What has been the most exciting league to watch in 2014-15? the English Premier League? Serie A? Bundesliga? La Liga? Australia’s own A-League? None have been able to tell a good story like the Football League this season.
Because the 2014-15 season across three divisions – Championship, League One and League Two – may well be one of the most memorable seasons of football seen anywhere for many a year. The Championship, with a strong case for being one of the world’s most exciting and intensely-fought football competitions, showcased both the very best and very worst of our game. It starts with the perfect fairytale.
There have been few stories like that of AFC Bournemouth, a club perilously close to not only dropping out of the Football League but even out of existence altogether only seven years ago. It was there that former player Eddie Howe, appointed in December 2008, authored a fairytale that has delivered three promotions in five years, even accounting for his brief time away from the Dorset club when he went to manage Burnley. In 2008/09, Bournemouth were hit with a 17-point deduction (they were relegated from League One with a 10-point deduction the previous season) but Howe managed to steer the club to 39 points from 21 games to secure League status. A transfer embargo did not hinder Howe and Bournemouth managed promotion to League One the following season. The good times kept coming as they would qualify for the play-offs in League One, but Howe left for Burnley in January 2011.
When he returned in 2012 Bournemouth were heading backwards, even with the foundations that Howe still left in place. His brief time at Burnley had not been spectacular (although Sean Dyche has subsequently taken the Clarets into the Premier League) but he surely knew that something was to happen – or rather, many people in football surely would have known. An astonishing run of results only punctured by a five-game losing streak meant that Bournemouth made the charge up a highly competitive League One to finish in second place and secure promotion to the Championship, ending a 23-year absence from the second tier of English football and thus equalling the achievement of Harry Redknapp. Bournemouth already won plaudits for their football.
Any doubts about how the Cherries would fare in the Championship were quickly banished. They would dig in comfortably and even make a late charge towards the play-off places, and were still in with a theoretical chance on the last day of the season, finishing a credible 10th. Then the clichés can be thrown about a “difficult second season” and overachievers being found out. No, those clichés were just stupid. It was as obvious when Bournemouth opened their season with a 4-0 win at Huddersfield as it was for the previous two seasons, you have been warned. Even when their 8-0 win over Birmingham City sent shockwaves through the football world, there must still have been doubters who thought they could not sustain it.
What doubts? There was never any. Bournemouth are a team who fear nobody. There have been very few who have been able to win this division with the style they have, there have been very few able to sustain the momentum they have over three phenomenal seasons. A well-drilled and balanced team with decent depth playing attractive football, whose establishment of a benchmark cannot be told simply in statistics. 90 points and 98 goals is impressive, but while other teams have won more points (such as Leicester last season) or scored more goals to win this competition, none in recent times have done it in the manner that the Cherries have. The quality of their football is one that can grace any league on the world, such is the fearlessness with which they confront all doom and gloom predictions, that it would be extraordinarily foolish of anyone to believe that this cannot be repeated in the Premier League. Moreover, they fit the idea of a friendly family and community club, albeit one with not insubstantial backing behind them, playing in a stadium that holds around 12,000.
The soundness of a squad whose stars include Yann Kermorgant and Callum Wilson up front, Matt Ritchie, Marc Pugh, Andrew Surman and Harry Arter in midfield , Charlie Daniels, Steve Cook and Tommy Elphick in defence is reinforced by the presence of players who did not play such a big role but are still capable, like Dan Gosling and Eunan O’Kane (although the latter has had injury trouble). The components of this squad were put together gradually over the time Howe has been at the club, with all the time in the world to perfect it. Eddie Howe is not merely a very special manager, but possibly the best English football manager in a generation.
It is not as if Bournemouth did not face formidable competition to rise to the top. No less than seven other clubs fought for promotion this season. Even here, the twists and turns made the Championship more exciting than any TV show could serve up. Such as the momentum of Watford, spearheaded by Troy Deeney, despite comical managerial discontinuity, carrying them from behind to clinch promotion with a game left at the expense of some rather heavily fancied teams. Among which included Norwich City, who must surely have thought they were too good to go down and whose form since the appointment of Alex Neil tends to confirm that they have every intention of being up there. Middlesbrough, with defensive strength on one hand and the quality of Patrick Bamford, Grant Leadbitter and Lee Tomlin on the other, had been up there all season, still under the stewardship of Steve Gibson and with Aitor Karanka at the helm, the club’s rebuilding process looked to pay dividends.
