2019–20 EFL League One

League One 2019–20
Season information
Winners	Coventry City
Promoted	Coventry City Rotherham United Wycombe Wanderers
Relegated	Bolton Wanderers Southend United Tranmere Rovers
Season statistics
Matches played	211
Goals scored	570
Average	(2.7 per match)
Top goalscorer	Ivan Toney (24 goals)
Biggest home win	Peterborough 6–0 Rochdale (14 September 2019) Accrington 7–1 Bolton (23 November 2019)
Biggest away win	Lincoln 0–6 Oxford (21 September 2019) Southend 1–7 Doncaster (22 October 2019)
Highest scoring	Southend 1–7 Doncaster (22 October 2019) Accrington 7–1 Bolton (23 November 2019) Lincoln 5–3 Ipswich (29 December 2019)
← 2018–19	2020–21 →

The 2019–20 EFL League One (referred to as the Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons) is the 16th season of Football League One under its current title and the 28th season under its current league division format.

Newly promoted Bury were expelled from only the EFL (and not the F.A.) on 27 August 2019, due to financial issues at the club. They could not satisfy the requirements of their notice of withdrawal issued by the EFL for this deadline date. The league will operate with 23 teams for 2019–20, with three teams being relegated to League Two for the 2020–21 season, rather than the usual four. Having not fulfilled any of their league fixtures for the current season, as they were all postponed, no results were expunged.

Financially troubled Bolton entered administration and had been threatened with expulsion but were saved in a buy-out on 28 August.

Bolton failed to fulfil their fixture against Doncaster Rovers on 20 August. They called off the game 26 hours before kick off without informing the EFL nor Doncaster, claiming concerns over younger players' welfare. On 21 November, they were issued with a five-point deduction suspended for 18 months in relation to the Doncaster postponement, as well as a postponement in the 2018–19 season against Brentford in the Championship.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the season was temporarily suspended on 13 March. On 3 April 2020, this suspension was extended indefinitely.

On 9 June, clubs voted to curtail the season, meaning the final table would be calculated by a points-per-game method with the play-offs being played as normal.

Changes from last season

Team changes

The following teams have changed division since the 2018–19 season.

To League One Promoted from League Two Lincoln City Bury Milton Keynes Dons Tranmere Rovers Relegated from The Championship Rotherham United Bolton Wanderers Ipswich Town

From League One Promoted to The Championship Luton Town Barnsley Charlton Athletic Relegated to League Two Plymouth Argyle Walsall Scunthorpe United Bradford City

Stadia

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Accrington Stanley	Accrington	Crown Ground	5,057
AFC Wimbledon	London (Kingston upon Thames)	Kingsmeadow	4,850
Blackpool	Blackpool	Bloomfield Road	17,338
Bolton Wanderers	Bolton	University of Bolton Stadium	28,723
Bristol Rovers	Bristol	Memorial Stadium	12,300
Burton Albion	Burton upon Trent	Pirelli Stadium	6,912
Bury	Bury	Gigg Lane	11,840
Coventry City	Coventry	Ricoh Arena	32,609
Doncaster Rovers	Doncaster	Keepmoat Stadium	15,231
Fleetwood Town	Fleetwood	Highbury Stadium	5,327
Gillingham	Gillingham	Priestfield Stadium	11,582
Ipswich Town	Ipswich	Portman Road	30,311
Milton Keynes Dons	Milton Keynes	Stadium MK	30,500
Lincoln City	Lincoln	Sincil Bank	10,120
Oxford United	Oxford	Kassam Stadium	12,500
Peterborough United	Peterborough	ABAX Stadium	15,314
Portsmouth	Portsmouth	Fratton Park	19,669
Rochdale	Rochdale	Spotland Stadium	10,500
Rotherham United	Rotherham	New York Stadium	12,021
Shrewsbury Town	Shrewsbury	New Meadow	9,875
Southend United	Southend-on-Sea	Roots Hall	12,392
Tranmere Rovers	Birkenhead	Prenton Park	16,789
Wycombe Wanderers	High Wycombe	Adams Park	10,137

