2 Star players 3 Star managers 4 Transfers 5 Deaths 6 Honours 7 League table 7.1 First Division 7.2 Second Division 7.3 Third Division 7.4 Fourth Division

[edit] Overview

The Football League revamped the tie-breaking criteria for teams level of points, replacing the traditional goal average tie-breaker with one based on goal difference to try and encourage more scoring. Coloured yellow and red cards were introduced for the first time in domestic English football.

[edit] First Division

Liverpool retained their league championship trophy and won their first European Cup to confirm Bob Paisley as a successful replacement for Bill Shankly in his third season at the helm. Tottenham Hotspur and Stoke City's long spells in the First Division came to an end with relegation. Stoke sacked their manager Tony Waddington. On the last day of the season, Coventry City and Bristol City played out a controversial 2-2 draw, with play virtually stopping when it was heard that Sunderland had lost to Everton. Both clubs survived while Sunderland was relegated.

After Manchester United manager Tommy Docherty had admitted his affair with the wife of the club's physiotherapist, the club's directors decided that he had broken their moral code and he was sacked.

[edit] Second Division

Wolverhampton Wanderers, Chelsea and Nottingham Forest gained promotion to the First Division. Brian Clough's Forest would achieve success beyond the dreams of most supporters over the next few seasons. Carlisle United, Plymouth Argyle and Hereford United occupied the three relegation places. Hereford became the first club to finish bottom of the Second Division after winning the Third Division the previous season.

[edit] Third Division

Mansfield Town, Brighton & Hove Albion and Crystal Palace were the three teams promoted to the Second Division. Palace's manager was a certain Terry Venables who would enjoy more success at Palace and elsewhere over the next 20 years. Going down were Reading, Northampton Town, Grimsby Town and York City.

[edit] Fourth Division

Cambridge United, Exeter City, Colchester United and Bradford City occupied the four promotion places in the league's lowest division. A terrible season for Workington was compounded by their failure to gain re-election to the Football League, a humiliation which saw them slip into the Northern Premier League. In their place were Southern League champions Wimbledon, who would make amazing progress over the next decade.

The British pop star Elton John took over Fourth Division side Watford and installed Graham Taylor as manager. Former Arsenal manager Bertie Mee came out of retirement to work at Watford as assistant to Graham Taylor. John immediately asserted his ambition by promising to bring First Division football to Watford.

[edit] FA Cup

Tommy Docherty guided Manchester United to a 2-1 win over Liverpool in the FA Cup final, but was sacked within weeks after announcing his affair with the wife of the club's physiotherapist.

A new competition, the Debenhams Cup, was introduced to reward the two teams from outside the top two divisions to progress furthest in the FA Cup. Chester beat Port Vale in the final but it was only competed for once more.

[edit] League Cup

Ron Saunders took Aston Villa to their second League Cup victory in three seasons as the midlanders continued to re-establish themselves as a top club.

[edit] Star players

• Aston Villa's exciting young striker Andy Gray finished the season with a League Cup winners medal as well as being voted Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year by the PFA.
• Liverpool captain Emlyn Hughes added the FWA Player of the Year award to his league championship and European Cup winners medals.
• Manchester United's FA Cup winners included some promising young players like Steve Coppell, Lou Macari and Arthur Albiston, who all looked set for more success as their careers progressed.

[edit] Star managers

• Bob Paisley retained Liverpool's league title and guided them to their first European Cup triumph.
• Tommy Docherty ended Manchester United's 14-year wait for the FA Cup and their first trophy of the post Matt Busby era.
• Ron Saunders delivered another League Cup victory for Aston Villa.
• Brian Clough guided Nottingham Forest to promotion to the First Division, but his greatest successes were yet to come....

[edit] Transfers

• Liverpool sold Kevin Keegan to West German side Hamburger SV in a £500,000 deal. They replaced him with Celtic striker Kenny Dalglish, who cost a British record fee of £440,000 and was rated alongside Keegan as one of Europe's top strikers.

[edit] Deaths

• Peter Houseman, who had played for Chelsea when they won the F.A Cup in 1970 and the Cup Winners Cup a year later, died in a car crash near Oxford at the age of 31. His wife also died in the crash. At the time of his death he had been playing for Oxford United.

[edit] Honours

Competition	Winner	Runner-up
First Division	Liverpool	Manchester City
Second Division	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Chelsea
Third Division	Mansfield Town	Brighton & Hove Albion
Fourth Division	Cambridge United	Exeter City
FA Cup	Manchester United	Liverpool
League Cup	Aston Villa	Everton
Charity Shield	Liverpool	Southampton
Debenhams Cup	Chester	Port Vale
Home Championship	Scotland	Wales &  England

[edit] League table

[edit] First Division

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Liverpool	42	23	11	8	62	33	+29	57
2	Manchester City	42	21	14	7	60	34	+26	56
3	Ipswich Town	42	22	8	12	66	39	+27	52
4	Aston Villa	42	22	7	13	76	50	+26	51
5	Newcastle United	42	18	13	11	64	49	+15	49
6	Manchester United	42	18	11	13	71	62	+9	47
7	West Bromwich Albion	42	16	13	13	62	56	+6	45
8	Arsenal	42	16	11	15	64	59	+5	43
9	Everton	42	14	14	14	62	64	-2	42
10	Leeds United	42	15	12	15	48	51	-3	42
11	Leicester City	42	12	18	12	47	60	-13	42
12	Middlesbrough	42	14	13	15	40	45	-5	41
13	Birmingham City	42	13	12	17	63	61	+2	38
14	Queens Park Rangers	42	13	12	17	47	52	-5	38
15	Derby County	42	9	19	14	50	55	-5	37
16	Norwich City	42	14	9	19	47	64	-17	37
17	West Ham United	42	11	14	17	46	65	-19	36
18	Bristol City	42	11	13	18	38	48	-10	35
19	Coventry City	42	10	15	17	48	59	-11	35
20	Sunderland	42	11	12	19	46	54	-8	34
21	Stoke City	42	10	14	18	28	51	-23	34
22	Tottenham Hotspur	42	12	9	21	48	72	-24	33