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The season would not be through without the overachieving, the redeemed and the disappointing. Mark Warburton’s Brentford side had no lack of quality with Jonathan Douglas, Alan Judge, AJ Gray and Alex Pritchard, and deserve their place in the play-offs. Surely they will regret the impending change of manager, an inexplicable decision all things considered. Mick McCarthy’s Ipswich Town side made up mostly of free transfers and youth team products, with Teddy Bishop typifying the latter while Daryl Murphy scores for fun, have built on the steady progress of the last few years after a long exile from the top flight. Kenny Jackett’s Wolves team, only just missing out on the play-offs, redeemed a club that had lost its way a couple of years ago while star player Bakary Sako earned sympathy for being wrongly red carded due to a Watford player’s disgusting dive.
The play-offs were no less intense. Norwich overcame Ipswich in a typically feisty East Anglia Derby tie, whereas Middlesbrough won both legs against Brentford. A potentially classic encounter was set up between a Canaries side looking to bounce back up at the first attempt and a Middlesbrough outfit wanting desperately to end a six-year stay in the division. Norwich’s attacking prowess ultimately prevailed at Wembley, with first-half goals from Jerome and Redmond sufficing to clinch promotion. Bradley Johnson, Jonny Howson and Wes Hoolahan have all contributed impressively from midfield, while captain Russell Martin remains a stalwart in defence.
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Most disappointing were a talented and heavily-fancied Derby County team who had looked all set to seize the opportunity this season to realise the many years of hard work under Nigel Clough and now Steve McClaren, with a talented midfield featuring Craig Bryson, Will Hughes and Jeff Hendrick among others. The wheels gradually fell-off during the season and ended in a most ugly fashion as they were beaten 3-0 at home by Reading – seven years after Reading’s 4-0 win at Pride Park cemented the Rams’ football infamy with 11 points, which they have long since put behind. But this may be even worse, even more heartbreaking as a rebuilt club with a decent team far more likely to do well in the Premier League has royally blown the opportunity with the possibility of this group of players being scattered to the winds. They will not be alone in this, such is the occupational hazard that is League Football. McClaren has since paid the price for Derby’s second-half collapse.
The quality of these teams is such that many current Premier League clubs cannot be blamed for being worried, such has been the paucity of many clubs in the bottom-half of the top flight. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that they would not un comfortable in the Premier League, where Leicester pulled off a miracle to survive and Burnley went down despite a good fight (trouble for QPR, on the other hand, is only just beginning). Leicester may yet follow the example of Crystal Palace, Southampton and Swansea in consolidation.
The Championship also demonstrated that mid-table mediocrity, a fact of life for most of its clubs besides the eight promotion contenders, is not synonymous with being boring. It was anything but for FA Cup Quarter-finalists Blackburn Rovers, or for Cardiff City, Birmingham City, Nottingham Forest or Leeds United. Chaos rules the roost at Leeds, which makes Neil Redfearn’s achievement of mid-table safety highly commendable under volatile ownership, beating some of the division’s top sides along the way. Blackburn, on the other hand, will feel disappointed as a capable team failed to come as close to the play-offs as they did last season, while Sheffield Wednesday and Charlton made slow but steady progress through the campaign. Such managers as Gary Rowett (Birmingham City), Neil Lennon (Bolton) and Kit Symons (Fulham) can also be commended for preventing the bottom falling out of their respective clubs, but it was a job made rather easy. While Steve Evans is hard for many to like, his achievement at Rotherham also merits a mention here.
