The 1987-88 season was the 108th season of competitive football in England.

Overview

---

First Division

Liverpool won the league title with a comfortable nine-point margin and just two defeats all season. Their key players were two new signings - winger John Barnes and striker John Aldridge - who helped defy any doubts that people might have had as to whether Liverpool could challenge for honours after Ian Rush's departure. Second in the league were Manchester United, rejuvenated under Alex Ferguson - who had bought some impressive new players including Brian McClair and Steve Bruce.

The first relegation places went to Watford and Oxford United, who both lost far too many games and picked up far too few points to have any realistic hope of avoiding relegation. Next to go down were Portsmouth, whose First Division comeback lasted just one season. Chelsea then became the first top division club in 90 years to lose their status after playoffs. They lost to Second Division Middlesbrough in the playoff final and surrendered their First Division place to the Teessiders.

Second Division

John Docherty's impressive Millwall side lifted the Second Division championship trophy and gained promotion to the First Division for the first time in their history. Runners-up were Aston Villa, managed by Graham Taylor and boasting a squad of strong players like David Platt and Gordon Cowans. Middlesbrough won promotion for the second season running after negotiating the relegation/promotion playoffs at the expense of Chelsea.

Huddersfield Town, who had suffered a 10-1 defeat at the hands of Manchester City in November, were the Second Division's biggest flops during 1987-88 as they went down in bottom place. The Second/Third Division relegation/promotion playoffs once again saw a Second Division club suffer relegation, this time it was Sheffield United.

Third Division

Sunderland's first season in the Third Division ended in glory as they lifted the championship and went back up to the Second Division. They were joined by runners-up Brighton & Hove Albion and playoff winners Walsall.

The Third Division relegation places were occupied by Rotherham United, Grimsby Town, York City and Doncaster Rovers.

Fourth Division

Wolves ended their two-year tenure in the Fourth Division by finishing top of the table and winning promotion to the Third Division, one season after being rescued by new owner Jack Hayward and new manager Graham Turner. Bolton Wanderers, another fallen giant, also ensured their Fourth Division tenure was short lived by winning automatic promotion. Swansea City were promoted via the playoffs just two years after almost going out of existence, while their South Wales neighbours Cardiff City were also promoted.

Financially troubled Newport County were relegated for the second successive season and this time they lost their league status - less than a year later they were to go out of business. Lincoln City won the Conference title to take their place.

Scunthorpe United left the Old Showground and moved into Glanford Park, thus becoming the first English club in more than 30 years to move to a new stadium.

FA Cup

Wimbledon caused one of the biggest footballing upsets of the 20th century by defeating champions Liverpool 1-0 in the FA Cup final. The winners had only been league members for 11 years and First Division members for two years, while the losers had just wrapped up their 17th league championship.

League Cup

Ray Harford's Luton Town achieved a shock 3-2 win over Arsenal in the League Cup final to win the first major trophy of their history. Harford had only been promoted to the manager's seat from assistant manager a year earlier as successor to John Moore.

Star players

---

The PFA voted Liverpool's high scoring winger John Barnes Player of the Year and Newcastle United's exciting young midfielder Paul Gascoigne Young Player of the Year. Other players to hit the headlines during 1987-88 were Manchester United striker Brian McClair, Liverpool striker John Aldridge and West Ham striker Tony Cottee.

Star managers

---

• Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish added the league title to his managerial CV to bring his total of championships to two in three seasons and Liverpool's all-time total to 17.
• Bobby Gould and Ray Harford achieved success in the cup competitions with Wimbledon and Luton respectively - ending the lifelong trophy droughts that both clubs had endured until then.
• Graham Taylor's first season at Aston Villa ended in promotion to the First Division at the expense of his old club Watford.
• John Docherty brought First Division football to Millwall for the first time in their history.
• Bruce Rioch took Middlesbrough to the First Division just two years after financial problems almost put the club out of business.

National team

---

England were eliminated from Euro 88 after losing all three group games in West Germany. The Netherlands went on to win the tournament. In spite of continued calls from the tabloids for a new manager to be installed, the FA kept faith in Bobby Robson once more.

Transfers

---

Liverpool paid an English club record fee of £1.9million for Newcastle United's 26-year-old striker Peter Beardsley. They also forked out £900,000 for Watford winger John Barnes.

Deaths

---

• John Smith, 49, played over 400 career games as an inside-forward between 1956 and 1973. In 1958, at the age of 19, he helped West Ham United win promotion to the First Division. His biggest success came in 1969 when he helped Swindon Town win the League Cup and record the only major trophy victory of their history. During the 1972-73 season, he had a five-month spell as manager of Walsall.
• Harold Dobbie, 65, former Middlesbrough forward who scored twice on his club debut in 1948 - against near neighbours Sunderland. Later played for Plymouth Argyle and finally Torquay United before retiring from football and returning to his native Newcastle to run a hardware shop.
• John Harris, 70, born in Glasgow, was Chelsea's centre-half in their league championship winning side of 1955. Later managed Sheffield United and took them into the First Division in 1971.

