The 1985-86 season was the 106th season of competitive football in England.

Overview

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First Division

The championship crown went to Liverpool for the 16th time in their history at the end of their first season under the management of Kenny Dalglish, but they had to fight off some very stiff competition to get the big prize. Neigbours Everton came second, while West Ham United came third and Manchester United finished in fourth place. Ron Atkinson's United side had looked set for title glory after winning their first 10 games of the season, but a slump in form during the second half of the season ruined their title hopes.

Going down from the First Division were Ipswich Town, Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion. Ipswich, who had been league runners-up and UEFA Cup winners just a few seasons earlier, had never been the same since the departure of Bobby Robson for the England job in 1982 and had gradually faded away under his successor Bobby Ferguson. Birmingham had only won promotion the year before, but had struggled on their comeback to the First Division and relegation had looked certain throughout the season. Albion had suffered badly since manager Ron Atkinson had moved to Manchester United and taken key players Bryan Robson and Remi Moses with him, and their luck finally ran out as they ended the 1985-86 season bottom of the First Division with just four wins from 42 league games.

George Graham, who had played in Arsenal's 1970-71 Double-winning side, returned to the club as their new manager after Don Howe had resigned. By the time Graham returned to Arsenal, the club had gone 15 years without a league title and seven years without a major trophy. Graham's task was to bring some success to the Gunners who had been increasingly eclipsed by rivals Tottenham Hotspur during the 1980s.

Second Division

League Cup holders Norwich City were most people's favourites for an instant return to the First Division, and Ken Brown's men proved the observers correct by gaining promotion. But the two other promotion places went to two of the least fancied sides. Charlton, managed by Lennie Lawrence, had narrowly escaped closure three years earlier and just after the start of the 1985-86 had been forced to ground-share with Crystal Palace because their own stadium was condemned by safety officials. But Lawrence and his players made a huge effort to push for promotion and they succeeded. The third and final promotion place went to Dave Bassett's Wimbledon, who were only in their ninth season as a league club.

Carlisle United, whose fortunes had slumped dramatically since their one-year stay in the top flight during the 1970s, were relegated to the Third Division having been in the upper half of the league for well over a decade. Harry Gregg, the former Manchester United goalkeeper who helped rescue passengers at the Munich air disaster, was appointed Carlisle's manager at the end of the season. Following them down were Fulham and financially-troubled Middlesbrough.

Third Division

The Third Division promotion places in 1985-86 went to Reading, Plymouth Argyle and Derby County.

The relegation places went to Lincoln City, Cardiff City, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Swansea City. Just a few seasons earlier, Wolves and Swansea had been enjoying good fortunes in the First Division - Wolves as League Cup winners in 1980 and Swansea as sixth-placed in the First Division. But financial problems had caught up with both clubs and pushed them into a downward spiral.

Fourth Division

Swindon Town, Chester City, Mansfield Town and Port Vale occupied the Fourth Division promotion places in 1985-86. Credit to Swindon manager Lou Macari for beginning the reversal of decline for a club who had been League Cup winners in 1969. And to Harry McNally for guiding Chester to the first promotion in their 55-year league career.

In the Fourth Division for the first time were two of England's oldest and most famous clubs - Burnley and Preston North End. 1985-86 was the last season of re-election before the introduction of automatic relegation from the Fourth Division. Preston finished second from bottom, just above Torquay United, and only avoided losing their league status because the league's other members voted for them in favour of Gola League champions Enfield. Burnley's fortunes were not quite so bad, but a mid-table finish wasn't anywhere near good enough for promotion. Another Fourth Division struggling side, Tranmere Rovers, almost went out of business during the season but were saved at the eleventh hour by a new chairman.

FA Cup

Liverpool beat neighbours Everton 3-1 in the final to complete only the third league championship and FA Cup double of the 20th century. Key player in the triumph was striker Ian Rush, who scored twice.

League Cup

Oxford United marked their First Division debut season with an impressive 3-0 victory over QPR - managed by former Oxford boss Jim Smith - in the League Cup final.

