You can see the table at the foot of this page.
Welcome to the composite league table of the 1980s.
League Division One for the 1980s
The big rosette is coloured Merseyside red. This was the last decade when Liverpool were bossing it. Six titles and three second places, with one 5th place dragging their average down to 1.7. No-one else comes close. This even outperforms Fergie’s Man Utd for any given calendar decade.
For Forest and Southampton fans this also was a golden age. Check you with your top 10 average finishes across the decade. Ipswich and QPR also impressed, and just look at Luton Town!
Coventry City maintained the balancing act I remember as a lad, hovering in the lower reaches of the top flight without dropping out of it (there were 22 teams back then).
League Division Two for the 1980s
Oxford United and Shrewsbury Town fans will be happy, too, at the giddy heights of the top 40 for the decade. Their SD (standard deviation) is very different, however, reflecting the fact that Shrewsbury were consistently thirty-somethingth throughout, while Oxford played in three divisions. Portsmouth, Wolves and Wimbledon, also at a similar average, played in all four, with the latter two having curiously mirrored records between 6th place and 72nd.
League Division Three for the 1980s
Bolton Wanderers had a decade to forget, slumping from the first to the fourth tier and averaging in a lowly fifty-somethingth position. Burnley, Bury and Blackpool did worse. Brentford were consistently fifty-sometingth, ending an average of two places above Cambridge who went from 30th to 90th.
League Division Four for the 1980s
Rochdale did what they always seem to do – flirt with the trapdoor without going through it. 83rd was their best placing of the decade, and half of their placings were below 88th! This, however, was in an age where you could seek re-election even if you were bottom of the league, as happened in 1980.
Go to:
All time league table
Premier League era table
2010s league table
2000s league table
1990s league table
Statistics used in the ATLT
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