2007–08 Football League Championship

Football League Championship 2007-08
Season information
Winners	West Bromwich Albion
Promoted	West Bromwich Albion (champions) Stoke City (runners up) Hull City (play-off winners)
Relegated	Leicester City Colchester United Scunthorpe United
Season statistics
Goals scored	1394
Average	2.53
Top goalscorer	Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (23)
Biggest home win	Ipswich Town 6–0 Bristol City (2007-11-10)
← 2006-07	2008-09 →

The 2007–08 Football League Championship (known as the Coca-Cola Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the sixteenth season under its current league division format and its fourth with its current sponsorship. The leagues started in August 2007 and concluded in May 2008, with the promotion play-off finals.

The Football League is contested through three Divisions. The top divisions of these is the League Championship. The winner and the runner up of the League Championship will be automatically promoted to the Premiership and they will be joined by the winner of the League Championship play-off. The bottom three teams in the Championship will be relegated to the second division, League One.

West Bromwich Albion finished top of the league with 81 points, closely followed by Stoke City who had 79 points. Hull City were promoted through the play-offs. Colchester and Scunthorpe United were both relegated several weeks before the end of the season. However, in a very tight league, with a gap of only 29 points between top and 22nd place, the final team to be relegated, Leicester City, went down on the final day while six other teams were within three points of them.

Promotion and relegation

Start of season

Teams promoted to Premier League 2007-08

• Derby County
• Sunderland
• Birmingham City

Teams promoted from League One 2006-07

• Blackpool
• Bristol City
• Scunthorpe United

End of season

Teams relegated from Premier League 2007-08

• Reading
• Birmingham City
• Derby County

Teams relegated to League One 2008-09

• Colchester United
• Scunthorpe United
• Leicester City

Stadia

Team	Stadium	Capacity
Reading	Hillsborough Stadium	39,814
Southampton	St Mary's Stadium	32,689
Coventry City	Ricoh Arena	32,609
Sheffield Utd	Bramall Lane	32,609
Leicester City	Walkers Stadium	32,500
Ipswich Town	Portman Road	30,311
Wolves	Molineux Stadium	28,525
Stoke City	Britannia Stadium	28,383
West Brom	The Hawthorns	28,003
Charlton Athletic	The Valley	27,111
Crystal Palace	Selhurst Park	26,309
Norwich City	Carrow Road	26,034
Hull City	KC Stadium	25,404
Preston North End	Deepdale	24,500
Barnsley	Oakwell	23,009
Burnley	Turf Moor	22,546
Cardiff City	Ninian Park	22,008
Bristol City	Ashton Gate	21,497
Watford	Vicarage Road	19,920
Plymouth Argyle	Home Park	19,500
Queens Park Rangers	Loftus Road	19,128
Blackpool	Bloomfield Road	9,788
Scunthorpe United	Glanford Park	9,183
Colchester United	Layer Road	6,320

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
Crystal Palace	Peter Taylor	Contract terminated	8 October 2007	Neil Warnock	11 October 2007	19th
Leicester City	Martin Allen	Mutual consent	29 August 2007	Gary Megson	13 September 2007	9th
Queens Park Rangers	John Gregory	Contract terminated	1 October 2007	Luigi De Canio	29 October 2007	24th
Norwich City	Peter Grant	Mutual consent	8 October 2007	Glenn Roeder	30 October 2007	22nd
Leicester City	Gary Megson	Mutual consent (hired by Bolton Wanderers)	24 October 2007	Ian Holloway	22 November 2007	19th
Burnley	Steve Cotterill	Mutual consent	8 November 2007	Owen Coyle	22 November 2007	15th
Preston North End	Paul Simpson	Contract terminated	13 November 2007	Alan Irvine	20 November 2007	21st
Plymouth Argyle	Ian Holloway	Resigned (hired by Leicester City)	21 November 2007	Paul Sturrock	27 November 2007	7th
Coventry City	Iain Dowie	Contract terminated	11 February 2008	Chris Coleman	19 February 2008	19th
Sheffield United	Bryan Robson	Mutual consent	14 February 2008	Kevin Blackwell	14 February 2008	16th
Queens Park Rangers	Luigi De Canio	Mutual consent	8 May 2008	Iain Dowie	14 May 2008	14th