Star players

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• Everton's new signing Gary Lineker scored more than 30 competitive goals for his team as they pursued the domestic honours all season long before being beaten to both the league title and FA Cup by neighbours Liverpool. Lineker was voted Player of the Year by both the PFA and FWA.
• West Ham's club record third-place finish was mainly down to the prolific goalscoring of young striker Tony Cottee who was credited with the PFA Young Player of the Year award for his strong performances.
• Liverpool's double glory was achieved thanks to the efforts of their whole playing squad, but the driving force in their triumph was undoubtedly striker Ian Rush who had yet another great season.
• Manchester United's ever-improving striker Mark Hughes had another brilliant season, but was unable to halt his side's late-season slump, which cost them the league title.
• Northern Ireland goalkeeper Pat Jennings hung up his gloves at the age of 41 to draw the curtain on a 25-year career which had seen him turn out for Watford, Tottenham and Arsenal. He famously scored for Tottenham against Manchester United with a goal-line clearence in the 1967 Charity Shield.

Star managers

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• Liverpool's Kenny Dalglish kicked off his management career with the league championship and FA Cup double.
• Maurice Evans began his career as Oxford manager by winning them the League Cup in their first season as a top division club.
• Howard Kendall inspired Everton to another strong season but they were unable to beat neighbours Liverpool to the coveted double.
• John Lyall built a stylish West Ham side which came close to winning the club's first-ever league championship trophy but still did well to finish a club record third in the final table.
• Dave Bassett continued to make the most of Wimbledon's limited resources by guiding his unfancied side to promotion to the First Division at the end of only their ninth season as a league club.

National team

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England reached the 1986 FIFA World Cup quarter finals where they lost 2-1 to eventual winners Argentina, whose first goal by Diego Maradona was allowed despite being an obvious handball. Maradona later referred to his controversial goal as "The Hand of God".

Transfers

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Terry Venables signed two British strikers for FC Barcelona - Mark Hughes from Manchester United and Gary Lineker from Everton - in hope of lifting some of the pressure building up on him after Barcelona's European Cup final defeat.

Honours

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Competition	Winner	Runner-up
First Division	Liverpool	Everton
Second Division	Norwich City	Charlton Athletic
Third Division	Reading	Plymouth Argyle
Fourth Division	Swindon Town	Chester City
FA Cup	Liverpool	Everton
League Cup	Oxford United	Queen's Park Rangers
Charity Shield	Everton	Manchester United

League table

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First Division

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Liverpool	42	26	10	6	89	37	+52	88
2	Everton	42	26	8	8	87	41	+46	86
3	West Ham United	42	26	6	10	74	40	+34	84
4	Manchester United	42	22	10	10	70	36	+34	76
5	Sheffield Wednesday	42	21	10	11	63	54	+9	73
6	Chelsea	42	20	11	11	57	56	+1	71
7	Arsenal	42	20	9	13	49	47	+2	69
8	Nottingham Forest	42	19	11	12	69	53	+16	68
9	Luton Town	42	18	12	12	61	44	+17	66
10	Tottenham Hotspur	42	19	8	15	74	52	+22	65
11	Newcastle United	42	17	12	13	67	72	-5	63
12	Watford	42	16	11	15	69	62	+7	59
13	Queen's Park Rangers	42	15	7	20	53	64	-11	52
14	Southampton	42	12	10	20	51	62	-11	46
15	Manchester City	42	11	12	19	43	57	-14	45
16	Aston Villa	42	10	14	18	51	67	-16	44
17	Coventry City	42	11	10	21	48	71	-23	43
18	Oxford United	42	10	12	20	62	80	-18	42
19	Leicester City	42	10	12	20	54	76	-22	42
20	Ipswich Town	42	11	8	23	32	55	-23	41
21	Birmingham City	42	8	5	29	30	73	-43	29
22	West Bromwich Albion	42	4	12	26	35	89	-54	24

