The quality of this league-

[Lance Stoe]

I remember Scunthorpe winning the league 10 years ago. We were quite a functional team spearheaded by a young Billy Sharp and a young Andy Keogh. We started the season poorly but then blew everyone away apart from a very good Blackpool side who beat us 3-1 twice. We beat Bristol City to the title who then went in to play Hull in the Championship Play Off Final. Blackpool went up to the Premiership after having navigated the Play Offs that season. I started watching football 95 96 season so I suppose my question is what season had the strongest clubs in this league??

 

[Lance Stoe]

Personally I'd say 13 14 when Wolves steamrollerd the title and a fantastic Brentford side finished second. Then 06 07 when Scunny won the title

 

[Burberry]

The standard of the league is poor. Take Wigan as example won the league at a canter. Relegated straight away. Probably win it again. Most teams that go up struggle in the championship. Sheff Utd doing okay but I suspect will end mid table at best. Bolton to be relegated.

 

[ThisTinpotLeague]

Getting the "this league is shit this year" cliche klaxon out of its box...

 

[Lance Stoe]

Yeah but look at Preston and Barnsley. They are doing very well. I doubt Millwall will go down either. Burton and Barnsley both stayed up quite easily at the end of the day and Barnsley were in the relegation zone in November

 

[Lance Stoe]

Anyway my question was what season had the best teams at this level??

 

[Lance Stoe]

For teams like Scunthorpe, Bury, Crewe, Stockport, Colchester, Yeovil ,Rotherham and Donny. This is our zenith.

 

[Aber gas]

Oh Christ, ThisTinpotLeague. It's finally happened.
*edit* you've already seen it

 

[bantamigo]

The standard of the league is poor. Take Wigan as example won the league at a canter. Relegated straight away. Probably win it again. Most teams that go up struggle in the championship. Sheff Utd doing okay but I suspect will end mid table at best. Bolton to be relegated.

Can't think many L1 sides will have much of a chance in the Champ anymore unless they get bankrolled. The Champ is the league that's getting progressively harder year on year as there are more trickle-down funds available to that league.

 

[ThisTinpotLeague]

Oh Christ, ThisTinpotLeague. It's finally happened.
*edit* you've already seen it

Can always count on me to monitor the forums with my Friday evening

 

[Aber gas]

Can always count on me to monitor the forums with my Friday evening

Quite, just got home and the first thing I do is check the breaking news of league 1.

 

[GFC4EVA]

Anyway my question was what season had the best teams at this level??

09/10 when we had leeds, norwich and southampton down here

 

[WilsdenBantam]

Anyway my question was what season had the best teams at this level??

Not a fan of these threads as it's third tier football, it's bound to be shit but compared with the European equivalents it's miles ahead.

To answer this question though, the best teams I would say have been; Norwich and Southampton both went to get back to back promotions so I think that's evidence enough. Wolves were very good a couple of years ago as well.

 

[F!RTHY]

Responses so far seem to refer to individual teams.

IMO, the strongest this league has been in recent years was when Charlton won the league. In recent years there have been some fairly decent sized clubs grace such level!

The flip-side of the coin is that when these teams aren't buying their way out of the league, there's clubs of similar stature with equally similar budgets, which IMO, makes the league even more competitive.

No league is easy - none.

 

[ThisTinpotLeague]

I think that's a great point. I think the gap between L1 and L2 is beginning to open up. You can see that the best promoted teams rarely do better than midtable in L1 and clown colleges like Swindon immediately stabilise down there.

 

[Jockney]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009–10_Football_League_One

The following season in the Championship:

Norwich: 2nd
Leeds: 7th
MIllwall: 9th

 

[Rob_of_the_green]

Yea agreed, I think in recent times there has been seasons where the gap between league 1 and league 2 has not been huge certainly between the bottom half of league 1 and the top sides in league 2, but having just come up and maintained pretty much the exact same starting 11 without losing our key players you can see how much we're struggling with the jump in quality, teams coming up need to strengthen better than we have done

 

[Jockney]

Can't think many L1 sides will have much of a chance in the Champ anymore unless they get bankrolled. The Champ is the league that's getting progressively harder year on year as there are more trickle-down funds available to that league.

Preston seem to be doing OK against all odds. I think it's about as difficult as it's been for the last decade: i.e. not nearly as competitive as it used to be before the collapse of ITV digital, but still possible to do well if you have a decent manager and team spirit.

