Historic league table generator

Choose any day in Football League or Premier League history to see the league table as it stood at the end of that day's play.

Dates after the end of a season will return the end of season table for the most recently completed season.

League & table info

Enter year only for end of season table.

Show table Reset Leagues

League Two table after close of play on 21 March 2009

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
Brentford 38 19 13 6 52 29 23 70
Rochdale 38 18 10 10 65 45 20 64
Gillingham 39 18 10 11 53 50 3 64
Wycombe Wanderers 37 16 15 6 43 26 17 63
Bury 38 17 11 10 52 38 14 62
Exeter City 38 17 10 11 54 44 10 61
Shrewsbury Town 39 15 14 10 53 37 16 59
Bradford City 39 16 10 13 58 48 10 58
Dagenham and Redbridge 38 14 11 13 60 44 16 53
Chesterfield 36 14 10 12 54 49 5 52
Morecambe 38 12 16 10 44 44 0 52
Darlington 37 17 9 11 52 35 17 50
Lincoln City 37 12 12 13 47 46 1 48
Aldershot Town 37 13 8 16 52 68 -16 47
Rotherham United 35 17 9 9 48 32 16 43
Notts County 39 10 13 16 44 57 -13 43
Port Vale 37 12 5 20 39 56 -17 41
Accrington Stanley 38 10 10 18 39 52 -13 40
Macclesfield Town 38 11 6 21 39 68 -29 39
Barnet 37 8 12 17 46 66 -20 36
AFC Bournemouth 39 13 12 14 47 47 0 34
Grimsby Town 39 6 12 21 43 65 -22 30
Chester City 39 6 11 22 37 72 -35 29
Luton Town 38 12 13 13 52 55 -3 19
04 Jun 2008     Luton Town were subjected to a ten point deduction by the Football Association on 4 June 2008 having been found guilty of paying agents via a third party.
10 Jul 2008     Having already been deducted ten points by the Football Association, Luton Town were subjected to a further twenty point deduction by the Football League on 10 July 2008 having failed to satisfy insolvency rules.
06 Aug 2008     Rotherham United were subjected to a 17-point Sporting Sanction by the Football League on 6 August 2008 due to being unable to satisfy the conditions of the League's insolvency policy for exiting administration.
07 Aug 2008     AFC Bournemouth were subjected to a 17-point Sporting Sanction by the Football League on 7 August 2008 due to being unable to satisfy the conditions of the League's insolvency policy for exiting administration.
25 Feb 2009     Darlington were subjected to a ten point Sporting Sanction by the Football League on 25 February 2009 due to entering Administration.
Close

League table information

Historical variations in league table calculations, and treatment in the 11v11 league table generator.

Historic varations at a glance

Points for a win

Until 1981 English Football Association (FA) leagues awarded 2 points for a win.

Starting with the 1981-82 season, 3 points were awarded to encourage more competitive play.

Discriminating point ties

Teams tied on points are disciminated by goal difference or goal average (depending on FA rules in force at the time), then by goals scored.

Goal average

From seasons 1896-97 to 1995-96, FA leagues used goal average (GAve) to resolve point ties.

Goal "average" (actually a ratio, not an average) is the result of dividing goals for by goals against (GF/GA) to three decimal places.

Goal average and zeros

Where GF > 0 and GA = 0 then GAve = infinity (∞), which (perhaps anomalously) gives a team with 10 goals for and 1 against a worse GAve (10/1 = 10) than a team with 1 for and 0 against (1/0 = ∞).

When GF = 0 and GA > 0, mathematically the value of GF/GA is undefined.

When GF = 0 GA = 0, mathematically the value of GF/GA is indeterminate.

11v11 treatment of zeros in goal average calculations

It is unclear how the Football Leagues treated division of or by 0.

For pragmatic reasons, and in the absence of additional information, 11v11 assumes:

  • When GF = 0 and GA > 0, GAve = -GA (favours teams who have conceded fewer goals)
  • When GF = 0 and GA = 0, GAve = 1 (consistent with GF = n and GA = n)

Additionally:

  • When GF > 0 and GA = 0, GAve of ∞ is represented as 100 (cannot sort on ∞)

Goal difference

Goal difference (GD) is the difference between goals scored and conceded (GF-GA), and replaced goal average in FA leagues starting with the 1976-77 season.

When teams remain tied

For some leagues, if ties are not resolved according to the rules in place at the time, relative position is calculated by considering only those matches the tied teams played against each other, applying the same rules to resolve ties. Effectively these matches are treated as a sort of "mini-league".

Alternatively position may be assigned alphabetically by team name.

Playoffs

League playoffs were introduced for the 1987 season.

For the first 2 seasons they were played between teams in adjacent leagues, but from the 1989 season they were played within each league.

Additional information

Resolving points ties prior to 1896-97

There is some uncertainly regarding how points ties were resolved prior to the 1896-97 season. It may have been goal average, or possibly this situation had not previously arisen.

The 11v11 league table generator uses GAve + GF in the absence of any definitive information to the contrary. [if was never an issue, this not needed]

Calculating position before the league ends using goal average

Using goal average makes tie resolution almost impossible for early-season tables.

This is because teams are most likely to tie when only a few games have been played, but will not usually have played the teams they tie with at that stage in the season, making it impossible to use their mutual encounters to resovle the tie.

It is noteworthy that until SSSS league tables were not published until a few weeks into the season, presumably to avoid the problems of resolving early-season points + GAve + GF ties when so few points or goals had been scored.

Users should note these points so that they are able to interpret early- and mid-season tables appropriately.

Historic league details at a glance

League Seasons Win points Tie resolution Playoffs
Premier League 1993 on 3 GD + GF + team name
League Championship 2005 on 3 GD + GF + team name LC
League One 2005 on 3 GD + GF + team name L1
League Two 2005 on 3 GD + GF + team name L2
League Division 1 1993-2004 3 GD + GF + team name LD1
League Division 2 1993-2004 3 GD + GF + team name LD2
League Division 3 1993-2004 3 GD + GF + team name LD3
League Division One 1889-1976 2 GAve + GF, then mini-league
1977-1981 2 GD + GF + team name
1982-1986 3 GD + GF + team name
1987-1988 3 GD + GF + team name LDs One & Two
1989-1992 3 GD + GF + team name
League Division Two 1893-1976 2 GAve + GF, then mini-league
1977-1981 2 GD + GF + team name
1982-1986 3 GD + GF + team name
1987-1988 3 GD + GF + team name LDs One & Two
1989-1992 3 GD + GF + team name LD Two
League Division Three 1959-1976 2 GAve + GF, then mini-league
1977-1981 2 GD + GF + team name
1982-1986 3 GD + GF + team name
1987-1988 3 GD + GF + team name LDs Two & Three
1989-1992 3 GD + GF + team name LD Three
League Division Four 1959-1976 2 GAve + GF, then mini-league
1977-1981 2 GD + GF + team name
1982-1986 3 GD + GF + team name
1987-1988 3 GD + GF + team name LDs Three & Four
1989-1992 3 GD + GF + team name LD Four
Division Three (North) 1922-1958 2 GAve + GF, then mini-league
Division Three (South) 1921-1958 2 GAve + GF, then mini-league
Close