2008–09 Football League Championship

The 2008–09 Football League Championship (known as the Coca-Cola Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the sixth season of the league under its current title and seventeenth season under its current league division format.

Football League Championship

Season	2008–09
Champions	Wolverhampton Wanderers 1st Championship title 3rd 2nd tier title
Promoted	Wolverhampton Wanderers Birmingham City Burnley
Relegated	Norwich City Southampton Charlton Athletic
Matches played	552
Goals scored	1,350 (2.45 per match)
Top goalscorer	Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (25 goals)
Biggest home win	Reading 6–0 Sheffield Wednesday, Preston North End 6–0 Cardiff City
Biggest away win	Charlton Athletic 2–5 Sheffield United
Highest scoring	Norwich City 5–2 Wolverhampton Wanderers, Watford 3–4 Blackpool, Charlton Athletic 2–5 Sheffield United
Longest winning run	7 games[1] Wolverhampton Wanderers (achieved twice)
Longest unbeaten run	13 games[1] Cardiff City, Swansea City
Longest winless run	18 games[1] Charlton Athletic
Longest losing run	6 games[1] Doncaster Rovers
Highest attendance	33,079[2] Derby County v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Lowest attendance	6,648[2] Blackpool v Charlton Athletic
Average attendance	17,938[2]
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

Wolverhampton Wanderers won the division to return to the Premier League after a five-year absence. They secured the Championship title on 25 April, one week after having confirmed their promotion with a victory over QPR.^[3][4]

Birmingham City were promoted at the first attempt following their relegation. They secured their return to the top flight on the final day of the season by winning at promotion rivals Reading 2–1.^[5] Norwich City, Southampton and Charlton Athletic were relegated;^[6]

Burnley won the play-offs to reach the Premier League for the first time after a 1–0 win in the play-off final against Sheffield United, who had been in with a chance of automatic promotion on the final day.^[7]

Team changes from previous season

Joining the Championship

Relegated from the Premier League:

• Reading
• Birmingham City
• Derby County

Promoted from League One:

• Swansea City
• Nottingham Forest
• Doncaster Rovers

Leaving the Championship

Promoted to the Premier League:

• West Bromwich Albion
• Stoke City
• Hull City

Relegated to League One:

• Leicester City
• Scunthorpe United
• Colchester United

Team overview

Stadium and locations

Barnsley

Birmingham

Blackpool
Preston North End

Bristol City

Burnley

Cardiff

Charlton

Coventry

Crystal Palace

Derby

Doncaster

Ipswich

Norwich

Nottingham Forest

Plymouth

QPR

Reading

Sheffield United

Sheffield Wednesday

Southampton

Swansea

Watford

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Locations of the Championship 2008–09 teams

Team	Stadium	Capacity
Barnsley	Oakwell	23,009
Birmingham City	St Andrew's	30,009
Blackpool	Bloomfield Road	9,788
Bristol City	Ashton Gate	21,497
Burnley	Turf Moor	22,546
Cardiff City	Ninian Park	22,008
Charlton Athletic	The Valley	27,111
Coventry City	Ricoh Arena	32,609
Crystal Palace	Selhurst Park	26,309
Derby County	Pride Park	33,597
Doncaster Rovers	Keepmoat Stadium	15,231
Ipswich Town	Portman Road	30,311
Norwich City	Carrow Road	26,034
Nottingham Forest	City Ground	30,602
Plymouth Argyle	Home Park	19,500
Preston North End	Deepdale	24,500
Queens Park Rangers	Loftus Road	19,128
Reading	Madejski Stadium	24,161
Sheffield United	Bramall Lane	32,609
Sheffield Wednesday	Hillsborough	39,814
Southampton	St Mary's Stadium	32,689
Swansea City	Liberty Stadium	20,532
Watford	Vicarage Road	19,920
Wolverhampton Wanderers	Molineux	28,525

