2016–17 EFL League Two

The 2016–17 EFL League Two (referred to as the Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship reasons) is the 13th season of the Football League Two under its current title and the 24th season under its current league division format. The fixtures were announced on 22 June 2016.^[1]

EFL League Two

Season	2016–17
Champions	Portsmouth
Promoted	Portsmouth Plymouth Argyle Doncaster Rovers Blackpool
Relegated	Hartlepool United Leyton Orient
Matches played	557
Goals scored	1,490 (2.68 per match)
Top goalscorer	John Akinde John Marquis (26 goals each)
Biggest home win	Stevenage 6–1 Hartlepool Yeovil 5–0 Crawley Crewe 5–0 Grimsby Accrington 5–0 Leyton Orient Plymouth 6–1 Newport County Portsmouth 6–1 Cheltenham
Biggest away win	Hartlepool 0–5 Cambridge
Longest winning run	7 matches (Exeter City)
Longest unbeaten run	15 matches (Accrington Stanley, Carlisle United)
Longest winless run	13 matches (Notts County)
Longest losing run	10 matches (Notts County)
Highest attendance	Portsmouth 1–1 Plymouth Argyle (18,644)
Average attendance	4,751
← 2015–16 2017–18 → All statistics correct as of 28 May 2017.

Team changes

To League Two

Promoted from National League

• Cheltenham Town^[2]
• Grimsby Town^[3]

Relegated from League One

• Doncaster Rovers^[4]
• Blackpool^[5]
• Colchester United^[6]
• Crewe Alexandra^[7]

From League Two

Promoted to League One

• Northampton Town^[8]
• Oxford United^[9]
• Bristol Rovers^[10]
• AFC Wimbledon^[11]

Relegated to National League

• Dagenham & Redbridge^[12]
• York City^[13]

Teams

Accrington Stanley

Barnet

Blackpool

Cambridge United

Carlisle United

Cheltenham Town

Colchester United

Crawley Town

Crewe Alexandra

Doncaster Rovers

Exeter
City

Grimsby Town

Hartlepool United

Leyton Orient

Luton Town

Mansfield Town

Morecambe

Newport County

Notts County

Plymouth Argyle

Portsmouth

Stevenage

Wycombe Wanderers

Yeovil
Town

Locations of the 2016–17 Football League Two teams

Club	Location	Stadium	Capacity[14]
Accrington Stanley	Accrington	Crown Ground	5,057
Barnet	London (Edgware)	The Hive Stadium	6,418
Blackpool	Blackpool	Bloomfield Road	16,750
Cambridge United	Cambridge	Abbey Stadium	8,127
Carlisle United	Carlisle	Brunton Park	17,149
Cheltenham Town	Cheltenham	Whaddon Road	7,066
Colchester United	Colchester	Colchester Community Stadium	10,105
Crawley Town	Crawley	Broadfield Stadium	5,996
Crewe Alexandra	Crewe	Gresty Road	10,180
Doncaster Rovers	Doncaster	Keepmoat Stadium	15,231
Exeter City	Exeter	St James Park	8,830
Grimsby Town	Cleethorpes	Blundell Park	9,052
Hartlepool United	Hartlepool	Victoria Park	7,833
Leyton Orient	London (Leyton)	Brisbane Road	9,271
Luton Town	Luton	Kenilworth Road	10,226
Mansfield Town	Mansfield	Field Mill	9,846
Morecambe	Morecambe	Globe Arena	6,476
Newport County	Newport	Rodney Parade	7,850
Notts County	Nottingham	Meadow Lane	19,588
Plymouth Argyle	Plymouth	Home Park	17,441
Portsmouth	Portsmouth	Fratton Park	21,100
Stevenage	Stevenage	Broadhall Way	6,722
Wycombe Wanderers	High Wycombe	Adams Park	10,300
Yeovil Town	Yeovil	Huish Park	9,665

