2019–20 EFL League Two

The 2019–20 EFL League Two (referred to as the Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship reasons) was the 16th season of Football League Two under its current title and the 28th season under its current league division format. On 13 March 2020, the EFL, alongside the FA announced the suspension of all domestic football until 3 April due to the rapidly developing COVID-19 pandemic.^[1] On 3 April 2020, this suspension was extended indefinitely.^[2]

EFL League Two

Season	2019–20
Champions	Swindon Town
Promoted	Swindon Town Crewe Alexandra Plymouth Argyle Northampton Town
Relegated	Macclesfield Town
Matches played	440
Goals scored	1,108 (2.52 per match)
Top goalscorer	Eoin Doyle (25 goals)
Biggest home win	Mansfield Town 6–1 Oldham Athletic (12 October 2019)
Biggest away win	Crawley Town 0–4 Swindon Town (26 October 2019) Mansfield Town 0–4 Cambridge United (17 September 2019) Cambridge United 0–4 Stevenage (18 January 2020)
Longest unbeaten run	15 matches Colchester United
Longest winless run	10 matches Stevenage
Highest attendance	17,668 Bradford City 1–1 Grimsby Town (8 February 2020)
← 2018–19 2020–21 →

On 15 May 2020, the clubs voted to end the season with immediate effect with the final table being determined on a points-per-game basis. No decision was made as to promotion and relegation. The play-offs would be played as normal. The decision meant Swindon Town would be crowned champions and would be joined by Crewe Alexandra and Plymouth Argyle in League One the following season.^[3]

Team changes

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

To League Two

Promoted from National League

• Leyton Orient
• Salford City

Relegated from League One

• Plymouth Argyle
• Walsall
• Scunthorpe United
• Bradford City

From League Two

Promoted to League One

• Lincoln City
• Bury
• Milton Keynes Dons
• Tranmere Rovers

Relegated to National League

• Notts County
• Yeovil Town

Stadiums

Bradford City

Cambridge United

Carlisle United

Cheltenham Town

Crawley Town

Colchester United

Crewe Alexandra

Exeter City

Leyton Orient

Forest Green Rovers

Grimsby Town

Macclesfield Town

Mansfield Town

Morecambe

Newport County

Northampton Town

Oldham Athletic

Plymouth Argyle

Port Vale

Salford City

Scunthorpe United

Stevenage

Swindon Town

Walsall

Locations of the 2019–20 EFL League Two teams

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Bradford City	Bradford	Valley Parade	25,136
Cambridge United	Cambridge	Abbey Stadium	8,127
Carlisle United	Carlisle	Brunton Park	18,202
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
Exeter City	Exeter	St. James Park	8,696
Forest Green Rovers	Nailsworth	The New Lawn	5,147
Grimsby Town	Cleethorpes	Blundell Park	9,052
Leyton Orient	London (Leyton)	Brisbane Road	9,271
Macclesfield Town	Macclesfield	Moss Rose	6,355
Mansfield Town	Mansfield	Field Mill	10,000
Morecambe	Morecambe	Globe Arena	6,476
Newport County	Newport	Rodney Parade	7,850
Northampton Town	Northampton	Sixfields Stadium	7,653
Oldham Athletic	Oldham	Boundary Park	13,512
Plymouth Argyle	Plymouth	Home Park	18,600
Port Vale	Burslem	Vale Park	19,052
Salford City	Salford	Moor Lane	5,108
Scunthorpe United	Scunthorpe	Glanford Park	9,088
Stevenage	Stevenage	Broadhall Way	6,722
Swindon Town	Swindon	County Ground	15,728
Walsall	Walsall	Bescot Stadium	11,300