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Manager1	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Sponsor
Accrington Stanley	John Coleman	Seamus Conneely	Adidas	Wham
AFC Wimbledon	Glyn Hodges	Will Nightingale	Puma	Sports Interactive
Blackpool	Simon Grayson	Jay Spearing	Erreà	Blackpool Council (home: "VisitBlackpool.com"; away: "Get Vocal")
Bolton Wanderers	Keith Hill	Bridcutt, LiamLiam Bridcutt	Infinity Apparel	Home Bargains
Bristol Rovers	Joe Dunne (interim)	Ollie Clarke	Macron	Utilita Energy
Burton Albion	Clough, NigelNigel Clough	Jake Buxton	TAG	Prestec UK Ltd
Coventry City	Mark Robins	Liam Kelly	Hummel	Allsopp & Allsopp
Doncaster Rovers	Darren Moore	Ben Whiteman	Elite Pro Sports	LNER
Fleetwood Town	Barton, JoeyJoey Barton	Paul Coutts	Hummel	BES Utilities
Gillingham	Steve Evans	Max Ehmer	Macron	MEMS Power Generation
Ipswich Town	Paul Lambert	Luke Chambers	Adidas	Magical Vegas
Lincoln City	Michael Appleton	Lee Frecklington	Erreà	SRP Hire Solutions
Milton Keynes Dons	Russell Martin	Dean Lewington	Erreà	Suzuki
Oxford United	Karl Robinson	John Mousinho	Puma	Singha Beer
Peterborough United	Darren Ferguson	Mark Beevers	Nike	Mick George
Portsmouth	Kenny Jackett	Brett Pitman	Nike	University of Portsmouth
Rochdale	Brian Barry-Murphy	Callum Camps	Erreà	Crown Oil Ltd
Rotherham United	Paul Warne	Richard Wood	Puma	Embark Group (Home), Mears (Away & 3rd)
Shrewsbury Town	Sam Ricketts	David Edwards	Admiral	Tuffins Supermarkets (Home), Shropshire Homes (Away)
Southend United	Sol Campbell	Mark Milligan	Nike	Paddy Power (unbranded)
Sunderland	Phil Parkinson	Grant Leadbitter	Adidas	Children with Cancer UK
Tranmere Rovers	Micky Mellon	Scott Davies	Puma	Essar
Wycombe Wanderers	Gareth Ainsworth	Matt Bloomfield	O'Neills	Cherry Red Records (Home), Dormeo (Away)

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Gillingham	Mark Patterson	End of caretaker spell	4 May 2019	Pre-season	Steve Evans	21 May 2019
Bury	Ryan Lowe	Signed by Plymouth Argyle	5 June 2019		Paul Wilkinson	2 July 2019
Doncaster Rovers	Grant McCann	Signed by Hull City	21 June 2019		Darren Moore	10 July 2019
Blackpool	Terry McPhillips	End of contract	5 July 2019		Simon Grayson	6 July 2019
Bolton Wanderers	Phil Parkinson	Resigned	21 August 2019	23rd	Keith Hill	31 August 2019
Southend United	Kevin Bond		6 September 2019	22nd	Sol Campbell	22 October 2019
Lincoln City	Danny Cowley	Signed by Huddersfield Town	9 September 2019	5th	Michael Appleton	20 September 2019
Sunderland	Jack Ross	Sacked	8 October 2019	6th	Phil Parkinson	17 October 2019
AFC Wimbledon	Wally Downes	Mutual consent	20 October 2019	21st	Glyn Hodges	23 October 2019
Milton Keynes Dons	Paul Tisdale		2 November 2019		Russell Martin	3 November 2019
Bristol Rovers	Graham Coughlan	Signed by Mansfield Town	17 December 2019	4th	Ben Garner	23 December 2019
Blackpool	Simon Grayson	Sacked	12 February 2020	15th	Neil Critchley	2 March 2020
Burton Albion	Nigel Clough	Resigned	18 May 2020	12th	Jake Buxton	18 May 2020

