Birmingham City look set to run away with the League One title this season. The Blues currently sit at the top of the table with 86 points, having played two fewer games than their nearest competitor Wrexham, who have 77 points. With a current gap of nine points and with ten games left to play, we take a look at how Birmingham City compare with the past winners of the competition since its renaming to League One in 2004.
Since the football pyramid in England was restructured in 2004, with Division Two being renamed League One, there have been some noteworthy winners of this long and prestigious competition. We have had fifteen teams with 90 points or more, including four in triple figure points totals. We have also had Coventry City who, in 2019/20 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, were presented with the League One trophy after the season was curtailed with them having only played 34 games and amassing 67 points.
While Coventry City’s title triumph is unique for its circumstances, Birmingham already have more points this season than Southend United did when they won the League One title in the 2005/6 season. The Shrimpers accumulated 82 points that season, winning the league by a 3-point margin over Colchester United.
Charlton Athletic became the first team to win League One with 100 or more points in 2011/12 under the stewardship of Chris Powell. The Addicks lost only 5 league games that season and were helped to the title not only by disciplined back line – conceding only 36 goals across 46 games – but also in the form of Bradley Wright-Phillips. The former Manchester City striker netted 22 goals on route to the title.
Since Charlton Athletics’ three-figure points haul three clubs – Wolverhampton Wanderers (103 points), Sheffield United (100 points) and Plymouth (101 points) – have all since amassed a 100-plus points total. Wolverhampton’s record breaking title win came on the back of successive relegations from the Premier League and the Championship. The immediate bounce back relied heavily on the leadership of then manager Kenny Jackett, a solid defence and the firepower of a strong attack. Wolves lost only five of their 46 league games, winning 31 and scoring 89 goals on their way to the title.
To this day, the points total of 103 points remains a record for the competition since it was renamed in 2004, but Birmingham City look on course to surpass their West Midlands rivals’ total. Birmingham are currently averaging 2.32 points per game and, with only nine games remaining are on track to end the season with 107 points.
They are yet to lose a single league game at St. Andrews this season and with home fixtures against Barnsley, Crawley Town and Mansfield you can be forgiven for predicting they will go the season unbeaten at home. Of the past champions over the last 14 seasons in League One, only two of them – Luton Town in 2018/19 and Portsmouth in 2019/20 – managed to go the season unbeaten at home.
There was much scrutiny of Birmingham City’s spending power in the summer, especially the signing of Jay Stansfield from Fulham for a reported £15m. A transfer that shattered the current League One record which was approximately £4m that Sunderland paid to sign Will Grigg from Wigan Athletic back in 2019.
Despite the scrutiny, the signing has paid off so far. Stansfield has netted 16 goals in the league this season and, whilst he still trails Wycombe’s Richard Kone by two in the race for the Golden Boot, looks set to fire his new club to the title. With his current goals per game average of around 0.571 goals per game, if he continues this trend over the remaining nine fixtures, he looks likely to end the season with 21 goals.
While 21 goals, should Stansfield achieve that, might fall short of other past champions leading scorers, Wright-Phillips hit one more for Charlton, Billy Sharp netted himself 30 goals when Sheffield United won the title in 2016/17, it looks set to be more than enough to blow the past winners points tallies out of the water.
Add in the fact that the midfield have chipped in with 24 goal contributions, and fellow attackers with 38 – Alfie May’s impressive 12 goals and 6 assists helping with the fire power – and you can see why Birmingham are looking set to break the points record for a League One champion.
It is not just in attack where Birmingham City are excelling. Their defensive record of conceding just 25 goals across their 37 league games so far is the best in the division by five. With their current goals against ratio of 0.68 per game, this current rate would be enough to see them concede just 31 goals over the entire campaign. When compared to previous winners, only Wigan Athletic in 2017/18 with a quite frankly ridiculous 29 goals conceded in 46 games can better this. Thanks in large part to the impressive Christoph Klarer – the summer signing from Bundesliga 2 side Darmstadt – and Ben Davies, signed on a season-long loan from Rangers, defensive partnership, mainly at the heart of a back four but also sometimes in a 3, Birmingham are set to boast one of the best defensive records of the past ten years.
If we exclude Coventry City’s COVID-19 season, Birmingham City already boast a better goal difference after 37 games than four of the past ten winners did at the culmination of the season. Whereas they are unlikely to get close to Wigan Athletics’ +60 goal difference in 2017/18, or even Wolves and Bristol City’s goal differences of +58 in 2013/14 and 2014/15 respectively, their attacking prowess and defensive solidity still leave them in a great position to end the season with a better goal difference than many of the past champions since the 2004/5 campaign.
Birmingham City’s form this season has them firmly on track to become one of, if not the, best League One side since 2004. With their solid defensive record and goals seemingly arriving from all areas of the pitch, and with a potential goal difference to better the majority of past champions, Birmingham look set to break the points record for the division.
Whilst it won’t be possible to match the extraordinary defensive record of Wigan, or whether their star man cannot match the 30 goals of Billy Sharp in 2016/17, nobody will be thinking of those things come 3rd May when Birmingham are on course to be crowned League One champions with the greatest points total since its renaming and surely, on that note, be widely considered one of the best League One sides of all time.