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Notes
1	West Brom  (C) (P)	46	23	12	11	88	55	+33	81	Promotion to the  Premier League
2	Stoke City  (P)	46	21	16	9	69	55	+14	79
3	Hull City  (P)	46	21	12	13	65	47	+18	75	Qualification for the  League Championship playoffs
4	Bristol City	46	20	14	12	54	53	+1	74
5	Crystal Palace	46	18	17	11	58	42	+16	71
6	Watford	46	18	16	12	62	56	+6	70
7	Wolves	46	18	16	12	53	48	+5	70
8	Ipswich Town	46	18	15	13	65	56	+9	69
9	Sheffield Utd	46	17	15	14	56	51	+5	66
10	Plymouth Argyle	46	17	13	16	60	50	+10	64
11	Charlton Athletic	46	17	13	16	63	58	+5	64
12	Cardiff City	46	16	16	14	59	55	+4	64
13	Burnley	46	16	14	16	60	67	−7	62
14	Queens Park Rangers	46	14	16	16	60	66	−6	58
15	Preston North End	46	15	11	20	50	56	−6	56
16	Reading	46	14	13	19	54	55	−1	55
17	Norwich City	46	15	10	21	49	59	−10	55
18	Barnsley	46	14	13	19	52	65	−13	55
19	Blackpool	46	12	18	16	59	64	−5	54
20	Southampton	46	13	15	18	56	72	−16	54
21	Coventry City	46	14	11	21	52	64	−12	53
22	Leicester City  (R)	46	12	16	18	42	45	−3	52	Relegation to the  League One
23	Scunthorpe United  (R)	46	11	13	22	46	69	−23	46
24	Colchester United  (R)	46	7	17	22	62	86	−24	38

Updated to games played on 4 May 2008
Source: The Football League
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd goal difference; 3rd number of goals scored.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round; (Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament

Play-offs

The Football League Championship Playoffs took place at the end of May 2008. They involved the teams that finished third to sixth in the table. Hull (3rd) and Bristol City (4th) qualified from their semi-finals against Watford (6th) and Crystal Palace (5th) respectively over two legs. Hull City won the final with a single Dean Windass goal to win promotion to the Premier League.

		Semifinals				Finals
	6	Watford	0 1 (1)
	3	Hull City	2 4 (6)
						3	Hull City	1
						4	Bristol City	0
	5	Crystal Palace	1 1 (2)
	4	Bristol City	2 2 (4)