 

[hold'um Oldham]

Agree about 09/10 being the strongest promotion teams, However for the strength of the overall league it would have to be the 02/03 season.

Any of the top 6 would have been good enough to win the title in most years. Wigan steam rolled the league and finished on 100 points while any of the other 5 Could have claimed second spot. All 5 had players who went on to have successful premier league careers like Robert earnshaw, Clint hill, fitz hall and many more besides.

Even Tranmere in 7th were just as good.
Discounting stats it was some of the best football I have seen in this league and being an oldham fan I've seen a lot. It was easily the best team we had ever had down here,but while we were formidable we were playing teams every week that in today's league would be right up there yet found themselves lower mid table.

Obviously there was some crap. Mansfield were appauling and one of the worst to come here ever, but the majority of the league were more than capable

 

[Hedonist Puncture]

There has been a gap between L1 and L2 for a while now, IMO. We noticed it a few seasons ago, when we were promoted out of the worst L2 (or 4th level) I have ever seen. It has taken a while to sort out our management, club structure and playing staff to compete at L1 level. For a team to be promoted and just expect to do well in L1 is naive. Plymouth, Pompey and Donny in the bottom half doesn't surprise me. There is even a bigger step-up to the Championship and things have changed from years before, making comparisons as in this type of thread difficult, if not unrealistic.

 

[JoshBCFC]

Can't think many L1 sides will have much of a chance in the Champ anymore unless they get bankrolled. The Champ is the league that's getting progressively harder year on year as there are more trickle-down funds available to that league.

I disagree with this. Preston, us, Burton, Barnsley have all had decent chances in the Championship in recent years, and this year, while Bolton look destined for a return to League One, Sheffield Untied and Millwall seem to be doing ok. None of the teams I mentioned were bankrolled.

 

[Indian Dan]

I think that's a great point. I think the gap between L1 and L2 is beginning to open up. You can see that the best promoted teams rarely do better than midtable in L1 and clown colleges like Swindon immediately stabilise down there.

And even those who splash the cash in L1 have mediocre written all over them

 

[ThisTinpotLeague]

And even those who splash the cash in L1 have mediocre written all over them

Bloody hell, I hope we haven't splashed the cash for what I'm seeing

 

[Indian Dan]

Well, your head honcho has paid himself back and reinvested the left-overs into Cloth-head and your new, expensive squad. Fair play for the reinvestment bit, but it's heartwarming to hear about the realities.

 

[ThisTinpotLeague]

Well, your head honcho has paid himself back and reinvested the left-overs into Cloth-head and your new, expensive squad. Fair play for the reinvestment bit, but it's heartwarming to hear about the realities.

I mean, do you actually know any of that or are you just making yourself feel better about life in Wiltshire?

Is it "splashing the cash" to sell a player and spend the money on paying down debt and adding to the squad? Very odd post by you.

 

[Indian Dan]

Just quoting what one of you lot was posting on the subject - which, as it wasn't shouted down, I took as being close to the truth. I profess to know fuck all about the shenanigans at your triangle.

Just nice to see you lot struggling with players on high salaries. We all know where that could end.

As for splashing the cash, I'm not saying it's hit and hope money, just that the spending appears to have been badly spent. And cash from player sales can only be spent once.

 

[bantamigo]

I disagree with this. Preston, us, Burton, Barnsley have all had decent chances in the Championship in recent years, and this year, while Bolton look destined for a return to League One, Sheffield Untied and Millwall seem to be doing ok. None of the teams I mentioned were bankrolled.

Aren't you owned by a billionaire who's just built you a brand new stadium?

 

[JoshBCFC]

Aren't you owned by a billionaire who's just built you a brand new stadium?

Yes but we haven't spent a lot of money on players; our transfer record is only 5.3 million

 

[SF_]

The quality of the Championship is very overplayed.

Our first eleven yesterday cost less than a million and we'll give anyone a game.

 

[Luke_ciderhead]

1999-2003 is the answer. Never known this division to be as strong as it was then. Every year, you would have a promoted club going on to make playoffs the next season in the Championship. There were fallen bigger clubs (Stoke, QPR, Preston and Burnley), teams with huge budgets (Wigan, Reading and Cardiff) and just sides that were incredibly well managed and punched above their weight (Gillingham, Crewe, Rotherham, Brighton, Walsall)

We were a good side in that period under Danny Wilson but were never strong enough to go up.