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Manager	Kit maker	Sponsor
Barnsley	Simon Davey	Lotto	Barnsley Building Society
Birmingham City	Alex McLeish	Umbro	F&C Investments
Blackpool	Ian Holloway	Carlotti	Floors 2 Go/Carbrini
Bristol City	Gary Johnson	Puma	DAS Group
Burnley	Owen Coyle	Erreà	Holland's Pies
Cardiff City	Dave Jones	Joma	Vansdirect.co.uk
Charlton Athletic	Phil Parkinson	Joma	Carbrini
Coventry City	Chris Coleman	Puma	Cassidy Group (H)/StadiArena (A)
Crystal Palace	Neil Warnock	Erreà	GAC Logistics
Derby County	Nigel Clough	Adidas	Bombardier
Doncaster Rovers	Sean O'Driscoll	Vandanel	Wright Investments
Ipswich Town	Roy Keane	Mitre	Marcus Evans
Norwich City	Bryan Gunn	Xara	Aviva
Nottingham Forest	Billy Davies	Umbro	Capital One
Plymouth Argyle	Paul Sturrock	Puma	Ginsters
Preston North End	Alan Irvine	Diadora	Enterprise plc
Queens Park Rangers	Jim Magilton	Lotto	Gulf Air
Reading	Steve Coppell	Puma	Waitrose
Sheffield United	Kevin Blackwell	Le Coq Sportif	VisitMalta.com
Sheffield Wednesday	Brian Laws	Lotto	PlusNet
Southampton	Mark Wotte	Umbro	Flybe
Swansea City	Roberto Martínez	Umbro	Swansea.com
Watford	Brendan Rodgers	Diadora	Beko
Wolverhampton Wanderers	Mick McCarthy	Le Coq Sportif	Chaucer Consulting

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Replaced by	Date of appointment	Position in table
QPR	Iain Dowie	Sacked	24 October 2008[8]	Paulo Sousa	19 November 2008[9]	9th
Watford	Aidy Boothroyd	Mutual consent	3 November 2008[10]	Brendan Rodgers	24 November 2008[11]	21st
Charlton Athletic	Alan Pardew	Mutual consent	22 November 2008[12]	Phil Parkinson	31 December 2008[13]	22nd
Blackpool	Simon Grayson	Signed by Leeds United	23 December 2008[14]	Ian Holloway	21 May 2009	16th
Nottingham Forest	Colin Calderwood	Sacked	26 December 2008[15]	Billy Davies	1 January 2009[16]	22nd
Derby County	Paul Jewell	Resigned	28 December 2008[17]	Nigel Clough	6 January 2009[18]	18th
Norwich City	Glenn Roeder	Sacked	14 January 2009[19]	Bryan Gunn	21 January 2009[20]	21st
Southampton	Jan Poortvliet	Resigned	23 January 2009[21]	Mark Wotte	23 January 2009[21]	23rd
QPR	Paulo Sousa	Sacked	9 April 2009[22]	Jim Magilton	3 June 2009	10th
Ipswich Town	Jim Magilton	Sacked	22 April 2009[23]	Roy Keane	23 April 2009[24]	9th
Reading	Steve Coppell	Resigned	12 May 2009[25]	Brendan Rodgers	4 June 2009	4th, Play-off semi-final

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	Wolverhampton Wanderers (C, P)	46	27	9	10	80	52	+28	90	Promotion to the Premier League
2	Birmingham City (P)	46	23	14	9	54	37	+17	83
3	Sheffield United	46	22	14	10	64	39	+25	80	Qualification for Championship play-offs
4	Reading	46	21	14	11	72	40	+32	77
5	Burnley (O, P)	46	21	13	12	72	60	+12	76
6	Preston North End	46	21	11	14	66	54	+12	74
7	Cardiff City	46	19	17	10	65	53	+12	74
8	Swansea City	46	16	20	10	63	50	+13	68
9	Ipswich Town	46	17	15	14	62	53	+9	66
10	Bristol City	46	15	16	15	54	54	0	61
11	Queens Park Rangers	46	15	16	15	42	44	−2	61
12	Sheffield Wednesday	46	16	13	17	51	58	−7	61
13	Watford	46	16	10	20	68	72	−4	58
14	Doncaster Rovers	46	17	7	22	42	53	−11	58
15	Crystal Palace	46	15	12	19	52	55	−3	56[a]
16	Blackpool	46	13	17	16	47	58	−11	56
17	Coventry City	46	13	15	18	47	58	−11	54
18	Derby County	46	14	12	20	55	67	−12	54
19	Nottingham Forest	46	13	14	19	50	65	−15	53
20	Barnsley	46	13	13	20	45	58	−13	52
21	Plymouth Argyle	46	13	12	21	44	57	−13	51
22	Norwich City (R)	46	12	10	24	57	70	−13	46	Relegation to Football League One
23	Southampton (R)	46	10	15	21	46	69	−23	45[b]
24	Charlton Athletic (R)	46	8	15	23	52	74	−22	39

Updated to match(es) played on 3 May 2009. Source: The Football League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Crystal Palace were give a one-point deduction for using an ineligible player during a match against Sheffield United on 3 May 2009.^[26]
2. Southampton were given a ten-point deduction for breaching insolvency regulations, regarding their holding company. As they finished in the bottom three in the 2008–09 season, the points deduction was applied during the 2009–10 season in League One.^[27]

