2013–14 in English football


The 2013–14 season was the 134th season of competitive football in England.

Promotion and relegation

Preseason

Postseason

England national football team

2014 FIFA World Cup qualification

International friendlies

Premier League

In a season marked with constant changes at the top of the table, Manchester City won their second Premier League title in Chilean Manuel Pellegrini's first season in charge. Despite being overwhelming favourites at the start of the season, they were only able to confirm top spot after a final day victory against West Ham. They also won the League Cup, marking their first domestic double in a season where they dropped points at home just twice. Liverpool took second place, but did not always look like they were going to finish in the top 4; an 11-match winning run from February to April left them in a good position to end their 24-year wait for a league title, but a home defeat to Chelsea with only three games remaining, followed by a 3–3 draw at Crystal Palace where they threw away a 3–0 lead in ten minutes, ultimately proved fatal to their title challenge. The season was nonetheless a massive improvement, as they qualified for the Champions League for the first time in five years and striker Luis Suárez was the league's top marksman with 31 goals, despite not even playing for the first five games. This was also the first Premier League season where both of the top two sides broke the 100-goal mark.
After six years managing in both Italy and Spain, José Mourinho returned to Chelsea. But unlike his first season back in 2004, their campaign ended in disappointment, despite the Blues managing a serious title challenge for the first time since 2010. While they pulled off big wins against the top teams, dropped points to relegation battlers proved to be their undoing. Arsenal took the final Champions League spot, having led the league for a large part of the season before injuries to key players and a terrible run of form in the spring starting with a 5–1 loss at Liverpool, as well as heavy away losses at Chelsea and Everton, ultimately consigned them to their sixth fourth-place finish in nine years, though they at least ended their nine-year trophy drought by winning the FA Cup.
Roberto Martínez's first season in charge of Everton saw the blue half of Merseyside take fifth place, making a serious challenge for the final Champions League spot, but ultimately falling short. Tottenham Hotspur, despite a somewhat turbulent season that saw the departure of Gareth Bale, the sacking of André Villas-Boas a few days before Christmas, and replacement manager Tim Sherwood days after the season ended, took sixth place and the final Europa League spot.
Arguably, the biggest shock of the season was defending champions Manchester United's woeful relinquishment of their Premier League trophy. The retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, an aging squad and terrible form at home meant they surrendered their crown as early as December. This poor form saw Moyes dismissed as manager after less than a year, and a late improvement under the caretaker management of United veteran Ryan Giggs ultimately was not enough to take sixth place. This meant that United finished seventh, their lowest finish in the Premier League era, and failed to qualify for Europe for the first time since English clubs were re-admitted to Europe in 1990. It was also the first time in the Premier League era that they did not finish in the top four.
In a surprising turn of events, Crystal Palace fared the best of the three promoted clubs, finishing 11th. Few had given them any hope of surviving after they lost nine of their first ten games under Ian Holloway, but a huge improvement after Tony Pulis took over as manager meant that the Eagles would be playing a second consecutive season in the Premier League for the first time ever. Hull City also performed reasonably well, never being seriously threatened with relegation and managing a highest-ever finish of 16th place, along with reaching the FA Cup Final.
Sunderland became only the second club to beat the "Curse of Christmas", as they were bottom on Christmas Day, but a late rally of 13 points from their final 6 games saw them earn survival. There was some controversy over their season, as they fielded an ineligible player in four early games, yet were not deducted points as would happen in the Football League and Conference; ultimately though, Sunderland would have lost just one point from such a deduction, not enough to result in their relegation.
Cardiff City's first Premier League season resulted in a bottom-place finish and an immediate relegation back to the Championship, despite breaking the 30-point mark. Their season had begun reasonably well, but quickly imploded after promotion-winning manager Malky Mackay was controversially sacked after a fall-out with club owner Vincent Tan. Ole Gunnar Solskjær was drafted in, but was unable to save the Welsh side from the drop despite some positive results. Fulham's 13-year stay in the Premier League came to a disastrous end after a season in which they employed three different managers and conceded 85 goals, the most out of the bottom 3 and the second-most conceded by a team in the Premier League under the 38-game format. Norwich City occupied the third relegation spot, as an inability to score, atrocious away form and a disastrous end to the season that saw them pick up just 1 point from a possible 21, as well as the sacking of Chris Hughton and appointment of youth team coach Neil Adams all cost them dearly, and resulted in them returning to the Championship after three years.

League table

Championship

After last season's play-off heartbreak, Leicester City ended their decade-long exile from the Premier League by gaining promotion as champions, topping the division on Boxing Day and never surrendering their lead. Joining them were Burnley, who many had tipped for relegation, but ultimately achieved automatic promotion in Sean Dyche's first full season in charge of the Lancashire club. The 41-goal strike partnership of exciting duo Danny Ings and Sam Vokes was enough to return the Clarets to the top-flight after four years. Queens Park Rangers had to settle for the play-offs after topping the table for much of the first half of the season, scraping past Derby County in the final at Wembley to make an instant return to the Premier League.
The other two newly relegated sides, Wigan and Reading, also did well. The Latics overcame the sacking of Owen Coyle, with his replacement Uwe Rosler guiding them to the play-off places, going unbeaten in 16 of his first 18 league matches along the way, but they couldn't finish higher than 5th and they lost to QPR in the playoff semifinals in extra time. Reading missed the playoffs by a single point after Brighton grabbed a late winner against Nottingham Forest, but the Royals were in contention for promotion for virtually the whole season, with inconsistent form preventing them from finishing higher.
In only their second ever campaign in the second tier, Bournemouth finished an impressive 10th, despite not being in contention for either promotion or relegation for most of the season. Blackpool had gotten to a hot start, winning 5 of their first 6 and standing fourth at the end of November, but lost 10 out of their next 12 over the next two months, costing Paul Ince his job and leading to the Tangerines to a 17-match winless run which sunk them to the relegation battle, alongside scoring the fewest goals in the division, but 3 wins under caretaker manager Barry Ferguson meant they stayed up.
Yeovil Town finished bottom, struggling all season long and failing to make a serious impression in their first-ever campaign at this level. Barnsley were unable to repeat the escape from relegation they managed the previous year and went down in second-bottom place, with not even the return of the club's most successful manager, Danny Wilson, saving them. Doncaster Rovers were relegated on the final day in dramatic fashion. Going into the last game of the season a point above the relegation zone, they knew they only had to match the result of relegation rivals Birmingham City. As it transpired, they lost to Leicester, whilst Birmingham staged a miraculous comeback to draw at Bolton, equalizing in the final few seconds of the game to send Doncaster back to League One after just a year.

