2010-11 Football League One, Top of the Table
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League One Play-off Final at Old Trafford in Greater Manchester on Sunday, 29 May 2011 – Huddersfield Town 0-3 Peterborough United. Peterborough United win promotion the the 2011-12 Football League Championship (their second time promoted to the 2nd Level in 3 seasons), attendance 48,410.
From Guardian.co.uk, by Louise Taylor, ‘Three second-half goals see promoted Peterborough past Huddersfield‘.
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2010-11 Football League One final table (Soccerway.com).
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Brighton & Hove Albion FC, managed by the Uruguayan Gus Poyet, ran away with the title. The Seagulls could not have timed their storybook season any better, because the club will be moving in to their fantastic new stadium in August. Falmer Stadium (aka American Express Community Stadium) looks a bit like Huddersfield Town’s Galpharm Stadium (as well as Bolton’s Reebok Stadium). Falmer will seat 22,374, and has the capability to be expanded to around 30,000. Brighton, and their fans, had to endure two seasons of playing over an hour’s travel time away, in Gillingham, Kent in the late 1990s, followed by 12 seasons in the purgatory of the running track-scarred Withdean Stadium, an inadequate facility that only had a capacity of around 8,000. But that is now in the past, and Brighton & Hove Albion look to have a good future. The Seagulls have historically spent the most time in the third tier that they are now leaving, with 51 seasons in the 3rd Level. Brighton has spent 14 seasons previously in the 2nd Level, most recently for a 2-season spell from 2004 to 2006. Brighton has only played 4 seasons in the first division, from 1979-80 to 1982-83, with a 13th place finish in 1982 being the Seagulls’ highest league placement. When Brighton were in the First Division, they drew 24,745 in 79/80; 18,984 in 80/81; 18,244 in 81/82; and 14,662 in their relegation season of 82/83. It remains to be seen if Brighton can still draw in the 20,000-range, but I feel that if Brighton can make it through next season by avoiding the drop, they will be in a good position to cultivate a fan base that can regularly fill the 23,000-capacity Falmer Stadium. Brighton’s metro area is 12th largest in Britain {see this,’List of urban areas in the United Kingdom‘, from en.wikipedia.org}.
The other automatically-promoted club from League One to the League Championship are another club from the south coast of England, Southampton FC. Southampton returns to the second tier after 2 seasons in the wilderness of the third tier, which is a level that Saints supporters would have thought the club had outgrown. Because prior to their 2 seasons in the 3rd Level, Southampton had a 4-season spell in the 2nd Level, and prior to that, the club spent 23 consecutive seasons in the top flight. Southampton spent from 1978-79 to 2004-05 in the First Division/Premier League.Southampton’s highest league placement was in 2nd place in the First Division in 1983-84, while their best finish in the last 20 years was in 8th place in the 2002-03 Premier League. Southampton has an FA Cup title – they won the FA Cup in 1976, when the club was in the Second Division (they are one of only 8 teams to have ever won the FA Cup while not in the top flight. {see this, ‘FA Cup/Winners from outside the top flight‘, from en.wikipedia.org}). Southampton, who averaged 22,161 per game this season (up 5.6% from 09/10) have a pretty decent-sized fan base, and can come pretty close to filling their 32,689-seat St. Mary’s Stadium on a regular basis when the team is playing well, and even when they are not. For example, they drew 30,680 per game when they finished in 8th in the Premier League in 2002-03. And they were drawing almost exactly that figure (30,610 per game) when they got relegated from the Premier League on the last day of the 2004-05 season. Southampton fans must be pretty optimistic, because they have a solid manager, ex-Scunthorpe physio and ex-Scunthorpe manager Nigel Adkins, who took over in September 2010, and got the Saints first in to the play-off places by November 2010, and then into 2nd place on New Year’s Day. The club effectively clinched automatic promotion with 2 games to spare on 2nd May, 2011 (because their lead with 2 games to play was 6 points and a goal difference of over 15 more than the third place team). Adkins’ Saints broke the club record for clean sheets, with 20 out of 46 clean sheets this season. The other reason Southampton supporters will be looking forward to their return to the second tier is that this time, their arch-enemies, the nearby Portsmouth FC, are also in the second division, so the South Coast derby will resume next season. Portsmouth and Southamprton played in the FA Cup in 2009-10, but besides that there hasn’t been a regular league South Coast derby match since 2005.
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Photo credits on the map page -
Brighton…Withdean Stadium photos by Colin Smith at en.wikipedia.org, here. Falmer Stadium under construction, July, 2010, by Tescoid at en.wikipedia.org, here. Aerial photo from England.Brighton.blogspot.com, here.
Southampton…Exterior photo of St. May’s Stadium by Marcsfc at Flickr.com, here. Interior photo from Urban75.og/blog. Aerial view from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.
Huddersfield Town…Interior photo of the Galpahrm Stadium from Sky Sports.com, Huddersfield Town. Extreior night-time photo of the Galpharm by Matthew Ashton at The Guardian, “Huddersfield’s community stadium dream sours in ownership wrangle [6 May, 2009]“. Aerial image from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.
Peterborough United…Photo of London Road Terrace by ynysforgan_jack at Flickr.com, here. Photo of Norwich and Peterborough South Stand from ExtremeGroundhopping.blogspot.com, here/new address at ExtremeGroundhopping.woedpress.com, here. Aerial image from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.
Milton Keynes Dons…Exterior photo of Stadium mk from Rowecord structural Engineering site, RoweCord.com. Interior photo from SportyDesktops.com. Aerial image from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.
Bournemouth… Photo of Main Stand at Dean Court from Tims92.webs.com, here. Photo of parts of the three stands at Dean Court from DATM.info (Huddersfield Town fansite), here. Aerial image of Dean Court from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.
Huddersfield Town…Interior photo of Galpharm Stadium from SkySports.com/Huddersfield Town page. Exterior photo of Galpharm Stadium at night, by Matthew Ashton/EMPICS Sport, at guardian.co.uk, here. Aerial image from Bing.com/maps/Bird’s Eye satellite view, here.
Thanks to HistoricalFootballKits.co.uk, for the kit illustrationa, ‘Npower League One 2010-11‘.
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘Football League One‘.
Thanks to Soccerway, for for attendances.