Play-offs

Main article: 2009 Football League play-offs

	Semi-finals							Final
	3	Sheffield United	1	1	2
	6	Preston North End	1	0	1
								3	Sheffield United	0
								5	Burnley	1
	4	Reading	0	0	0
	5	Burnley	1	2	3

Results

Home \ Away	BAR	BIR	BLP	BRI	BUR	CAR	CHA	COV	CRY	DER	DON	IPS	NWC	NOT	PLY	PNE	QPR	REA	SHU	SHW	SOU	SWA	WAT	WOL
Barnsley		1–1	0–1	0–0	3–2	0–1	0–0	1–2	3–1	2–0	4–1	1–2	0–0	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–1	0–1	1–2	2–1	0–1	1–3	2–1	1–1
Birmingham City	2–0		0–1	1–0	1–1	1–1	3–2	0–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	1–2	1–0	1–3	1–0	3–1	1–0	0–0	3–2	2–0
Blackpool	1–0	2–0		0–1	0–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–2	3–2	2–3	0–1	2–0	1–1	0–1	1–3	0–3	2–2	1–3	0–2	1–1	1–1	0–2	2–2
Bristol City	2–0	1–2	0–0		1–2	1–1	2–1	2–0	1–0	1–1	4–1	1–1	1–0	2–2	2–2	1–1	1–1	1–4	0–0	1–1	2–0	0–0	1–1	2–2
Burnley	1–2	1–1	2–0	4–0		2–2	2–1	1–1	4–2	3–0	0–0	0–3	2–0	5–0	0–0	3–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–4	3–2	0–2	3–2	1–0
Cardiff City	3–1	1–2	2–0	0–0	3–1		2–0	2–1	2–1	4–1	3–0	0–3	2–2	2–0	1–0	2–0	0–0	2–2	0–3	2–0	2–1	2–2	2–1	1–2
Charlton Athletic	1–3	0–0	2–2	0–2	1–1	2–2		1–2	1–0	2–2	1–2	2–1	4–2	0–2	2–0	0–0	2–2	4–2	2–5	1–2	0–0	2–0	2–3	1–3
Coventry City	1–1	1–0	2–1	0–3	1–3	0–2	0–0		0–2	1–1	1–0	2–2	2–0	2–2	0–1	0–0	1–0	0–0	1–2	2–0	4–1	1–1	2–3	2–1
Crystal Palace	3–0	0–0	0–1	4–2	0–0	0–2	1–0	1–1		1–0	2–1	1–4	3–1	1–2	1–2	2–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–1	3–0	2–0	0–0	0–1
Derby County	0–0	1–1	4–1	2–1	1–1	1–1	1–0	2–1	1–2		0–1	0–1	3–1	1–1	2–1	2–2	0–2	0–2	2–1	3–0	0–1	2–2	1–0	2–3
Doncaster Rovers	0–1	0–2	0–0	1–0	2–1	1–1	0–1	1–0	2–0	2–1		1–0	1–1	0–0	1–0	0–2	2–0	0–1	0–2	1–0	0–2	0–0	1–2	0–1
Ipswich Town	3–0	0–1	1–1	3–1	1–1	1–2	1–1	2–1	1–1	2–0	1–3		3–2	2–1	0–0	1–2	2–0	2–0	1–1	1–1	0–3	2–2	0–0	0–2
Norwich City	4–0	1–1	1–1	1–2	1–1	2–0	1–0	1–2	1–2	1–2	2–1	2–0		2–3	1–0	2–2	0–1	0–2	1–0	0–1	2–2	2–3	2–0	5–2
Nottingham Forest	1–0	1–1	0–0	3–2	1–2	0–1	0–0	1–0	0–2	1–3	2–4	1–1	1–2		2–0	2–1	2–2	0–0	0–1	2–1	3–1	1–1	3–2	0–1
Plymouth Argyle	1–2	0–1	1–2	0–2	1–2	2–1	2–2	4–0	1–3	0–3	0–3	1–3	1–2	1–0		1–0	1–1	2–2	2–2	4–0	2–0	0–1	2–1	2–2
Preston North End	2–1	1–0	0–1	2–0	2–1	6–0	2–1	2–1	2–0	2–0	1–0	3–2	1–0	2–1	1–1		2–1	2–1	0–0	1–1	2–3	0–2	2–0	1–3
Queens Park Rangers	2–1	1–0	1–1	2–1	1–2	1–0	2–1	1–1	0–0	0–2	2–0	1–3	0–1	2–1	0–0	3–2		0–0	0–0	3–2	4–1	1–0	0–0	1–0
Reading	0–0	1–2	1–0	0–2	3–1	1–1	2–2	3–1	4–2	3–0	2–1	0–1	2–0	0–1	2–0	0–0	0–0		0–1	6–0	1–2	4–0	4–0	1–0
Sheffield United	2–1	2–1	2–2	3–0	2–3	0–0	3–1	1–1	2–2	4–2	0–1	2–0	1–0	0–0	2–0	1–0	3–0	0–2		1–2	0–0	1–0	2–1	1–3
Sheffield Wednesday	0–1	1–1	1–1	0–0	4–1	1–0	4–1	0–1	2–0	0–1	1–0	0–0	3–2	1–0	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–2	1–0		2–0	0–0	2–0	0–1
Southampton	0–0	1–2	0–1	0–1	2–2	1–0	2–3	1–1	1–0	1–1	1–2	2–2	2–0	0–2	0–0	3–1	0–0	1–1	1–2	1–1		2–2	0–3	1–2
Swansea City	2–2	2–3	0–1	1–0	1–1	2–2	1–1	0–0	1–3	1–1	3–1	3–0	2–1	3–1	1–0	4–1	0–0	2–0	1–1	1–1	3–0		3–1	3–1
Watford	1–1	0–1	3–4	2–4	3–0	2–2	1–0	2–1	2–0	3–1	1–1	2–1	2–1	2–1	1–2	2–1	3–0	2–2	0–2	2–2	2–2	2–0		2–3
Wolverhampton Wanderers	2–0	1–1	2–0	2–0	2–0	2–2	2–1	2–1	2–1	3–0	1–0	0–0	3–3	5–1	0–1	1–3	1–0	0–3	1–1	4–1	3–0	2–1	3–1