While Millwall and Wigan Athletic looked pretty much likely to go down all season, their plight is small compared to Blackpool. If Bournemouth epitomise the very best of football, then the goings-on at Blackpool are the exact opposite. They have been discussed at length elsewhere, and it needs only to be described as a travesty and tragedy whose consequences go well beyond Blackpool and even football. Nothing more needs to be added. The game with Huddersfield, abandoned following a pitch invasion, seemed a fitting end to the season and I know I am speaking for all football fans in demonstrating solidarity with Blackpool FC supporters.
League One
League One offered no less in terms of entertainment value and drama. At one stage there was a contest among the top five sides – Bristol City, MK Dons, Preston North End and Swindon Town – and not a great deal separating the rest. Bristol City won this division falling just short of the century mark, a most handsome return on a not inconsiderable investment to rebuild the team. Steve Cotterill has moulded a side combining youth in Luke Freeman and experience in Aaron Wilbraham, just to name two outstanding performers in this most consistent side while Aden Flint scored an impressive amount for a central-defender. This is their fourth promotion to this level in a quarter of a century and will want to make it last at least as long as their previous stay, and perhaps even better it.
One club who did manage a century – of goals that is – are MK Dons. On-loan player Dele Alli was one of numerous star performers a side managed by Karl Robinson, who got his due reward for five years’ hard work so far. Given that the very existence of this club remains controversial, and frankly most football fans’ share a distaste for it (though an article explains the curious paradox about the club), it can be said that this promotion is as unpopular as it is deserved. Especially as it has come at the expense of two highly-fancied clubs who would have been most people’s choices to go up.
Preston North End, spearheaded by Joe Garner and Jermaine Beckford, and also featuring Australians Bailey Wright and Neil Kilkenny among other capable players, looked certain to join Bristol City in the Championship. That was before they went to Colchester on the final day with the home side needing a win to have any chance of staying up. They lost 1-0, allowing their opponents to pull off a great escape and MK Dons to win promotion. This would seemingly rank up there among the biggest chokes of recent times, but they would at least make up for that one.
The other is Swindon Town, who include Asian Cup stars Massimo Luongo and Yaser Kasim, and having endured many hard years, seem to have finally come out of the darkness. Given the team they had assembled and the football they have played, it is impossible for anyone not to have had Mark Cooper’s side among the favourites for promotion and the teams to watch. Even with their midfield duo away on Asian Cup duty, they did not disappoint. However, the last couple of months has seen them stutter badly and they have also fielded under-strength sides in later games. Sheffield United have now spent four years in the third tier going on five, longer than any time previously, and Nigel Clough’s team who have been something of cup specialists and being one of the best-supported at this level will be itching to get back up. Clough has, like his successor at Derby in McClaren, since been shown the door (rather harshly at that).
Beyond these were a whole pack of teams who had been in contention for the play-offs at one stage or another, but it was Paul Cook’s Chesterfield who hit form at the right time to claim the last spot in the top six. Despite selling striker Eoin Doyle to Cardiff during the season, players like veteran Ian Evatt, along with Sam Hird, Jimmy Ryan, Gary Roberts and Jay O’Shea played some rather nice football to follow up their League Two success last season. This has been the greatest achievement the club has had since the Arthur Cox and Frank Barlow years, when they nearly made it to the second level, and the FA Cup run under John Duncan in the 90s.
The League One play-offs delivered the stuff of legend, both in Jermaine Beckford’s wonder goal against Chesterfield and in the ten-goal thriller at Bramall Lane between Sheffield United and Swindon. Preston ultimately swept aside Swindon 4-0 with Beckford’s spectacular hat-trick being complemented by Paul Huntington, yet another defender to score a few. Given their poor form, there was a seeming inevitability about the way Swindon capitulated, and this must surely be a sign of a team facing an impending break-up after failure to gain promotion.
