2015–16 Football League One

The 2015–16 Football League One (referred to as the Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons) was the 12th season of the Football League One under its current title and the 23rd season under its current league division format. The season began on 8 August 2015, and concluded on 8 May 2016.^[3]

Football League One

Season	2015–16
Champions	Wigan Athletic (2nd divisional title)
Promoted	Wigan Athletic Burton Albion Barnsley
Relegated	Doncaster Rovers Blackpool Colchester United Crewe Alexandra
Matches played	552
Goals scored	1,457 (2.64 per match)
Top goalscorer	Will Grigg (25 goals)
Biggest home win	Chesterfield 7–1 Shrewsbury Town (2 January 2016) Coventry City 6–0 Bury (13 February 2016) Scunthorpe United 6–0 Swindon Town (28 March 2016)
Biggest away win	Crewe Alexandra 0–5 Coventry City (2 January 2016)
Longest winning run	Barnsley (7 matches)
Longest unbeaten run	Wigan Athletic (20 matches)
Longest winless run	Colchester United (19 matches)
Longest losing run	Colchester United (9 matches)
Highest attendance	24,777[1] Sheffield United 3–1 Bradford City (28 December 2015)
Lowest attendance	1,767[2] Rochdale 1–0 Fleetwood Town (23 February 2016)
← 2014–15 2016–17 →

Changes from last season

Team changes

The following teams have changed division since the 2014–15 season.

To League One

Promoted from League Two

• Burton Albion
• Shrewsbury Town
• Bury
• Southend United

Relegated from Championship

• Millwall
• Wigan Athletic
• Blackpool

From League One

Relegated to League Two

• Notts County
• Crawley Town
• Leyton Orient
• Yeovil Town

Promoted to Championship

• Bristol City
• Milton Keynes Dons
• Preston North End

Team overview

Stadia and locations

Millwall

Barnsley

Blackpool

Bradford City

Burton Albion

Chesterfield

Colchester United

Coventry City

Crewe Alexandra

Doncaster Rovers

Fleetwood Town

Gillingham

Greater Manchester

Peterborough United

Port Vale

Scunthorpe United

Sheffield United

Shrewsbury Town

Southend United

Swindon Town

Walsall

Greater Manchester teams
Bury
Oldham Athletic
Rochdale
Wigan Athletic

Locations of teams in the 2015–2016 Football League One

Bury

Oldham Athletic

Rochdale

Wigan Athletic

Greater Manchester League One football clubs

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity[4]
Barnsley	Barnsley	Oakwell	23,009
Blackpool	Blackpool	Bloomfield Road	16,750
Bradford City	Bradford	Valley Parade	25,136
Burton Albion	Burton-upon-Trent	Pirelli Stadium	6,912
Bury	Bury	Gigg Lane	11,840
Chesterfield	Chesterfield	Proact Stadium	10,400
Colchester United	Colchester	Weston Homes Community Stadium	10,105
Coventry City	Coventry	Ricoh Arena	32,500
Crewe Alexandra	Crewe	Gresty Road	10,066
Doncaster Rovers	Doncaster	Keepmoat Stadium	15,231
Fleetwood Town	Fleetwood	Highbury Stadium	5,311
Gillingham	Gillingham	Priestfield Stadium	11,582
Millwall	London (South Bermondsey)	The Den	20,146
Oldham Athletic	Oldham	Boundary Park	13,512
Peterborough United	Peterborough	Abax Stadium	14,319
Port Vale	Stoke-on-Trent	Vale Park	18,947
Rochdale	Rochdale	Spotland Stadium	10,249
Scunthorpe United	Scunthorpe	Glanford Park	9,183
Sheffield United	Sheffield	Bramall Lane	32,702
Shrewsbury Town	Shrewsbury	New Meadow	9,875
Southend United	Southend	Roots Hall	12,392
Swindon Town	Swindon	County Ground	15,728
Walsall	Walsall	Bescot Stadium	11,300
Wigan Athletic	Wigan	DW Stadium	25,138