Source: The Football League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top goalscorers

Pos	Player	Team	Goals
1	Sylvan Ebanks-Blake	Wolverhampton Wanderers	25
2	Ross McCormack	Cardiff City	21
	Jason Scotland	Swansea City
4	Kevin Doyle	Reading	18
5	Tommy Smith	Watford	16
6	Rob Hulse	Derby County	14
	Chris Iwelumo	Wolverhampton Wanderers
	Marcus Tudgay	Sheffield Wednesday
	Kevin Phillips	Birmingham City

Awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Notes
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August	Mick McCarthy	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Richard Chaplow	Preston North End	[28][29]
September	Owen Coyle	Burnley	Kevin Doyle	Reading	[30][31]
October	Dave Jones	Cardiff City	Rob Hulse	Derby County	[32][33]
November	Mick McCarthy	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Chris Iwelumo	Wolverhampton Wanderers	[34][35]
December	Steve Coppell	Reading	Stephen Hunt	Reading	[36][37]
January	Roberto Martínez	Swansea City	Joe Ledley	Cardiff City	[38][39]
February	Chris Coleman	Coventry City	Jason Scotland	Swansea City	[40]
March	Kevin Blackwell	Sheffield United	Robbie Blake	Burnley	[41][42]
April	Alan Irvine	Preston North End	Kyle Naughton	Sheffield United

PFA Team of the Year^[43]

Pos.	Player	Club
GK	Keiren Westwood	Coventry City
DF	Kyle Naughton	Sheffield United
DF	Roger Johnson	Cardiff City
DF	Richard Stearman	Wolverhampton Wanderers
DF	Danny Fox	Coventry City
MF	Michael Kightly	Wolverhampton Wanderers
MF	Stephen Hunt	Reading
MF	Joe Ledley	Cardiff City
MF	Jordi Gómez	Swansea City
FW	Sylvan Ebanks-Blake	Wolverhampton Wanderers
FW	Jason Scotland	Swansea City

Events

Goal controversies

• On 20 September 2008, during Watford's home game against Reading, the assistant referee Nigel Banister adjudged that a John Eustace own goal had opened the scoring for Reading. In fact, the ball had gone four yards wide of the goal after Eustace challenged Royals forward Noel Hunt and a corner should therefore have been awarded. Referee Stuart Attwell followed the signal by the assistant and awarded the goal.^[44] The next day Reading manager Steve Coppell said that he was happy for the game to be replayed,^[45] but his offer was turned down when an official said, "the referee's decision is final."
• On 6 December 2008 an apparent Bristol City goal against Swansea City was not awarded after both the linesman and referee failed to see the ball cross the line. This led Bristol City manager Gary Johnson to add to calls for goal-line technology.^[46]

Southampton administration

On 23 April 2009, The Football League announced that Southampton had been placed into administration. The ruling occurred after the deadline for immediate points deduction application, so the ten-point deduction would have to await whether or not Southampton, in 22nd place at the time of the announcement, were relegated.^[47] If they had finished above the relegation zone, then the points would have been deducted from their total for the current year to thereby relegate them. However, since their relegation was confirmed following their penultimate match, their point penalty would be applied the next season in League One.^[48]