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Sponsor
Bradford City	Stuart McCall	James Vaughan	Avec Sport	JCT600
Cambridge United	Mark Bonner	Greg Taylor	Hummel	Mick George
Carlisle United	Chris Beech	Adam Collin	Erreà	Edinburgh Woollen Mill
Cheltenham Town	Michael Duff	Ben Tozer	Erreà	Mira Showers[4]
Colchester United	John McGreal	Luke Prosser	Macron	Texo Scaffolding (Home) JobServe (Away / Third)
Crawley Town	John Yems	Jimmy Smith	Erreà	The People's Pension
Crewe Alexandra	David Artell	Perry Ng	FBT	Mornflake
Exeter City	Matt Taylor	Jake Taylor	Joma	Flybe
Forest Green Rovers	Mark Cooper	Joseph Mills	PlayerLayer[5]	Ecotricity
Grimsby Town	Ian Holloway	James McKeown	Erreà	Young's Seafood
Leyton Orient	Ross Embleton	Josh Coulson	New Balance	The Sun Dream Team
Macclesfield Town	Mark Kennedy	Fiacre Kelleher	Nike	Paddy Power (unbranded)[note 1]
Mansfield Town	Graham Coughlan	Krystian Pearce	Surridge	One Call
Morecambe	Derek Adams	Barry Roche	Macron	Annapurna Recruitment[6]
Newport County	Michael Flynn	Joss Labadie	FBT	Paddy Power (unbranded)[note 1]
Northampton Town	Keith Curle	Charlie Goode	Nike	University of Northampton
Oldham Athletic	Dino Maamria	Mohamed Maouche	Hummel	Wakelet
Plymouth Argyle	Ryan Lowe	Gary Sawyer	Puma	Ginsters
Port Vale	John Askey	Leon Legge	Erreà	Synectics Solutions
Salford City	Graham Alexander	Liam Hogan	Kappa	Soccer Saturday Super 6
Scunthorpe United	Russ Wilcox	Andy Butler	FBT	Utilita Energy
Stevenage	Alex Revell	Scott Cuthbert	Macron	Burger King
Swindon Town	Richie Wellens	Dion Conroy	Puma	Imagine Cruising ( home / away) Darby Rimmer MND Foundation (Third)
Walsall	Darrell Clarke	James Clarke	Erreà	HomeServe

1. The shirts of Macclesfield Town and Newport County do not display Paddy Power's logo as part of the bookmakers "Save Our Shirt" campaign.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Walsall	Martin O'Connor[7]	End of caretaker spell	4 May 2019	Pre-season	Darrell Clarke[8]	10 May 2019
Scunthorpe United	Andy Dawson[9]				Paul Hurst[10]	13 May 2019
Plymouth Argyle	Kevin Nancekivell[9]				Ryan Lowe[11]	5 June 2019
Oldham Athletic	Pete Wild[12]	Resigned			Laurent Banide[13]	11 June 2019
Mansfield Town	David Flitcroft[14]	Sacked	14 May 2019		John Dempster[14]	14 May 2019
Leyton Orient	Justin Edinburgh[15]	Deceased	8 June 2019		Carl Fletcher[16]	16 October 2019
Macclesfield Town	Sol Campbell[17]	Mutual consent	15 August 2019	8th	Daryl McMahon[18]	19 August 2019
Stevenage	Dino Maamria[19]	Sacked	9 September 2019	23rd	Graham Westley[20]	15 December 2019
Oldham Athletic	Laurent Banide[21]		19 September 2019	21st	Dino Maamria[22]	19 September 2019
Morecambe	Jim Bentley[23]	Signed by AFC Fylde	28 October 2019	24th	Derek Adams[24]	7 November 2019
Carlisle United	Steven Pressley[25]	Sacked	13 November 2019	19th	Chris Beech[26]	26 November 2019
Leyton Orient	Carl Fletcher[27]		14 November 2019	16th	Ross Embleton[28]	7 January 2020
Grimsby Town	Michael Jolley[29]	Mutual consent	15 November 2019	18th	Ian Holloway[30]	31 December 2019
Crawley Town	Gabriele Cioffi[31]	Sacked	2 December 2019	17th	John Yems[32]	5 December 2019
Mansfield Town	John Dempster[33]		14 December 2019	18th	Graham Coughlan[34]	17 December 2019
Macclesfield Town	Daryl McMahon[35]	Resigned	2 January 2020	22nd	Mark Kennedy[36]	16 January 2020
Cambridge United	Colin Calderwood[37]	Sacked	29 January 2020	16th	Mark Bonner[38]	9 March 2020
Scunthorpe United	Paul Hurst[39]		29 January 2020	19th	Russ Wilcox[40]	12 February 2020
Bradford City	Gary Bowyer[41]		3 February 2020	8th	Stuart McCall[42]	4 February 2020
Stevenage	Graham Westley[43]		16 February 2020	24th	Alex Revell[44]	16 February 2020

