Leagues 1 and 2 update

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...il-season-promotion-relegation-hold-play-offs

Both have voted to end the regular season now. Coventry and Rotherham are promoted to the Championship for next season. Tranmere, Bolton and Southend are relegated to League 2. The League 1 playoffs will feature Wycombe, Oxford, Portsmouth and Fleetwood. Swindon, Crewe and Plymouth are promoted to League 1. It's not been determined who the lone club to be relegated will be. Stevenage are bottom, but Macclesfield, 3 points above The Boro, have outstanding disciplinary proceedings that could cost them enough points to be sent down to the National League...IF the National League emerges from a meeting tomorrow saying they WILL start the 2020-21 season in the fall. Exeter, Cheltenham, Colchester and Northampton will contest for the playoff promotion spot. The clubs screwed over the most with the decision to use points per game to determine the final standings? Tranmere and Peterborough, the latter finishing outside qualifying for the playoffs by .02 points. As for how this affects Fulham, very little. We've won 4 of 6 against Rotherham since our first 2000's relegation in 2014. The two were draws. We haven't played Coventry City since two League Cup encounter in October of 1982. Before that, we hadn't played them since 1968. They're up in the West Midlands, between Leicester and Birmingham, although they're presently ground sharing at St. Andrews with the Blues. Their stadium situation is a real cock up, complicated by financial problems.

 

Thanks for the update James! Bolton dropping to the 4th tier of English footy is shocking since they always seemed the a mid-table Premier club w/Big Sam at the helm not that long ago.

Not worried about Rotherham either (fingers crossed we really don’t have to concern ourselves w/them next season). Didn’t know anything about Coventry except Cookie Coleman managing them for awhile after his Fulham days.

 

Yeah, Bolton were in the PL when I started seriously following footy during the 2010-11 season. So were Birmingham City, Blackpool, Stoke City, Sunderland, West Brom and Wigan. I remember Ian Darke doing a match preview standup next to the water in Blackpool, talking about how quaint it was and reminding everyone of their tradition of the players still laundering their own kits. It's amazing how fragile the fortunes of clubs similar to ours are.

 

Courtesy of The Fiver:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jun/17/the-fiver-the-premier-league-is-back-baby
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“He hasn’t been to a game yet, but we have talked about it. He does love England and if he was in England at the time of a game he would definitely come, but he’s very heavily involved with basketball, different businesses and his charity work. This is the next best thing” – Northampton chairman Kelvin Thomas on why a cutout of Shaquille O’Neal will be in place – among others – for the League Two play-offs on Thursday.

 

The odd thing about this year is Bury being expelled from the Football League, while in League One. As a result only 3 teams get relegated to League 2 and only one club will be relegated from League 2 to the National League.

Coventry City used to be a fixture in the top flight and were an inaugural member of the Premier League. They were relegated in 2001 (same season FFC won promotion to the Prem) after 34 consecutive years in the top flight. They spent the next 11 in the Championship. Good to see them get back to where they should be, despite their garbage, bumbling ownership. All things being equal, Coventry should be a yo-yo club between the Prem and Champ, like Wolves, WBA, etc.

Not sure what’s going on with Bolton specifically, but it seems like a lot of formerly successful clubs in that neck of the woods (Blackburn, Wigan) have struggled in the last decade.

 

Northampton have won the League 2 playoff, coming from the 7th position in the table, with a resounding 4-0 victory over Exeter at Wembley. Four teams were promoted due to Bury being expelled from the EFL.

 

The League 1 final is Monday night at Wembley (7:30, British, 2:30, Eastern). It’s supposed to be on one of the ESPN pipelines, but I am finding conflicting information about whether or not it will be on one of our Yank channels. Oxford vs. Wycombe. I’m going to root for the Wanderers for two reasons. 1) They’ve never been in the second tier of English football in their 133 year history.
2) When my spouse and I toured Wembley in April, 2014 during our 30th anniversary trip, one of our two guides was a decent young bloke from Melbourne, Australia named Michael Cornell. Friended him on Facebook after we returned home and we’ve kept in touch. Even managed to hook up with him in June, 2015 in Manhattan while I was covering the Belmont Stakes and he was touring the U.S. on his way home to Oz. Long story short, he’s a Wycombe man, so I hope he gets some joy come Monday evening. He moved back to London in early March of this year, two days before the first UK death from COVID-19 was confirmed. It’s been a tough go, but he’s hanging in tough.

 

Addendum:
Reason 3: Jack Grimmer and David Stockdale are on Wycombe’s roster. Grimmer starts at right back. Stockdale is the backup keeper.

 

Wycombe it is!

The Wanderers will play in the Championship for the first time in their history after beating Oxford 2-1 at Wembley.