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Blackpool	Lee Clark	Resigned	9 May 2015[5]	Pre-season	Neil McDonald	2 June 2015[6]
Chesterfield	Paul Cook	Signed by Portsmouth	12 May 2015[7]		Dean Saunders	13 May 2015[8]
Sheffield United	Nigel Clough	Sacked	25 May 2015[9]		Nigel Adkins	2 June 2015[10]
Peterborough United	Dave Robertson		6 September 2015[11]	20th	Graham Westley	21 September 2015[12]
Doncaster Rovers	Paul Dickov		8 September 2015[13]	17th	Rob Jones (interim)	8 September 2015[13]
Oldham Athletic	Darren Kelly		12 September 2015[14]	19th	David Dunn (interim)	13 September 2015[14]
Oldham Athletic	David Dunn (interim)	Change of contract	7 October 2015[15]	18th	David Dunn	7 October 2015[15]
Doncaster Rovers	Rob Jones	End of interim	16 October 2015	20th	Darren Ferguson	16 October 2015[16]
Chesterfield	Dean Saunders	Sacked	28 November 2015	16th	Danny Wilson	24 December 2015[17]
Walsall	Dean Smith	Signed by Brentford	30 November 2015	4th	John Ward (interim)	30 November 2015[18]
Burton Albion	Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink	Signed by QPR	4 December 2015[19]	1st	Nigel Clough	5 December 2015[20]
Walsall	John Ward (interim)	End of interim	18 December 2015	3rd	Sean O'Driscoll	18 December 2015[21]
Oldham Athletic	David Dunn	Sacked	12 January 2016	22nd	John Sheridan	13 January 2016[22]
Scunthorpe United	Mark Robins	Sacked	16 January 2016	13th	Graham Alexander	22 March 2016[23]
Barnsley	Lee Johnson	Signed by Bristol City	6 February 2016[24]	12th	Paul Heckingbottom (caretaker)	12 February 2016
Walsall	Sean O'Driscoll	Sacked	6 March 2016[25]	4th	John Whitney (interim)	7 March 2016[26]
Peterborough United	Graham Westley		23 April 2016[27]	14th	Grant McCann	23 April 2016

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	Wigan Athletic (C, P)	46	24	15	7	82	45	+37	87	Promotion to EFL Championship
2	Burton Albion (P)	46	25	10	11	57	37	+20	85
3	Walsall	46	24	12	10	71	49	+22	84	Qualification for the League One play-offs[a]
4	Millwall	46	24	9	13	73	49	+24	81
5	Bradford City	46	23	11	12	55	40	+15	80
6	Barnsley (O, P)	46	22	8	16	70	54	+16	74
7	Scunthorpe United	46	21	11	14	60	47	+13	74
8	Coventry City	46	19	12	15	67	49	+18	69
9	Gillingham	46	19	12	15	71	56	+15	69
10	Rochdale	46	19	12	15	68	61	+7	69
11	Sheffield United	46	18	12	16	64	59	+5	66
12	Port Vale	46	18	11	17	56	58	−2	65
13	Peterborough United	46	19	6	21	82	73	+9	63
14	Southend United	46	16	11	19	58	64	−6	59
15	Swindon Town	46	16	11	19	64	71	−7	59
16	Bury	46	16	12	18	56	73	−17	57[b]
17	Oldham Athletic	46	12	18	16	44	58	−14	54
18	Chesterfield	46	15	8	23	58	70	−12	53
19	Fleetwood Town	46	12	15	19	52	56	−4	51
20	Shrewsbury Town	46	13	11	22	58	79	−21	50
21	Doncaster Rovers (R)	46	11	13	22	48	64	−16	46	Relegation to EFL League Two
22	Blackpool (R)	46	12	10	24	40	63	−23	46
23	Colchester United (R)	46	9	13	24	57	99	−42	40
24	Crewe Alexandra (R)	46	7	13	26	46	83	−37	34

