The 1975-76 season was the 96th season of competitive football in England.

Overview

First Division

Liverpool won their first major trophy under Bob Paisley by narrowly winning the league title after heated competition from Queens Park Rangers. They also lifted the UEFA Cup for the second time in their history. Dave Sexton's QPR side failed to win their first-ever league title but still managed to finish in their highest ever position of runners-up and qualify for the UEFA Cup. Following QPR into Europe were Tommy Docherty's promising young Manchester United side, David Mackay's defending champions Derby County and Jimmy Armfield's Leeds United.

Going down were Wolverhampton Wanderers, Burnley and Sheffield United.

Bertie Mee, 57, retired after ten years as manager of Arsenal. The highlights of his career had been the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup triumph of 1970 and the Double win 1971, but Arsenal had fallen behind the best in recent seasons and Mee handed over the reins to Terry Neill.

Second Division

Three years after winning the FA Cup, Bob Stokoe's Sunderland finally won promotion to the top flight as Second Division champions. Bristol City and West Bromwich Albion occupied the two other promotion places. Oxford United, York City and Portsmouth went down to the Third Division.

The division's biggest headline hitters were Southampton, who finished sixth in the league but surprised the footballing world by overcoming Manchester United to win the FA Cup.

Third Division

Hereford United won the Third Division title to reach the Second Division just four years after joining the league. Also going up to the Second Division were Cardiff City and Millwall. Aldershot, Colchester United, Southend United and Halifax Town were relegated to the Fourth Division. Narrowly avoiding the drop were Sheffield Wednesday, who a decade ago were one of the most feared sides in England and during the interwar years had won the league championship and the FA Cup.

Fourth Division

32-year-old Graham Taylor achieved the first success of his managerial career by winning the Fourth Division title for Lincoln City. He was linked with several job vacancies in the First and Second Divisions but surprised everyone by taking over at Elton John's Watford, who were still in the Fourth Division. It was to be the start of a long and successful association with the Hornets for Taylor. Joining Lincoln in the Third Division were Northampton Town, Reading and Tranmere Rovers. 1975-76 had finally brought something positive after a decade of trauma for Northampton Town, which had been them slump from the First Division to the Fourth Division.

This year, the Football League voted in favour of the bottom four clubs in the Fourth Division and there were no departures or arrivals in the league for 1976-77.

FA Cup

Southampton pulled off one of the greatest upsets in the history of FA Cup finals when a Bobby Stokes goal gave them victory over Manchester United at Wembley. A young United side, who had finished third in the First Division one year after winning promotion, were favourites to win the trophy as Southampton were an unfashionable Second Division side who had never won a major trophy in their history. But thanks to the efforts of manager Lawrie McMenemy and the all important goal from Bobby Stokes, Southampton finally had a major trophy in their boardroom - and had also qualified for European competition (the Cup Winners Cup) for the first time in their history.

League Cup

Manchester City beat Newcastle to claim the League Cup, their first major trophy for six years. They are still waiting to end the trophy drought which began after this triumph.

Star players

• Tottenham goalkeeper Patrick Jennings was credited with the PFA Player of the Year award.
• Liverpool striker Kevin Keegan was voted Player of the Year by the FWA.
• Manchester City winger Peter Barnes added the PFA Young Player of the Year award to his League Cup winners medal.
• Southampton striker Bobby Stokes inspired his side to their first ever major trophy by scoring the winning goal in the FA Cup final against Manchester United.
• Manchester United's young winger Steve Coppell showed immense promise after helping his newly promoted employers reach third place in the league and reach the FA Cup final.

Star managers

• Bob Paisley won his first two trophies as Liverpool manager - the league championship and UEFA Cup - and he would pile up many more prizes over the next seven seasons.
• Lawrie McMenemy guided Southampton to their first major trophy and they did it in style by beating favourites Manchester United in the FA Cup final.
• Dave Sexton guided QPR to a club best finish of second in the league and came close to winning the league for a club who had never been in the top division until a few seasons earlier.
• Tommy Docherty built an exciting young side at Manchester United and a year after promotion back to the First Division they finished third in the league and reached the FA Cup final.
• Bob Stokoe finally got Sunderland into the First Division, three years after they won the FA Cup.

Honours

Competition	Winner	Runner-up
First Division	Liverpool	Queens Park Rangers
Second Division	Sunderland	Bristol City
Third Division	Hereford United	Cardiff City
Fourth Division	Lincoln City	Northampton Town
FA Cup	Southampton	Manchester United
League Cup	Manchester City	Newcastle United
Charity Shield	Derby County	West Ham United
Home Championship

League table

First Division

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GA	Pts
1	Liverpool	42	23	14	5	66	31	2.129	60
2	Queens Park Rangers	42	24	11	7	67	33	2.030	59
3	Manchester United	42	23	10	9	68	42	1.619	56
4	Derby County	42	21	11	10	75	58	1.293	53
5	Leeds United	42	21	9	12	65	46	1.413	51
6	Ipswich Town	42	16	14	12	54	48	1.125	46
7	Leicester City	42	13	19	10	48	51	0.941	45
8	Manchester City	42	16	11	15	64	46	1.391	43
9	Tottenham Hotspur	42	14	15	13	63	63	1.000	43
10	Norwich City	42	16	10	16	58	58	1.000	42
11	Everton	42	15	12	15	60	66	0.909	42
12	Stoke City	42	15	11	16	48	50	0.960	41
13	Middlesbrough	42	15	10	17	46	45	1.022	40
14	Coventry City	42	13	14	15	47	57	0.825	40
15	Newcastle United	42	15	9	18	71	62	1.145	39
16	Aston Villa	42	11	17	14	51	59	0.864	39
17	Arsenal	42	13	10	19	47	53	0.887	36
18	West Ham United	42	13	10	19	48	71	0.676	36
19	Birmingham City	42	13	7	22	57	75	0.760	33
20	Wolverhampton Wanderers	42	10	10	22	51	68	0.750	30
21	Burnley	42	9	10	23	43	66	0.652	28
22	Sheffield United	42	6	10	26	33	82	0.402	22