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	PPG	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	Swindon Town (C, P)	36	21	6	9	62	39	+23	69	1.92	Promotion to EFL League One
2	Crewe Alexandra (P)	37	20	9	8	67	43	+24	69	1.86
3	Plymouth Argyle (P)	37	20	8	9	61	39	+22	68	1.84
4	Cheltenham Town	36	17	13	6	52	27	+25	64	1.78	Qualification for League Two play-offs[a]
5	Exeter City	37	18	11	8	53	43	+10	65	1.76
6	Colchester United	37	15	13	9	52	37	+15	58	1.57
7	Northampton Town (O, P)	37	17	7	13	54	40	+14	58	1.57
8	Port Vale	37	14	15	8	50	44	+6	57	1.54
9	Bradford City	37	14	12	11	44	40	+4	54	1.46
10	Forest Green Rovers	36	13	10	13	43	40	+3	49	1.36
11	Salford City	37	13	11	13	49	46	+3	50	1.35
12	Walsall	36	13	8	15	40	49	−9	47	1.31
13	Crawley Town	37	11	15	11	51	47	+4	48	1.30
14	Newport County	36	12	10	14	32	39	−7	46	1.28
15	Grimsby Town	37	12	11	14	45	51	−6	47	1.27
16	Cambridge United	37	12	9	16	40	48	−8	45	1.22
17	Leyton Orient	36	10	12	14	47	55	−8	42	1.17
18	Carlisle United	37	10	12	15	39	56	−17	42	1.14
19	Oldham Athletic	37	9	14	14	44	57	−13	41	1.11
20	Scunthorpe United	37	10	10	17	44	56	−12	40	1.08
21	Mansfield Town	36	9	11	16	48	55	−7	38	1.06
22	Morecambe	37	7	11	19	35	60	−25	32	0.86
23	Stevenage	36	3	13	20	24	50	−26	22	0.61	Reprieved from relegation[b]
24	Macclesfield Town (R)	37	7	15	15	32	47	−15	19[c]	0.51[c]	Relegation to the National League

Source: EFL Official Website
Rules for classification: 1) Points per game; 2) Goal difference; 3) Number of goals scored; 4) Head-to-head results; 5) Wins; 6) Away goals; 7) Penalty points (sec 9.5); 8) 12-point sending off offences^[57]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Four teams play for one spot and promotion to EFL League One.
2. As a result of Bury's expulsion from League One, only one team is relegated to maintain League Two at 24 teams.^[45]
3. Macclesfield Town deducted four points for failing to both pay their players' wages and to fulfil a fixture, reduced from six points after appeal.^[46][47] A further seven-point deduction was given for failing to play December's match against Plymouth Argyle.^[48] A further two-point deduction was given for breaches of regulations over non-payment of wages.^[49] On 3 July the EFL appealed against the independent disciplinary panel's sanctions on Macclesfield.^[50] A further four points were deducted on 11 August 2020, resulting in Macclesfield Town being relegated. Stevenage reprieved^[51]

Play-offs

See also: 2020 English Football League play-offs

	Semi-finals							Final
	4	Cheltenham Town	2	0	2
	7	Northampton Town	0	3	3
								7	Northampton Town	4
								5	Exeter City	0
	5	Exeter City	0	3	3
	6	Colchester United	1	1	2