Results

Home \ Away

BAR

BPL

BRC

BUR

CDC

CHA

COL

COV

CRY

HUL

IPS

LEI

NWC

PLY

PNE

QPR

SCU

SHU

REA

SOT

STK

WAT

WBA

WOL

Barnsley

2–1

3–0

1–1

1–1

3–0

1–0

1–4

0–0

1–3

4–1

0–1

1–3

3–2

1–0

0–0

2–0

0–1

0–0

2–2

3–3

3–2

2–1

1–0

Blackpool

1–1

1–1

3–0

0–1

5–3

2–2

4–0

1–1

2–1

1–1

2–1

1–3

0–0

0–0

1–0

1–0

2–2

2–1

2–2

2–3

1–1

1–3

0–0

Bristol City

3–2

1–0

2–2

1–0

0–1

1–1

2–1

1–1

2–1

2–0

0–2

2–1

1–2

3–0

2–2

2–1

2–0

2–1

2–1

1–0

0–0

1–1

0–0

Burnley

2–1

2–2

0–1

3–3

1–0

1–1

2–0

1–1

0–1

2–2

1–1

2–1

1–0

2–3

0–2

2–0

1–2

1–1

2–3

0–0

2–2

2–1

1–3

Cardiff City

3–0

3–1

2–1

2–1

0–2

4–1

0–1

1–1

1–0

1–0

0–1

1–2

1–0

2–2

3–1

1–1

1–0

1–0

1–0

0–1

1–2

0–0

2–3

Charlton Athletic

1–1

4–1

1–1

1–3

3–0

1–2

4–1

2–0

1–1

3–1

2–0

2–0

1–2

1–2

0–1

1–1

0–3

3–2

1–1

1–0

2–2

1–1

2–3

Colchester United

2–2

0–2

1–2

2–3

1–1

2–2

1–5

1–2

1–3

2–0

1–1

1–1

1–1

2–1

4–2

0–1

2–2

1–2

1–1

0–1

2–3

3–2

0–1

Coventry City

4–0

3–1

0–3

1–2

0–0

1–1

1–0

0–2

1–1

2–1

2–0

1–0

3–1

2–1

0–0

1–1

0–1

0–0

1–1

1–2

0–3

0–4

1–1

Crystal Palace

2–0

0–0

2–0

5–0

0–0

0–1

2–1

1–1

1–1

0–1

2–2

1–1

2–1

2–1

1–1

2–0

3–2

2–1

1–1

1–3

0–2

1–1

0–2

Hull City

3–0

2–2

0–0

2–0

2–2

1–2

1–1

1–0

2–1

3–1

2–0

2–1

2–3

3–0

1–1

2–0

1–1

1–0

5–0

1–1

3–0

1–3

2–0

Ipswich Town

0–0

2–1

6–0

0–0

1–1

2–0

3–1

4–1

1–0

1–0

3–1

2–1

0–0

2–1

0–0

3–2

1–1

4–1

2–0

1–1

1–2

2–0

3–0

Leicester City

2–0

0–1

0–0

0–1

0–0

1–1

1–1

2–0

1–0

0–2

2–0

4–0

0–1

0–1

1–1

1–0

0–1

1–3

1–2

1–1

4–1

1–2

0–0

Norwich City

1–0

1–2

1–3

2–0

1–2

1–1

5–1

2–0

1–0

1–1

2–2

0–0

2–1

1–0

3–0

0–0

1–0

0–1

2–1

0–1

1–3

1–2

1–1

Plymouth Argyle

3–0

3–0

1–1

3–1

2–2

1–2

4–1

1–0

1–0

0–1

1–1

0–0

3–0

2–2

2–1

3–0

0–1

1–2

1–1

2–2

1–1

1–2

1–1

Preston North End

1–2

0–1

0–0

2–1

1–2

0–2

0–3

1–0

0–1

3–0

2–2

1–1

0–0

2–0

0–0

0–1

3–1

1–0

5–1

2–0

1–0

2–1

2–1

Queens Park Rangers

2–0

3–2

3–0

2–4

0–2

1–0

2–1

1–2

1–2

2–0

1–1

3–1

1–0

0–2

2–2

3–1

1–1

0–0

0–3

3–0

1–1

0–2

0–0

Scunthorpe United

2–2

1–1

0–1

2–0

3–2

1–0

3–3

2–1

0–0

1–2

1–2

0–0

0–1

1–0

2–1

2–2

3–2

1–1

1–1

2–3

1–3

2–3

0–2

Sheffield Utd

1–0

1–1

2–1

0–0

3–3

0–2

2–2

2–1

0–1

2–0

3–1

3–0

2–0

0–1

1–1

2–1

0–0

2–2

1–2

0–3

1–1

1–0

3–1

Reading

1–0

2–1

0–1

0–2

1–0

0–0

1–2

1–1

2–2

1–0

1–2

0–2

4–1

1–1

2–1

2–1

1–2

2–0

5–0

1–1

0–1

0–1

1–3

Southampton

2–3

1–0

2–0

0–1

1–0

0–1

1–1

0–0

1–4

4–0

1–1

1–0

0–1

0–2

0–1

2–3

1–0

3–2

0–0

3–2

0–3

3–2

0–0

Stoke City

0–0

1–1

2–1

1–1

2–1

2–1

2–1

1–3

1–2

1–1

1–0

0–0

2–1

3–2

3–1

3–1

3–2

0–1

2–4

3–2

0–0

3–1

0–0

Watford

1–3

1–1

1–2

1–2

2–2

1–1

2–2

2–1

0–2

1–0

2–0

1–0

1–1

0–1

0–0

2–4

0–1

1–0

2–1

3–2

0–0

0–3

3–0

West Brom

2–0

2–1

4–1

2–1

3–3

4–2

4–3

2–4

1–1

1–2

4–0

1–4

2–0

3–0

2–0

5–1

5–0

0–0

1–1

1–1

1–1

1–1

0–0

Wolves

1–0

2–1

1–1

2–3

3–0

2–0

1–0

1–0

0–3

0–1

1–1

1–1

2–0

1–0

1–0

3–3

2–1

0–0

2–1

2–2

2–4

1–2

0–1

Source: The Football League
¹The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For coming matches, an a indicates there is an article about the match.

Top scorers

Pos	Player	Team	Goals
1	Sylvan Ebanks-Blake	Plymouth Argyle Wolverhampton Wanderers	23
2	James Beattie	Sheffield United	22
	Kevin Phillips	West Bromwich Albion	22
4	Stern John	Southampton	19
5	Kevin Lisbie	Colchester United	17
6	Clinton Morrison	Crystal Palace	16
7	Fraizer Campbell	Hull City	15
	Ricardo Fuller	Stoke City	15
9	Liam Lawrence	Stoke City	14

Team of the Year

Pos.	Player	Club
GK	Wayne Hennessey	Wolverhampton Wanderers
DF	Bradley Orr	Bristol City
DF	Danny Shittu	Watford
DF	Paul Robinson	West Bromwich Albion
DF	Ryan Shawcross	Stoke City
MF	Brian Howard	Barnsley
MF	Marvin Elliott	Bristol City
MF	Liam Lawrence	Stoke City
MF	Jonathan Greening	West Bromwich Albion
ST	Ricardo Fuller	Stoke City
ST	Kevin Phillips	West Bromwich Albion