Honours

---

Competition	Winner	Runner-up
First Division	Liverpool	Manchester United
Second Division	Millwall	Aston Villa
Third Division	Sunderland	Brighton & Hove Albion
Fourth Division	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Cardiff City
FA Cup	Wimbledon	Liverpool
League Cup	Luton Town	Arsenal
Charity Shield	Everton	Coventry City

League table

---

First Division

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Liverpool	40	26	12	2	87	24	+63	90
2	Manchester United	40	23	12	5	71	38	+33	81
3	Nottingham Forest	40	20	13	7	67	39	+28	73
4	Everton	40	19	13	8	53	27	+26	70
5	Queen's Park Rangers	40	19	10	11	48	38	+10	67
6	Arsenal	40	18	12	10	58	39	+19	66
7	Wimbledon	40	14	15	11	58	47	+11	57
8	Newcastle United	40	14	14	12	55	53	+2	56
9	Luton Town	40	14	11	15	57	58	-1	53
10	Coventry City	40	13	14	13	46	53	-7	53
11	Sheffield Wednesday	40	15	8	17	52	66	-14	53
12	Southampton	40	12	14	14	49	53	-4	50
13	Tottenham Hotspur	40	12	11	17	38	48	-10	47
14	Norwich City	40	12	9	19	40	52	-12	45
15	Derby County	40	10	13	17	35	45	-10	43
16	West Ham United	40	9	15	16	40	52	-12	42
17	Charlton Athletic	40	9	15	16	38	52	-14	42
18	Chelsea	40	9	15	16	50	68	-18	42
19	Portsmouth	40	7	14	19	36	66	-30	35
20	Watford	40	7	11	22	27	51	-24	32
21	Oxford United	40	6	13	21	44	80	-36	31

Second Division

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Millwall	44	25	7	12	72	52	+20	82
2	Aston Villa	44	22	12	10	68	41	+27	78
3	Middlesbrough	44	22	12	10	63	36	+27	78
4	Bradford City	44	22	11	11	74	54	+20	77
5	Blackburn Rovers	44	21	14	9	68	52	+16	77
6	Crystal Palace	44	22	9	13	86	59	+27	75
7	Leeds United	44	19	12	13	61	51	+10	69
8	Ipswich Town	44	19	9	16	61	52	+9	66
9	Manchester City	44	19	8	17	80	60	+20	65
10	Oldham Athletic	44	18	11	15	72	64	+8	65
11	Stoke City	44	17	11	16	50	57	-7	62
12	Swindon Town	44	16	11	17	73	60	+13	59
13	Leicester City	44	16	11	17	62	61	+1	59
14	Barnsley	44	15	12	17	61	62	-1	57
15	Hull City	44	14	15	15	54	60	-6	57
16	Plymouth Argyle	44	16	8	20	65	67	-2	56
17	Bournemouth	44	13	10	21	56	68	-12	49
18	Shrewsbury Town	44	11	16	17	42	54	-12	49
19	Birmingham City	44	11	15	18	41	66	-25	48
20	West Bromwich Albion	44	12	11	21	50	69	-19	47
21	Sheffield United	44	13	7	24	45	74	-29	46
22	Reading	44	10	12	22	44	70	-26	42
23	Huddersfield Town	44	6	10	28	41	100	-59	28

Third Division

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Sunderland	46	27	12	7	92	48	+44	93
2	Brighton & Hove Albion	46	23	15	8	69	47	+22	84
3	Walsall	46	23	13	10	68	50	+18	82
4	Notts County	46	23	12	11	82	49	+33	81
5	Bristol City	46	21	12	13	77	62	+15	75
6	Northampton Town	46	18	19	9	70	51	+19	73
7	Wigan Athletic	46	20	12	14	70	61	+9	72
8	Bristol Rovers	46	18	12	16	68	56	+12	66
9	Fulham	46	19	9	18	69	60	+9	66
10	Blackpool	46	17	14	15	71	62	+9	65
11	Port Vale	46	18	11	17	58	56	+2	65
12	Brentford	46	16	14	16	53	59	-6	62
13	Gillingham	46	14	17	15	77	61	+16	59
14	Bury	46	15	14	17	58	57	+1	59
15	Chester City	46	14	16	16	51	62	-11	58
16	Preston North End	46	15	13	18	48	59	-11	58
17	Southend United	46	14	13	19	65	83	-18	55
18	Chesterfield	46	15	10	21	41	70	-29	55
19	Mansfield Town	46	14	12	20	48	59	-11	54
20	Aldershot	46	15	8	23	64	74	-10	53
21	Rotherham United	46	12	16	18	50	66	-16	52
22	Grimsby Town	46	12	14	20	48	58	-10	50
23	York City	46	8	9	29	48	91	-43	33
24	Doncaster Rovers	46	8	9	29	40	84	-44	33

Fourth Division

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Wolverhampton Wanderers	46	27	9	10	82	43	+39	90
2	Cardiff City	46	24	13	9	66	41	+25	85
3	Bolton Wanderers	46	22	12	12	66	42	+24	78
4	Scunthorpe United	46	20	17	9	76	51	+25	77
5	Torquay United	46	21	14	11	66	41	+25	77
6	Swansea City	46	20	10	16	62	56	+6	70
7	Peterborough United	46	20	10	16	52	53	-1	70
8	Leyton Orient	46	19	12	15	85	63	+22	69
9	Colchester United	46	19	10	17	47	51	-4	67
10	Burnley	46	20	7	19	57	62	-5	67
11	Wrexham	46	20	6	20	69	58	+11	66
12	Scarborough	46	17	14	15	56	48	+8	65
13	Darlington	46	18	11	17	71	69	+2	65
14	Tranmere Rovers	46	19	9	18	61	53	+8	64
15	Cambridge United	46	16	13	17	50	52	-2	61
16	Hartlepool United	46	15	14	17	50	57	-7	59
17	Crewe Alexandra	46	13	19	14	57	53	+4	58
18	Halifax Town	46	14	14	18	54	59	-5	55
19	Hereford United	46	14	12	20	41	59	-18	54
20	Stockport County	46	12	15	19	44	58	-14	51
21	Rochdale	46	11	15	20	47	76	-29	48
22	Exeter City	46	11	13	22	53	68	-15	46
23	Carlisle United	46	12	8	26	57	86	-29	44
24	Newport County	46	6	7	33	35	105	-70	25

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