Second Division

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GA	Pts
1	Sunderland	42	24	8	10	67	36	1.861	56
2	Bristol City	42	19	15	8	59	35	1.686	53
3	West Bromwich Albion	42	20	13	9	50	33	1.515	53
4	Bolton Wanderers	42	20	12	10	64	38	1.684	52
5	Notts County	42	19	11	12	60	41	1.463	49
6	Southampton	42	21	7	14	66	50	1.320	49
7	Luton Town	42	19	10	13	61	51	1.196	48
8	Nottingham Forest	42	17	12	13	55	40	1.375	46
9	Charlton Athletic	42	15	12	15	61	72	0.847	42
10	Blackpool	42	14	14	14	40	49	0.816	42
11	Chelsea	42	12	16	14	53	54	0.981	40
12	Fulham	42	13	14	15	45	47	0.957	40
13	Orient	42	13	14	15	37	39	0.949	40
14	Hull City	42	14	11	17	45	49	0.918	39
15	Blackburn Rovers	42	12	14	16	45	50	0.900	38
16	Plymouth Argyle	42	13	12	17	48	54	0.889	38
17	Oldham Athletic	42	13	12	17	57	68	0.838	38
18	Bristol Rovers	42	11	16	15	38	50	0.760	38
19	Carlisle United	42	12	13	17	45	59	0.763	37
20	Oxford United	42	11	11	20	39	59	0.661	33
21	York City	42	10	8	24	39	71	0.549	28
22	Portsmouth	42	9	7	26	32	61	0.525	25

Third Division

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GA	Pts
1	Hereford United	46	26	11	9	86	55	1.564	63
2	Cardiff City	46	22	13	11	69	48	1.438	57
3	Millwall	46	20	16	10	54	43	1.256	56
4	Brighton & Hove Albion	46	22	9	15	78	53	1.472	53
5	Crystal Palace	46	18	17	11	61	46	1.326	53
6	Wrexham	46	20	12	14	66	55	1.200	52
7	Walsall	46	18	14	14	74	61	1.213	50
8	Preston North End	46	19	10	17	62	57	1.088	48
9	Shrewsbury Town	46	19	10	17	61	59	1.034	48
10	Peterborough United	46	15	18	13	63	63	1.000	48
11	Mansfield Town	46	16	15	15	58	52	1.115	47
12	Port Vale	46	15	16	15	55	54	1.019	46
13	Bury	46	14	16	16	51	46	1.109	44
14	Chesterfield	46	17	9	20	69	69	1.000	43
15	Gillingham	46	12	19	15	58	68	0.853	43
16	Rotherham United	46	15	12	19	54	65	0.831	42
17	Chester City	46	15	12	19	43	62	0.694	42
18	Grimsby Town	46	15	10	21	62	74	0.838	40
19	Swindon Town	46	16	8	22	62	75	0.827	40
20	Sheffield Wednesday	46	12	16	18	48	59	0.814	40
21	Aldershot	46	13	13	20	59	75	0.787	39
22	Colchester United	46	12	14	20	41	65	0.631	38
23	Southend United	46	12	13	21	65	75	0.867	37
24	Halifax Town	46	11	13	22	41	61	0.672	35

Fourth Division

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GA	Pts
1	Lincoln City	46	32	10	4	111	39	2.846	74
2	Northampton Town	46	29	10	7	87	40	2.175	68
3	Reading	46	24	12	10	70	51	1.373	60
4	Tranmere Rovers	46	24	10	12	89	55	1.618	58
5	Huddersfield Town	46	21	14	11	56	41	1.366	56
6	Bournemouth	46	20	12	14	57	48	1.188	52
7	Exeter City	46	18	14	14	56	47	1.191	50
8	Watford	46	22	6	18	62	62	1.000	50
9	Torquay United	46	18	14	14	55	63	0.873	50
10	Doncaster Rovers	46	19	11	16	75	69	1.087	49
11	Swansea City	46	16	15	15	66	57	1.158	47
12	Barnsley	46	14	16	16	52	48	1.083	44
13	Cambridge United	46	14	15	17	58	62	0.935	43
14	Hartlepool	46	16	10	20	62	78	0.795	42
15	Rochdale	46	12	18	16	40	54	0.741	42
16	Crewe Alexandra	46	13	15	18	58	57	1.018	41
17	Bradford City	46	12	17	17	63	65	0.969	41
18	Brentford	46	14	13	19	56	60	0.933	41
19	Scunthorpe United	46	14	10	22	50	59	0.847	38
20	Darlington	46	14	10	22	48	57	0.842	38
21	Stockport County	46	13	12	21	43	76	0.566	38
22	Newport County	46	13	9	24	57	90	0.633	35
23	Southport	46	8	10	28	41	77	0.532	26
24	Workington	46	7	7	32	30	87	0.345	21

P = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GA = Goal average; Pts = Points