*** Welcome to piglix ***

1999–2000 Football League

The Football League
Season 1999–2000
Champions Charlton Athletic
Promoted Charlton Athletic
Manchester City
Ipswich Town
Relegated Chester City
Football League, First Division
Season 1999–2000
Champions Charlton Athletic (1st second tier title)
Direct promotion to FA Premier League Charlton Athletic,
Manchester City
Promoted to FA Premier League through play-offs Ipswich Town
Relegated Port Vale,
Swindon Town,
Walsall
Matches played 552
Goals scored 1,391 (2.52 per match)
Top goalscorer Andy Hunt (Charlton Athletic), 24
Football League, Second Division
Season 1999–2000
Champions Preston North End (2nd third tier title)
Direct promotion Preston North End,
Burnley
Promoted through play-offs Gillingham
Relegated Blackpool,
Cardiff City,
Chesterfield,
Scunthorpe United
Matches played 552
Goals scored 1,404 (2.54 per match)
Top goalscorer Andy Payton (Burnley), 27
Football League, Third Division
Season 1999–2000
Champions Swansea City (1st fourth tier title)
Direct promotion Swansea City,
Northampton,
Rotherham United
Promoted through play-offs Peterborough United
Relegated to Conference Chester
Matches played 552
Goals scored 1,303 (2.36 per match)
Top goalscorer Marco Gabbiadini (Darlington), 24

The 1999–2000 Football League (known as the Nationwide Football League for sponsorship reasons) was the 101st completed season of The Football League.

The 1999–2000 season saw the league dispense with the traditional 1–11 numbering of players’ shirts in favour of squad numbers, a system that had been adopted by the Premier League a few seasons before. This also meant that players’ names appeared on the back of their shirts for the first time since the league’s inception.

The three promotion places in Division One went to champions Charlton Athletic, runners-up Manchester City and playoff winners Ipswich Town.

1999–2000 also saw some of Division One’s biggest clubs miss out on promotion — the biggest of these were Blackburn Rovers (11th) and Nottingham Forest (14th). Steve Coppell ended his fourth spell as Crystal Palace manager after doing wonders to keep a virtually bankrupt club clear of the Division One relegation zone.

Going down were Walsall, Port Vale and Swindon Town. West Bromwich Albion just missed out on the drop zone thanks to a late turn-around in form during the final weeks of the season which followed the appointment of Gary Megson as manager.

David Moyes, 37, showed promise as one of the league’s most highly rated young managers after he guided Preston North End to the Division Two championship. Stan Ternent’s two-year rebuilding project at Burnley paid off as they finished runners-up in the division and would establish themselves as a second tier side for nine years until promotion to the Premier League happened at the end of the 2008–09 season. Joining them in Division One were Peter Taylor’s Gillingham, who had reached the upper half of the league for the first time in their history.


...
Wikipedia

...