Results

Home \ Away	BRA	CAM	CAR	CHE	COL	CRA	CRE	EXE	FGR	GRI	LEY	MAC	MAN	MOR	NEW	NOR	OLD	PLY	POR	SAL	SCU	STE	SWI	WAL
Bradford City	—	0–0	3–1	1–1		2–1		2–0	0–1	1–1			2–0	1–0	1–0	2–1	3–0	2–1	1–2	1–1	2–2	3–1	2–1
Cambridge United	2–1	—	1–2		2–1	2–1		4–0	0–1	0–0	2–3	2–2	2–3	1–0	0–0		1–2	1–0		0–4	3–2	0–4	0–1
Carlisle United	0–0	0–0	—	0–1	0–3	2–1	2–4	1–3	0–0	0–0		2–1	0–2	2–2	2–0	0–2	1–0	0–3		2–2			1–1	2–1
Cheltenham Town	3–2	1–1	2–0	—	1–1		1–1		1–2		2–1	3–0	1–0	2–1		2–1	3–0	0–1	0–0		4–1	4–2	2–2	3–1
Colchester United	0–0	1–2	3–0	0–2	—	1–1		2–2		2–3	2–1	2–1		0–1	3–1	1–0		3–0	1–1	1–0		3–1	3–1	0–0
Crawley Town	2–1		0–0	1–0	2–1	—	1–2	0–1	1–1	3–2			1–0	1–1		4–0	3–0	2–2	0–0	2–0	3–1	2–0	0–4	2–3
Crewe Alexandra	2–1	2–3	4–1	1–0	0–0	2–1	—	1–1			2–0	2–0	1–1	5–0			2–1	0–3	0–1	4–1	3–1	3–1	3–1	1–0
Exeter City		2–0		0–0	0–0	1–1	1–1	—	1–0	1–3	2–2	1–0	1–0		1–0	3–2	5–1	4–0	2–0			2–1	1–1	3–3
Forest Green Rovers			1–4		1–0	3–1	0–0	0–1	—	1–0		1–0	2–2		0–2		1–0	0–1	2–3	1–2	0–2	0–0	2–2	1–2
Grimsby Town	1–1			0–0	2–2	1–1	0–2	0–1	2–2	—	0–4	1–0	0–1	2–1	4–2	0–3			5–2	1–0	0–1	3–1	0–3
Leyton Orient	0–0	2–1	1–1	1–0	1–3	2–3	1–2		2–4	1–1	—	1–1	2–1		2–1	1–1	2–2		3–3		0–2	0–0	1–3	3–1
Macclesfield Town	1–1	1–0			1–1	1–1	1–1	2–3	2–1	1–1	3–0	—	0–0	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–1	2–1	0–2	1–0
Mansfield Town	3–0	0–4	2–2	0–3	2–3				3–4	0–1	2–3		—	2–2	1–0	1–1	6–1	0–1	2–2	1–2	2–0	0–0
Morecambe	1–2	1–1	1–1	0–0	1–1		1–1	2–3	0–2	0–2	1–0	2–0	1–1	—	2–1	2–2	1–2		2–1	2–2				0–1
Newport County	2–1	0–1	1–0	1–1		1–1	1–0	1–1			1–1	1–0	2–2	1–0	—		0–1	1–0	1–0	1–2	2–1	1–1	2–0	0–0
Northampton Town		2–0		1–1		2–2	4–1	2–0	1–0	2–0	0–1	1–2	1–2	4–1	2–0	—		3–1	0–1	2–0	3–0	1–0	0–1	0–1
Oldham Athletic	3–0		1–1	1–1	0–1	2–1	1–2	0–0	1–1	2–2	1–1	0–1	3–1	3–1	5–0	2–2	—			1–4	0–2			2–0
Plymouth Argyle	2–1	0–0	2–0	0–2	1–0	2–2	2–1			3–0	4–0	3–0	3–1	3–0	1–0		2–2	—		2–2	2–2	2–1	1–2	3–0
Port Vale		1–0	2–1	1–1	3–0			3–1	2–1		1–0	2–2	2–2	3–1		1–1	0–0	1–0	—	1–1	2–2	1–1	2–0	0–1
Salford City	2–0	1–0		0–2	1–2	0–0	3–1	0–1	0–4	1–0	1–1	0–0				1–2	1–1	2–3	1–1	—	1–1	2–0	2–3	1–2
Scunthorpe United	1–1	0–2	0–1	1–0	2–2	2–2	2–2	3–1	1–0	0–2				3–0	1–2	3–0	2–2	1–3	2–1		—	0–0	0–2	0–2
Stevenage	0–1	1–1	2–3		0–0	0–0	1–5	0–1	0–0	2–1	0–3	2–2		1–0		0–1	0–0	1–2	0–1	0–1		—
Swindon Town	1–1	4–0	3–2		0–3		3–1	2–1	0–2	3–1		3–0	1–0	3–1	0–2	0–1	2–0	1–1	3–0		2–0	1–0	—	2–1
Walsall	0–1	2–1	1–2	1–2		2–1	1–2	3–1	1–1	1–3	1–0	1–1	1–2	0–2	0–0	3–2			2–2	0–3	1–0	0–0		—

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.

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of 7 March 2020^[58]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Eoin Doyle	Swindon Town	25
2	Nicky Maynard	Mansfield Town	14
3	Ryan Bowman	Exeter City	13
	Ollie Palmer	Crawley Town
	Jerry Yates	Swindon Town
6	Bez Lubala	Crawley Town	12
	Chris Porter	Crewe Alexandra
8	Theo Robinson	Colchester United	11
	Danny Rose	Mansfield Town
	James Vaughan	Bradford City
11	Antoni Sarcevic	Plymouth Argyle	10
	Kevin van Veen	Scunthorpe United

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of EFL League Two hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
Nicky Maynard	Mansfield Town	Oldham Athletic	6–1 (H)	12 October 2019	[59]
Eoin Doyle	Swindon Town	Crawley Town	4–0 (A)	26 October 2019	[60]
Keshi Anderson	Swindon Town	Cambridge United	4–0 (H)	26 December 2019	[61]
Nicky Maynard	Mansfield Town	Cambridge United	3–2 (A)	1 January 2020	[62]

Notes