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Blackpool	Neil McDonald	Sacked	18 May 2016[15]	Pre-season	Gary Bowyer	1 June 2016[16]
Leyton Orient	Andy Hessenthaler		26 September 2016[17]	14th	Alberto Cavasin	2 October 2016[18]
Newport County	Warren Feeney		28 September 2016[19]	24th	Graham Westley	10 October 2016[20]
Grimsby Town	Paul Hurst	Hired by Shrewsbury Town	24 October 2016[21]	8th	Marcus Bignot	7 November 2016[22]
Mansfield Town	Adam Murray	Resigned	14 November 2016[23]	18th	Steve Evans	16 November 2016[24]
Leyton Orient	Alberto Cavasin	Sacked	23 November 2016[25]	22nd	Andy Edwards	23 November 2016[26]
Barnet	Martin Allen	Hired by Eastleigh	1 December 2016[27]	8th	Kevin Nugent	15 February 2017[28]
Notts County	John Sheridan	Sacked	2 January 2017[29]	22nd	Kevin Nolan	12 January 2017[30]
Crewe Alexandra	Steve Davis		8 January 2017[31]	18th	David Artell	8 January 2017[31]
Hartlepool United	Craig Hignett	Mutual consent	15 January 2017[32]	19th	Dave Jones	18 January 2017[33]
Leyton Orient	Andy Edwards	Hired by the Football Association	29 January 2017[34]	23rd	Danny Webb	29 January 2017[34]
Newport County	Graham Westley	Sacked	9 March 2017[35]	24th	Mike Flynn	9 May 2017[36]
Leyton Orient	Danny Webb	Resigned	30 March 2017[37]	24th	Steve Davis	10 July 2017[38]
Grimsby Town	Marcus Bignot	Sacked	10 April 2017[39]	14th	Russell Slade	12 April 2017[40]
Barnet	Kevin Nugent		15 April 2017[41]	16th	Rossi Eames	19 May 2017[42]
Hartlepool United	Dave Jones		24 April 2017[43]	23rd	Craig Harrison	26 May 2017[44]
Crawley Town	Dermot Drummy	Mutual consent	4 May 2017[45]	21st	Harry Kewell	23 May 2017[46]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	Portsmouth (C, P)	46	26	9	11	79	40	+39	87	Promotion to EFL League One
2	Plymouth Argyle (P)	46	26	9	11	71	46	+25	87
3	Doncaster Rovers (P)	46	25	10	11	85	55	+30	85
4	Luton Town	46	20	17	9	70	43	+27	77	Qualification for League Two play-offs[a]
5	Exeter City	46	21	8	17	75	56	+19	71
6	Carlisle United	46	18	17	11	69	68	+1	71
7	Blackpool (O, P)	46	18	16	12	69	46	+23	70
8	Colchester United	46	19	12	15	67	57	+10	69
9	Wycombe Wanderers	46	19	12	15	58	53	+5	69
10	Stevenage	46	20	7	19	67	63	+4	67
11	Cambridge United	46	19	9	18	58	50	+8	66
12	Mansfield Town	46	17	15	14	54	50	+4	66
13	Accrington Stanley	46	17	14	15	59	56	+3	65
14	Grimsby Town	46	17	11	18	59	63	−4	62
15	Barnet	46	14	15	17	57	64	−7	57
16	Notts County	46	16	8	22	54	76	−22	56
17	Crewe Alexandra	46	14	13	19	58	67	−9	55
18	Morecambe	46	14	10	22	53	73	−20	52
19	Crawley Town	46	13	12	21	53	71	−18	51
20	Yeovil Town	46	11	17	18	49	64	−15	50
21	Cheltenham Town	46	12	14	20	49	69	−20	50
22	Newport County	46	12	12	22	51	73	−22	48
23	Hartlepool United (R)	46	11	13	22	54	75	−21	46	Relegation to the National League
24	Leyton Orient (R)	46	10	6	30	47	87	−40	36

Updated to match(es) played on 6 May 2017. 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 EFL League One

Play-offs

See also: 2017 English Football League play-offs

	Semifinals							Final
	4	Luton Town	2	3	5
	7	Blackpool	3	3	6
								7	Blackpool	2
								5	Exeter City	1
	5	Exeter City	3	3	6
	6	Carlisle United	3	2	5