Updated to match(es) played on 1 July 2016. Source: BBC Sport
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. Four teams play for one spot and promotion to Football League Championship.
2. Bury were deducted 3 points for playing the unregistered Callum Styles against Southend United on 8 May.^[28]

Play-offs

See also: 2016 Football League play-offs

	Semi-finals							Final
	3	Walsall	0	1	1
	6	Barnsley	3	3	6
								6	Barnsley	3
								4	Millwall	1
	4	Millwall	3	1	4
	5	Bradford City	1	1	2

Results

Home \ Away	BAR	BLP	BRA	BRT	BRY	CHF	COL	COV	CRE	DON	FLE	GIL	MIL	OLD	PET	PTV	ROC	SCU	SHU	SHR	STD	SWI	WAL	WIG
Barnsley		4–2	0–0	1–0	3–0	1–2	2–2	2–0	1–2	1–0	0–1	2–0	2–1	2–1	1–0	1–2	6–1	0–0	1–1	1–2	0–2	4–1	0–2	0–2
Blackpool	1–1		0–1	1–2	1–1	2–0	0–1	0–1	2–0	0–2	1–0	1–0	1–1	0–0	2–0	0–1	0–2	5–0	0–0	2–3	2–0	1–0	0–4	0–4
Bradford City	0–1	1–0		2–0	2–1	2–0	1–2	0–0	2–0	2–1	2–1	1–2	1–0	1–0	0–2	1–0	2–2	1–0	2–2	1–1	2–0	1–0	4–0	1–1
Burton Albion	0–0	1–0	3–1		1–1	1–0	5–1	1–2	0–0	3–3	2–1	2–1	2–1	0–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	2–1	0–0	1–2	1–0	1–0	0–0	1–1
Bury	0–0	4–3	0–0	1–0		1–0	5–2	2–1	0–0	1–0	3–4	0–1	1–3	1–1	3–1	1–0	0–0	1–2	1–0	2–2	3–2	2–2	2–3	2–2
Chesterfield	3–1	1–1	0–1	1–2	3–0		3–3	1–1	3–1	1–1	0–0	1–3	1–2	1–2	0–1	4–2	0–0	0–3	0–3	7–1	3–0	0–4	1–4	2–3
Colchester United	2–3	2–2	2–0	0–3	0–1	1–1		1–3	2–3	4–1	1–1	2–1	0–0	0–0	1–4	2–1	1–2	2–2	1–2	0–0	0–2	1–4	4–4	3–3
Coventry City	4–3	0–0	1–0	0–2	6–0	1–0	0–1		3–2	2–2	1–2	4–1	2–1	1–1	3–2	1–0	0–1	1–2	3–1	3–0	2–2	0–0	1–1	2–0
Crewe Alexandra	1–2	1–2	0–1	1–1	3–3	1–2	1–1	0–5		3–1	1–1	0–1	1–3	1–0	1–5	0–0	2–0	2–3	1–0	1–2	1–2	1–3	1–1	1–1
Doncaster Rovers	2–1	0–1	0–1	0–0	1–1	3–0	2–0	2–0	3–2		2–0	2–2	1–1	1–1	1–2	1–2	0–2	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–0	2–2	1–2	3–1
Fleetwood Town	0–2	0–0	1–1	4–0	2–0	0–1	4–0	0–1	2–0	0–0		2–1	2–1	1–1	2–0	1–2	1–1	2–1	2–2	0–0	1–1	5–1	0–1	1–3
Gillingham	2–1	2–1	3–0	0–3	3–1	1–2	1–0	0–0	3–0	1–0	5–1		1–2	3–3	2–1	0–2	2–0	2–1	4–0	2–3	1–1	0–0	1–2	2–0
Millwall	2–3	3–0	0–0	2–0	1–0	0–2	4–1	0–4	1–1	2–0	1–0	0–3		3–0	3–0	3–1	3–1	0–2	1–0	3–1	0–2	2–0	0–1	0–0
Oldham Athletic	1–2	1–0	1–2	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–2	1–0	1–2	1–0	2–1	1–2		1–5	1–1	2–3	2–4	1–1	1–1	2–5	2–0	1–0	1–1
Peterborough United	3–2	5–1	0–4	0–1	2–3	2–0	2–1	3–1	3–0	4–0	2–1	1–1	5–3	1–2		2–3	1–2	0–2	1–3	1–1	0–0	1–2	1–1	2–3
Port Vale	0–1	2–0	1–1	0–4	1–0	3–2	2–0	1–1	3–0	3–0	0–0	1–1	0–2	1–1	1–1		4–1	1–1	2–1	2–0	3–1	1–0	0–5	3–2
Rochdale	3–0	3–0	1–3	2–1	3–0	2–3	3–1	0–0	2–2	2–2	1–0	1–1	0–1	0–0	2–0	2–1		2–1	2–0	3–2	4–1	2–2	1–2	0–2
Scunthorpe United	2–0	0–1	0–2	1–0	2–1	1–1	3–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	1–0	0–0	0–0	1–1	0–4	1–0	1–1		0–1	2–1	1–0	6–0	0–1	1–1
Sheffield United	0–0	2–0	3–1	0–1	1–3	2–0	2–3	1–0	3–2	3–1	3–0	0–0	1–2	3–0	2–3	1–0	3–2	0–2		2–4	2–2	1–1	2–0	0–2
Shrewsbury Town	0–3	2–0	1–1	0–1	2–0	1–2	4–2	2–1	0–1	1–2	1–1	2–2	1–2	0–1	3–4	1–1	2–0	2–2	1–2		1–2	0–1	1–3	1–5
Southend United	2–1	1–0	0–1	3–1	4–1	0–1	3–0	3–0	1–1	0–3	2–2	1–1	0–4	0–1	2–1	1–0	2–2	2–1	3–1	0–1		0–1	0–2	0–0
Swindon Town	0–1	3–2	4–1	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–2	2–2	4–3	2–0	1–1	1–3	2–2	1–2	1–2	2–2	2–1	2–1	0–2	3–0	4–2		2–1	1–4
Walsall	1–3	1–1	2–1	2–0	0–1	1–2	2–1	2–1	1–1	2–0	3–1	3–2	0–3	1–1	2–0	2–0	0–3	0–0	1–1	2–1	1–0	1–1		1–2
Wigan Athletic	1–4	0–1	1–0	0–1	3–0	3–1	5–0	1–0	1–0	0–0	2–1	3–2	2–2	0–0	1–1	3–0	1–0	3–0	3–3	1–0	4–1	1–0	0–0