Second Division

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Norwich City	42	25	9	8	84	37	+47	84
2	Charlton Athletic	42	22	11	9	78	45	+33	77
3	Wimbledon	42	21	13	8	58	37	+21	76
4	Portsmouth	42	22	7	13	69	41	+28	73
5	Crystal Palace	42	19	9	14	57	52	+5	66
6	Hull City	42	17	13	12	65	55	+10	64
7	Sheffield United	42	17	11	14	64	63	+1	62
8	Oldham Athletic	42	17	9	16	62	61	+1	60
9	Millwall	42	17	8	17	64	65	-1	59
10	Stoke City	42	14	15	13	48	50	-2	57
11	Brighton & Hove Albion	42	16	8	18	64	64	+0	56
12	Barnsley	42	14	14	14	47	50	-3	56
13	Bradford City	42	16	6	20	51	63	-12	54
14	Leeds United	42	15	8	19	56	72	-16	53
15	Grimsby Town	42	14	10	18	58	62	-4	52
16	Huddersfield Town	42	14	10	18	51	67	-16	52
17	Shrewsbury Town	42	14	9	19	52	64	-12	51
18	Sunderland	42	13	11	18	47	61	-14	50
19	Blackburn Rovers	42	12	13	17	53	62	-9	49
20	Carlisle United	42	13	7	22	47	71	-24	46
21	Middlesbrough	42	12	9	21	44	53	-9	45
22	Fulham	42	10	6	26	45	69	-24	36

Third Division

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Reading	46	29	7	10	67	51	+16	94
2	Plymouth Argyle	46	26	9	11	88	53	+35	87
3	Derby County	46	23	15	8	80	41	+39	84
4	Wigan Athletic	46	23	14	9	82	48	+34	83
5	Gillingham	46	22	13	11	81	54	+27	79
6	Walsall	46	22	9	15	90	64	+26	75
7	York City	46	20	11	15	77	58	+19	71
8	Notts County	46	19	14	13	71	60	+11	71
9	Bristol City	46	18	14	14	69	60	+9	68
10	Brentford	46	18	12	16	58	61	-3	66
11	Doncaster Rovers	46	16	16	14	45	52	-7	64
12	Blackpool	46	17	12	17	66	55	+11	63
13	Darlington	46	15	13	18	61	78	-17	58
14	Rotherham United	46	15	12	19	61	59	+2	57
15	Bournemouth	46	15	9	22	65	72	-7	54
16	Bristol Rovers	46	14	12	20	51	75	-24	54
17	Chesterfield	46	13	14	19	61	64	-3	53
18	Bolton Wanderers	46	15	8	23	54	68	-14	53
19	Newport County	46	11	18	17	52	65	-13	51
20	Bury	46	12	13	21	63	67	-4	49
21	Lincoln City	46	10	16	20	55	77	-22	46
22	Cardiff City	46	12	9	25	53	83	-30	45
23	Wolverhampton Wanderers	46	11	10	25	57	98	-41	43
24	Swansea City	46	11	10	25	43	87	-44	43

Fourth Division

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Swindon Town	46	32	6	8	82	43	+39	102
2	Chester City	46	23	15	8	83	50	+33	84
3	Mansfield Town	46	23	12	11	74	47	+27	81
4	Port Vale	46	21	16	9	67	37	+30	79
5	Leyton Orient	46	20	12	14	79	64	+15	72
6	Colchester United	46	19	13	14	88	63	+25	70
7	Hartlepool United	46	20	10	16	68	67	+1	70
8	Northampton Town	46	18	10	18	79	58	+21	64
9	Southend United	46	18	10	18	69	67	+2	64
10	Hereford United	46	18	10	18	74	73	+1	64
11	Stockport County	46	17	13	16	63	71	-8	64
12	Crewe Alexandra	46	18	9	19	54	61	-7	63
13	Wrexham	46	17	9	20	68	80	-12	60
14	Burnley	46	16	11	19	60	65	-5	59
15	Scunthorpe United	46	15	14	17	50	55	-5	59
16	Aldershot	46	17	7	22	66	74	-8	58
17	Peterborough United	46	13	17	16	52	64	-12	56
18	Rochdale	46	14	13	19	57	77	-20	55
19	Tranmere Rovers	46	15	9	22	74	73	+1	54
20	Halifax Town	46	14	12	20	60	71	-11	54
21	Exeter City	46	13	15	18	47	59	-12	54
22	Cambridge United	46	15	9	22	65	80	-15	54
23	Preston North End	46	11	10	25	54	89	-35	43
24	Torquay United	46	9	10	27	43	88	-45	37

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