League Table

2019–20 Football League One table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Coventry City  (C) (P)	34	18	13	3	48	30	+18	67	Promotion to the Championship
2	Rotherham United  (P)	35	18	8	9	61	38	+23	62
3	Wycombe Wanderers  (P) (O)	34	17	8	9	45	40	+5	59	Qualification to the League One play-offs
4	Oxford United	35	17	9	9	61	37	+24	60
5	Portsmouth	35	17	9	9	53	36	+17	60
6	Fleetwood Town	35	16	12	7	51	38	+13	60
7	Peterborough United	35	17	8	10	68	40	+28	59
8	Sunderland	36	16	11	9	48	32	+16	59
9	Doncaster Rovers	34	15	9	10	51	33	+18	54
10	Gillingham	35	12	15	8	42	34	+8	51
11	Ipswich Town	36	14	10	12	46	36	+10	52
12	Burton Albion	35	12	12	11	50	50	0	48
13	Blackpool	35	11	12	12	44	43	+1	45
14	Bristol Rovers	35	12	9	14	38	49	−11	45
15	Shrewsbury Town	34	10	11	13	31	42	−11	41
16	Lincoln City	35	12	6	17	44	46	−2	42
17	Accrington Stanley	35	10	10	15	47	53	−6	40
18	Rochdale	34	10	6	18	39	57	−18	36
19	Milton Keynes Dons	35	10	7	18	36	47	−11	37
20	AFC Wimbledon	35	8	11	16	39	52	−13	35
21	Tranmere Rovers  (R)	34	8	8	18	36	60	−24	32	Relegation to League Two
22	Southend United  (R)	35	4	7	24	39	85	−46	19
23	Bolton Wanderers  (R)	34	5	11	18	27	66	−39	14
24	Bury	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-12	Club expelled

Source: BBC Sport
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

• Bury deducted 12 points for entering into an insolvency event, before later being expelled from the EFL on August 27 2019. At the time of their expulsion, they had played no matches.
• Bolton Wanderers deducted 12 points for entering administration.

Results

Home \ Away	ACC	WIM	BLP	BOL	BRI	BRT	COV	DON	FLE	GIL	IPS	LIN	MKD	OXF	PET	POR	ROC	ROT	SHR	STD	SUN	TRA	WYC
Accrington Stanley	—	2–1	1–1	7–1		2–0				0–1	2–0	4–3	2–1	2–2	0–2	4–1	1–2	1–2	2–3	1–2	1–3	1–2
AFC Wimbledon	1–1	—	0–0	0–0	1–3	2–2		2–1	1–2	1–0	0–0	1–1	a	1–2	1–0	1–0	3–2	1–2	1–1	1–1			0–0
Blackpool	0–1	2–0	—	2–1	2–0				3–1	2–3	2–1	2–1	0–3	2–1	4–3	1–1		1–2	0–1	2–1		1–2	1–1
Bolton Wanderers	0–0	2–2	0–0	—	1–1	3–4	0–0		2–1		0–5		1–0	0–0		0–1	1–3		1–1	3–2	1–1	2–0	0–2
Bristol Rovers	3–3	1–2	2–1	0–2	—		1–2	0–2	0–0	1–1			1–0	3–1	0–0	2–2		1–0	0–1	4–2	2–0	2–0	0–0
Burton Albion	1–1	1–0	0–0	2–2	2–0	—	0–0		1–0	0–0	0–1	0–2	1–0	2–2	1–1		3–1	0–1		1–1		4–2
Coventry City	0–0	2–1	3–2	2–1	2–0		—	1–1	2–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–1			1–0	2–1	1–1		1–0	1–0	0–1
Doncaster Rovers	1–1		0–1	2–1	2–0	2–2	0–1	—	3–2	1–1		2–1	1–1	1–0	2–0	1–2	1–1	2–1	2–0	3–1	1–2		3–1
Fleetwood Town	2–0	2–1	0–0		0–0	4–1	0–0	2–1	—	1–1	0–1		1–0	2–1	2–1	1–0	2–1		2–2		1–1	2–1	1–1
Gillingham		1–2	2–2	5–0		1–2		2–1		—	0–1	1–0	3–1	1–1	1–2	1–1	1–0	0–3	2–0	3–1	1–0		2–0
Ipswich Town	4–1	2–1	2–2		1–2	4–1	0–1	0–0	0–1	0–0	—	1–0		0–1	1–4			0–2	3–0		1–1	4–1	0–0
Lincoln City	2–0		1–0	5–1	0–1	3–2			2–0	0–0	5–3	—	1–1	0–6	2–1	0–2		0–1	0–0	4–0	2–0	1–0
MK Dons		2–1		1–0	3–0	0–3	0–0	0–1			0–1	2–1	—	1–0	0–4	3–1	2–1	2–3	1–0	0–1	0–1	1–3	2–0
Oxford United	3–0	5–0	2–1			2–4	3–3	3–0		3–0	0–0	1–0		—	1–0		3–0	1–3	0–0	2–1	0–1	3–0	1–0
Peterborough United	4–0	3–2		1–0		1–0	2–2	0–3	1–3	0–0	2–2	2–0		4–0	—	2–0	6–0	2–1		4–0	3–0		4–0
Portsmouth		2–1		1–0		2–2	3–3		2–2	0–0	1–0	1–0	3–1	1–1	2–2	—	3–0	3–2	2–0	4–1	2–0	2–0	2–0
Rochdale	2–1		0–0	2–0	1–2		1–2	1–1	2–3	2–2	0–1	1–1	2–0			0–3	—	3–1	1–0		1–2		0–3
Rotherham United	1–0	2–2	2–1	6–1	3–0	3–2	4–0		2–2		1–0	0–2	1–1	1–2	4–0		0–1	—	0–0			1–1	0–1
Shrewsbury Town	0–2				3–4	0–0	2–1	1–0	0–3	1–1		1–1	1–1	2–3	1–0	1–0	0–0	1–2	—	4–3	1–0	2–3
Southend United	0–1	1–4	1–3		3–1	2–3	0–2	1–7	3–3	0–1	1–3	2–1	2–2	0–4	0–2		0–3	2–2		—		0–0
Sunderland		3–1	1–1	0–0	3–0	1–2	1–1	0–0	1–1	2–2	1–0	3–1	2–1	1–1		2–1	3–0	1–1		1–0	—	5–0	4–0
Tranmere Rovers	1–1	1–0	1–1	5–0	0–0	2–1	1–4	0–3		2–2	1–2				2–2	0–2	2–3		0–1	1–1	0–1	—	0–2
Wycombe Wanderers	1–1		2–1	2–0	3–1	2–0	1–4	1–0	0–1		1–1	3–1	3–2		3–3	1–0	2–1		1–0	4–3	1–0	3–1	—