Updated to match(es) played on 7 May 2016. Source: BBC Sport
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[29]
1	Will Grigg	Wigan Athletic	25
2	Nicky Ajose	Swindon Town	24
3	Sam Winnall	Barnsley	23
4	Billy Sharp	Sheffield United	21
5	Paddy Madden	Scunthorpe United	20
	Adam Armstrong	Coventry City
	Lee Gregory	Millwall
8	Tom Bradshaw	Walsall	17
9	Steve Morison	Millwall	16
10	Leon Clarke	Bury	15

Monthly awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Reference
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August	Dean Smith	Walsall	Adam Armstrong	Coventry City	[30][31]
September	Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink	Burton Albion	Peter Vincenti	Rochdale	[32][33]
October	Mark Robins	Scunthorpe United	Aiden O'Brien	Millwall	[34][35]
November	Graham Westley	Peterborough United	Jacob Murphy	Coventry City	[36][37]
December	Nigel Adkins	Sheffield United	Andy Williams	Doncaster Rovers	[38][39]
January	Lee Johnson	Barnsley	Sam Winnall	Barnsley	[40][41]
February	Gary Caldwell	Wigan Athletic	Jordan Archer	Millwall	[42][43]
March	Paul Heckingbottom	Barnsley	Sullay Kaikai	Shrewsbury Town	[44][45]
April	Graham Alexander	Scunthorpe United	Will Grigg	Wigan Athletic	[46][47]