[edit] Second Division

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Wolverhampton Wanderers	42	22	13	7	84	45	+39	57
2	Chelsea	42	21	13	8	73	53	+20	55
3	Nottingham Forest	42	21	10	11	77	43	+34	52
4	Bolton Wanderers	42	20	11	11	75	54	+21	51
5	Blackpool	42	17	17	8	58	42	+16	51
6	Luton Town	42	21	6	15	67	48	+19	48
7	Charlton Athletic	42	16	16	10	71	58	+13	48
8	Notts County	42	19	10	13	65	60	+5	48
9	Southampton	42	17	10	15	72	67	+5	44
10	Millwall	42	15	13	14	57	53	+4	43
11	Sheffield United	42	14	12	16	54	63	-9	40
12	Blackburn Rovers	42	15	9	18	42	54	-12	39
13	Oldham Athletic	42	14	10	18	52	64	-12	38
14	Hull City	42	10	17	15	45	53	-8	37
15	Bristol Rovers	42	12	13	17	53	68	-15	37
16	Burnley	42	11	14	17	46	64	-18	36
17	Fulham	42	11	13	18	54	61	-7	35
18	Cardiff City	42	12	10	20	56	67	-11	34
19	Orient	42	9	16	17	37	55	-18	34
20	Carlisle United	42	11	12	19	49	75	-26	34
21	Plymouth Argyle	42	8	16	18	46	65	-19	32
22	Hereford United	42	8	15	19	57	78	-21	31

[edit] Third Division

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Mansfield Town	46	28	8	10	78	42	+36	64
2	Brighton & Hove Albion	46	25	11	10	83	40	+43	61
3	Crystal Palace	46	23	13	10	68	40	+28	59
4	Rotherham United	46	22	15	9	69	44	+25	59
5	Wrexham	46	24	10	12	80	54	+26	58
6	Preston North End	46	21	12	13	64	43	+21	54
7	Bury	46	23	8	15	64	59	+5	54
8	Sheffield Wednesday	46	22	9	15	65	55	+10	53
9	Lincoln City	46	19	14	13	77	70	+7	52
10	Shrewsbury Town	46	18	11	17	65	59	+6	47
11	Swindon Town	46	15	15	16	68	75	-7	45
12	Gillingham	46	16	12	18	55	64	-9	44
13	Chester City	46	18	8	20	48	58	-10	44
14	Tranmere Rovers	46	13	17	16	51	53	-2	43
15	Walsall	46	13	15	18	57	65	-8	41
16	Peterborough United	46	13	15	18	55	65	-10	41
17	Oxford United	46	12	15	19	55	65	-10	39
18	Chesterfield	46	14	10	22	56	64	-8	38
19	Port Vale	46	11	16	19	47	71	-24	38
20	Portsmouth	46	11	14	21	53	70	-17	36
21	Reading	46	13	9	24	49	73	-24	35
22	Northampton Town	46	13	8	25	60	75	-15	34
23	Grimsby Town	46	12	9	25	45	69	-24	33
24	York City	46	10	12	24	50	89	-39	32

[edit] Fourth Division

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Cambridge United	46	26	13	7	87	40	+47	65
2	Exeter City	46	25	12	9	70	46	+24	62
3	Colchester United	46	25	9	12	77	43	+34	59
4	Bradford City	46	23	13	10	78	51	+27	59
5	Swansea City	46	25	8	13	92	68	+24	58
6	Barnsley	46	23	9	14	62	39	+23	55
7	Watford	46	18	15	13	67	50	+17	51
8	Doncaster Rovers	46	21	9	16	71	65	+6	51
9	Huddersfield Town	46	19	12	15	60	49	+11	50
10	Southend United	46	15	19	12	52	45	+7	49
11	Darlington	46	18	13	15	59	64	-5	49
12	Crewe Alexandra	46	19	11	16	47	60	-13	49
13	Bournemouth	46	15	18	13	54	44	+10	48
14	Stockport County	46	13	19	14	53	57	-4	45
15	Brentford	46	18	7	21	77	76	+1	43
16	Torquay United	46	17	9	20	59	67	-8	43
17	Aldershot	46	16	11	19	49	59	-10	43
18	Rochdale	46	13	12	21	50	59	-9	38
19	Newport County	46	14	10	22	42	58	-16	38
20	Scunthorpe United	46	13	11	22	49	73	-24	37
21	Halifax Town	46	11	14	21	47	58	-11	36
22	Hartlepool	46	10	12	24	47	73	-26	32
23	Southport	46	3	19	24	33	77	-44	25
24	Workington	46	4	11	31	41	102	-61	19

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

Seasons in English football v • d • e
1972–73 | 1973–74 | 1974–75 | 1975–76 | 1976–77 | 1977–78 | 1978–79 | 1979–80 | 1980–81
Football in 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