And speaking of FA Cup, it was Bradford City’s turn to fly the flag for this level in the Cup by going as far as the Quarter-finals while in the league, they continue the progress they have made in the last few years. Yet another Australian in James Meredith played a role, while James Hanson and Billy Clarke added to their reputations along the way. Rochdale, on the other hand, have attained their highest league position in decades following promotion and join the list of so-called overachievers. Amongst the glut of teams who were in contention at one stage or another, Barnsley and Gillingham each picked up form after a change of manager and could also boast players like Lewin Nyatanga, Conor Hourihane, Josh Scowen and Sam Winnall; Doug Loft, Cody McDonald, Jake Hessenthaler and Bradley Dack respectively. Fleetwood Town, on the other hand, can look forward to derbies next season and is likely to approach them in a stronger position. Walsall saw their decent defensive record obliterated at Bristol City on the final day.
Some clubs that were recently in the Championship, like Peterborough United and Doncaster Rovers, had what might be termed frustrating seasons, while Oldham Athletic’s eighteenth consecutive campaign in the third tier typically proved far from boring on and off the field. The appointment of Tony Mowbray at Coventry might raise hopes that the club can recover from its present nightmare, and they at least survived a tight relegation struggle which saw Leyton Orient succumb after changes off the field undid the good work of recent years, even with the quality wing play of Dean Cox, along with Notts County and Crawley Town who also had good runs in recent times. Youth at Colchester showed some promise as they pulled off a Houdini act. Notts County in fact plummeted from mid-table and the edge of the play-offs to relegation on the final day, to show you how little most teams in this division had been separated.
League Two
Whereas goals galore decided things in the Championship and League One, it was a different story in League Two. The fact that Burton Albion, the winners of this division, scored only 69 goals is a far cry from the tallies of Bournemouth and MK Dons. It was defences which ruled the roost, and no coincidence that the teams with the better defensive records – save for Oxford United and York City whose decent defensive records were good enough to keep them comfortable in this division – were mostly the ones to occupy the top seven spots. Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink replaced Gary Rowett at Burton, and the club’s progress up the ranks of football has continued unabated and rewarded with clinching the League Two title on the final day. Australian Shane Cansdell-Sheriff was part of a defence that conceded only 39 goals, while Stuart Beavon continues a family tradition in League football and did not disappoint at the other end. Shrewsbury, with experienced campaigners such as Liam Lawrence and the division’s best defence with just 31 conceded, were also there or thereabouts all season and return to the third tier under the management of Micky Mellon, bouncing back at the first attempt.
Like the other two divisions, the struggle for automatic promotion was no less intense, with Bury featuring Danny Mayor as an outstanding performer pipping Wycombe Wanderers and Southend United on the final day. Southend had anticipated getting the third automatic spot and brought a big following to Morecambe on the final day, but were defeated 3-1. To round off the play-off places were Stevenage and Plymouth Argyle, the latter recovering from a pretty rough period. Luton Town only just missed out, but it was a good first season back for the Hatters in the Football League after a five-year absence, while Cambridge United’s return to the league ended a nine-year absence and they were never in serious danger.
Southend and Wycombe contested the play-off final with both sides looking to make up for missing out on the last day. The first of the three finals was dramatic, with Southend fans famously rushing back to Wembley as they equalised, and would win the final on penalties. Some lesson to be learned there! Phil Brown, having taken Hull City into the Premier League, can now claim another promotion to his credit. It is also no less deserving for Michael Timlin, who scored the winner in the second leg of the tie against Stevenage, despite that nasty injury in the first fixture.
While Portsmouth were no better than mid-table, they had one of the division’s outstanding players in young Jed Wallace, who they will want to keep as they rebuild following their long and hard fall from grace. Their home crowds are impressive for this division, and you only have to look at the numbers that turned out for a dead rubber game against York City on the final day to see that. Finishing just above them are AFC Wimbledon, now in their fourth season of League football and making steady progress at this level while also giving Liverpool a good run in the FA Cup.
It would be Tranmere Rovers who took the “fall from grace” cake as they succumbed to consecutive relegations over two years after topping League One whilst their former manager Ronnie Moore kept Hartlepool United up at their expense. Cheltenham Town, the other casualty, were also rather successful in their 16-year stay in the Football League, even enjoying a few years of third tier football.
If every season is to be remembered for at least something, then will you remember 2014-15 for everything? The three divisions of the Football League gave you that – and more.