Updated to match(es) played on 10 March 2020. Source: EFL Official Website
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Play-offs

See also: 2020 English Football League play-offs

Semi finals

Final

Portsmouth

1 1 2

Oxford United

1 1 2p

Oxford United

1

Wycombe Wanderers

2

Wycombe Wanderers

4 2 6

Fleetwood Town

1 2 3

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of 10 March 2020

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Ivan Toney	Peterborough United	24
2	Armand Gnanduillet	Blackpool	15
	Ian Henderson	Rochdale
	Paddy Madden	Fleetwood Town
5	Mohamed Eisa	Peterborough United	14
	Matt Godden	Coventry City
	Freddie Ladapo	Rotherham United
	Tyler Walker	Lincoln City
9	Jonson Clarke-Harris	Bristol Rovers	13
	Matty Taylor	Oxford United
11	James Henry	Oxford United	12

Hat-tricks

As of 26 November 2019

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Scott Fraser	Burton Albion	Oxford United	4–2 (A)	20 August 2019
Chris Maguire	Sunderland	AFC Wimbledon	3–1 (H)	24 August 2019
Joe Jacobson	Wycombe Wanderers	Lincoln City	3–1 (H)	7 September 2019
Ivan Toney	Peterborough United	Rochdale	6–0 (H)	14 September 2019
Tariqe Fosu	Oxford United	Lincoln City	6–0 (A)	21 September 2019
Marcus Forss	AFC Wimbledon	Southend United	4–1 (A)	12 October 2019
Paddy Madden	Fleetwood Town	Burton Albion	4–1 (H)	19 October 2019
Rushian Hepburn-Murphy	Tranmere Rovers	Milton Keynes Dons	3–1 (A)	2 November 2019
Matt Godden	Coventry City	Wycombe Wanderers	4–1 (A)	29 December 2019
Matt Godden	Coventry City	Tranmere Rovers	4–1 (A)	1 January 2020