League table

League One

After two successive relegations, Wolverhampton Wanderers turned their fortunes around under Kenny Jackett and made an immediate return to the Championship, while also setting a new record of 103 points for the third tier. Brentford shrugged off the loss of Wigan-bound Uwe Rosler and took the runners-up spot as replacement boss Mark Warburton enjoyed a highly successful first season as manager, taking the Bees to the second tier for the first time in 21 years. Rotherham United were victorious in the play-offs, repeating their early 2000s feat of earning consecutive promotions from the fourth and third tiers. But one of the biggest shocks of the season was Leyton Orient, who won their first eight games of the season and seemed unstoppable, cementing themselves firmly in the automatic promotion spots before several bursts of indifferent form pushed them down to third; they would reach Wembley for the play-off final before losing to Rotherham on penalties.
But arguably, perhaps the biggest surprise of the whole English season was Sheffield United; in the relegation zone by September, they sacked manager David Weir and replaced him with Nigel Clough. At first, it appeared the appointment was in vain as they stood in the relegation zone by the end of the year; however, starting with a staggering FA Cup win over Premier League side Aston Villa in the third round, they went on a major unbeaten run in both league and cup as Nigel employed the managerial tactics of his father Brian to help the club fight their way to the top of the table. In the FA Cup, they stunned their way through each round to book their place in the semi-finals at Wembley against Hull. Whilst they lost 5–3, Clough was praised for his work in both of the club's remaining competitions. The Blades finished in seventh place, just missing out on the playoffs, but a far cry from the relegation zone they were in at the end of the year.
Stevenage, whose fortunes had rapidly declined since their play-off appearance two years prior, were relegated in bottom place. Shrewsbury finished second-bottom, only staying ahead of Stevenage on goal difference. Carlisle United finished in third-bottom place, staying clear of the relegation zone for much of the season, but ultimately going down after a terrible end to the season saw them win just 1 of their last 15 matches. Tranmere Rovers, whose season rapidly fell apart after manager Ronnie Moore was suspended for betting-related offences in February, occupied the final relegation spot and fell into the fourth tier for the first time since 1989. Crewe were in the relegation zone for nearly the whole season, before a good late run of form pushed them up to 19th, albeit with the most goals conceded in the league and second-worst across all 4 divisions of League football.

League table

League Two

Chesterfield won the League Two title for the second time in three years. Scunthorpe earned an immediate promotion as runners-up; after an uninspiring start under previous manager Brian Laws, the appointment of long-serving coach Russ Wilcox as manager saw them only lose one more match for the rest of the season. Rochdale took the final automatic promotion spot, as Keith Hill quickly brought success in his second spell as manager, earning his second promotion with the club, and only the club's third-ever promotion overall. Fleetwood Town lost out in the race for automatic promotion, but made up for this by winning the play-offs, entering League One for the first time ever.
Portsmouth's 13th-placed finish in the fourth tier was the lowest in their history, but it could've been a lot worse as they spent most of the season fighting relegation. An end-of-season run of five wins out of seven boosted them up the table, following the resignation of Richie Barker and appointment of Andy Awford.
Torquay United suffered their second relegation from the Football League, with not even a late revival in form sparing them from another bottom-place finish. Bristol Rovers, who had been continuous members of the Football League since 1920 went down on the last day; they had never once been in the relegation zone prior to that day and looked the safest of the three sides in danger, but wins for rivals Northampton Town and Wycombe Wanderers condemned Rovers to the Football Conference for the first time ever.

League table

League Cup

FA Cup

Football Conference Top Division

Luton Town comfortably won the Conference National's automatic promotion spot, ending their five-year exile from the Football League. Cambridge United fell short after battling with Luton for the title during the majority of the season, but ultimately won promotion through the play-offs, returning to the League after nine years in the Conference.
At the bottom of the table, Hyde were relegated after a truly awful season in which they won just one game and recorded the Conference National's lowest-ever points total. Tamworth were relegated back to the Conference North after five years. Initially, Dartford and Chester were relegated after two seasons and one season respectively in the Conference Premier. However, both clubs were reprieved from relegation as a result of Hereford United and Salisbury City being expelled from the Football Conference due to financial problems. This would be the final season completed by both clubs, as Salisbury went into liquidation before they were accepted into another league, while Hereford also went into liquidation halfway through the following season in the Southern League.

League table

Women's football

Women's Super League

Women's Premier League

Northern Division

Southern Division

Managerial changes

Transfers

Diary of the season

Brentford become the second Football League club to confirm a promotion after a win over divisional rivals Preston, coupled with defeats for Leyton Orient and Rotherham sees them promoted to the Championship.