Results

Home \ Away	ACC	BAR	BLP	CAM	CRL	CHL	COL	CRA	CRE	DON	EXE	GRI	HAR	LEY	LUT	MAN	MOR	NPC	NTC	PLY	POR	STE	WYC	YEO
Accrington Stanley		1–0	2–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	2–1	1–0	3–2	3–2	1–2	1–1	2–2	5–0	1–4	1–1	2–3	1–3	2–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	2–2	1–1
Barnet	2–0		1–1	0–1	0–1	3–1	1–1	2–2	0–0	1–3	1–4	3–1	3–2	0–0	0–1	0–2	2–2	0–0	3–2	1–0	1–1	1–2	0–2	2–2
Blackpool	0–0	2–2		1–1	2–2	3–0	1–1	0–0	2–2	4–2	2–0	1–3	2–1	3–1	0–2	0–1	3–1	4–1	4–0	0–1	3–1	1–0	0–0	2–2
Cambridge United	2–1	1–1	0–0		2–2	3–1	1–1	2–0	2–1	2–3	1–0	0–1	0–1	3–0	0–3	1–3	1–2	3–2	4–0	0–1	0–1	0–0	1–2	1–0
Carlisle United	1–1	1–1	1–4	0–3		1–1	2–0	3–1	0–2	2–1	3–2	1–3	3–2	2–2	0–0	5–2	1–1	2–1	1–2	1–0	0–3	1–1	1–0	2–1
Cheltenham Town	3–0	1–2	2–2	0–1	1–0		0–3	2–1	2–0	0–1	1–3	2–1	1–0	1–1	1–1	0–0	3–1	1–1	2–3	1–2	1–1	0–0	0–1	2–0
Colchester United	1–2	2–1	3–2	2–0	4–1	2–0		2–3	4–0	1–1	2–3	3–2	2–1	0–3	2–1	2–0	2–2	0–0	2–1	0–0	0–4	4–0	1–0	2–0
Crawley Town	0–0	1–1	1–0	1–3	3–3	0–0	1–1		0–3	0–0	1–2	3–2	1–0	3–0	2–0	2–2	1–3	3–1	1–3	1–2	0–2	1–2	1–0	2–0
Crewe Alexandra	0–1	4–1	1–1	1–2	1–1	0–0	2–0	0–2		2–1	2–0	5–0	3–3	3–0	1–2	1–1	2–1	1–2	2–2	1–2	0–0	1–2	2–1	0–1
Doncaster Rovers	2–2	3–2	0–1	1–0	2–2	2–0	1–0	1–1	3–1		1–3	1–0	2–1	3–1	1–1	1–0	1–1	2–0	3–1	0–1	3–1	1–0	2–2	4–1
Exeter City	0–2	2–1	2–2	1–2	2–3	3–0	3–0	0–1	4–0	1–3		0–0	1–2	4–0	0–0	2–0	3–1	0–1	0–2	0–2	0–1	1–1	4–2	3–3
Grimsby Town	2–0	2–2	0–0	2–1	2–2	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–2	1–5	0–3		0–3	1–2	1–1	3–0	2–0	1–0	2–0	1–1	0–1	5–2	1–2	4–2
Hartlepool United	2–0	0–2	0–1	0–5	1–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	4–0	2–1	3–1	0–1		1–3	1–1	0–0	3–2	2–2	1–2	1–1	0–2	2–0	0–2	1–1
Leyton Orient	1–0	1–3	1–2	1–1	1–2	0–1	1–3	3–2	0–2	1–4	0–1	0–3	2–1		1–2	1–2	0–1	0–1	2–3	0–2	0–1	3–0	0–2	0–1
Luton Town	1–0	3–1	1–0	2–0	1–1	2–3	0–1	2–1	1–1	3–1	1–1	1–2	3–0	2–2		1–1	3–1	2–1	2–1	1–1	1–3	0–2	4–1	1–1
Mansfield Town	4–4	0–1	1–0	0–0	2–0	1–1	0–0	3–1	3–0	1–1	1–2	0–1	4–0	2–0	1–1		0–1	2–1	3–1	0–2	0–1	1–2	1–1	1–0
Morecambe	1–2	0–1	2–1	2–0	0–3	1–2	1–1	2–3	0–0	1–5	0–3	1–0	1–1	1–2	0–2	1–3		0–1	4–1	2–1	2–0	0–2	1–1	1–3
Newport County	1–0	2–2	1–3	1–2	2–0	2–2	1–1	1–0	1–1	0–0	1–4	0–0	3–1	0–4	1–1	2–3	1–1		2–1	1–3	2–3	0–2	0–1	1–0
Notts County	0–2	1–0	1–0	0–1	2–3	2–1	3–1	2–1	1–1	0–1	2–2	2–2	2–1	3–1	0–0	0–0	1–2	0–3		1–2	1–3	1–1	0–2	0–0
Plymouth Argyle	0–1	0–2	0–3	2–1	2–0	1–0	2–1	2–0	2–1	2–0	3–0	0–3	1–1	2–3	0–3	2–0	1–0	6–1	0–1		2–2	4–2	3–3	4–1
Portsmouth	2–0	5–1	2–0	2–1	1–1	6–1	2–0	3–0	0–1	1–2	0–1	4–0	0–0	2–1	1–0	4–0	1–1	2–1	1–2	1–1		1–2	4–2	3–1
Stevenage	0–3	1–0	0–2	1–2	1–2	2–1	2–4	2–1	1–2	3–4	0–2	2–0	6–1	4–1	2–1	0–1	0–1	3–1	3–0	1–2	3–0		3–0	2–2
Wycombe Wanderers	1–1	0–2	0–0	1–0	1–2	3–3	0–2	1–2	5–1	2–1	1–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	1–1	0–1	2–0	2–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–0		1–1
Yeovil Town	1–1	0–1	0–3	1–1	0–2	4–2	2–1	5–0	3–0	0–3	0–0	0–0	1–2	1–1	0–4	0–0	0–1	1–0	2–0	2–1	0–0	1–1	1–0

Updated to match(es) played on 6 May 2017. Source: BBC Sport
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top goalscorers

Source: BBC Sport
Correct as of 28 May 2017

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	John Akinde	Barnet	26
	John Marquis	Doncaster Rovers
3	Danny Hylton	Luton Town	22
4	Matt Godden	Stevenage	20
	James Collins	Crawley Town
6	Omar Bogle	Grimsby Town	19
	David Wheeler	Exeter City
8	Luke Berry	Cambridge United	17
9	Chris Porter	Colchester United	16
10	Ollie Watkins	Exeter City	15

Monthly Awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		Reference
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
August	Jim Bentley	Morecambe	James Coppinger	Doncaster Rovers	[47][48]
September	Derek Adams	Plymouth Argyle	Jon Stead	Notts County	[49][50]
October	Keith Curle	Carlisle United	Jason Kennedy	Carlisle United	[51][52]
November	Gareth Ainsworth	Wycombe Wanderers	Omar Bogle	Grimsby Town	[53][54]
December	John McGreal	Colchester United	Scott Kashket	Wycombe Wanderers	[55][56]
January	Darren Ferguson	Doncaster Rovers	Ollie Watkins	Exeter City	[57][58]
February	Darren Sarll	Stevenage	Matt Godden	Stevenage	[59][60]
March	John Coleman	Accrington Stanley	Shay McCartan	Accrington Stanley	[61][62]
April	Paul Cook	Portsmouth	Mickey Demetriou	Newport County	[63][64]

Attendances

#	Football club	Home games	Average attendance[65]
1	Portsmouth FC	23	16,823
2	Plymouth Argyle	23	9,652
3	Luton Town	23	8,046
4	Doncaster Rovers	23	6,021
5	Notts County	23	5,970
6	Grimsby Town	23	5,259
7	Carlisle United	23	5,114
8	Cambridge United	23	4,737
9	Leyton Orient	23	4,663
10	Exeter City	23	4,166
11	Colchester United	23	3,973
12	Wycombe Wanderers	23	3,917
13	Crewe Alexandra	23	3,882
14	Hartlepool United	23	3,788
15	Mansfield Town	23	3,774
16	Yeovil Town	23	3,567
17	Blackpool FC	23	3,456
18	Cheltenham Town	23	3,323
19	Stevenage FC	23	2,899
20	Newport County	23	2,861
21	Crawley Town	23	2,492
22	Barnet FC	23	2,260
23	Morecambe FC	23	1,703
24	Accrington Stanley	23	1,699