Division 2. One dominating team and one outsider. Bigger fight for escaping relegation than for promotion. Apart from the leader, only other teams competed for the remaining 2 promotional spots. The agony of Leeds United continued without a sign of recovery, it was painful to watch it. That for sympathetic hearts, of course. And one pleasant promotion, although not suggesting things to come. Yet.
Fulham – terrible this season: last with 36 points an out.
Middlesbrough – put some fight, but also inferior and joining Fulham in exile: 21st with 45 points.
Carlisle United – the third relegated team: 20 the with 46 points.
Blackburn Rovers – 19th with 49 points. It was becoming almost unbelievable that once upon a time they played in the top division.
Sunderland – down on their luck and perhaps happy to escape relegation. 18th with 50 points.
Shrewsbury Town – 17th with 51 points.
Huddersfield Town – 16th with 52 points.
Grimsby Town – 15th with 52 points.
Leeds United – 14th with 53 points. One can really pity Peter Lorimer…
Bradford City – 13th with 54 points.
Barnsley – 12th with 56 points.
Brighton & Hove Albion – 11th with 56 points.
Stoke City – 10th with 59 points.
Millwall – 9th with 59 points.
Oldham Athletic – 8th with 60 points.
Sheffield United – 7th with 62 points. Considering they were in Third Division only recently, not bad.
Hull City – 6th with 64 points. Nice achievement – they were just promoted.
Crystal Palace – 5th with 66 points. A prove of rarely fancied norm: if you stay long enough, you become a minor legend – Micky Droy was considered hopeless once upon a time. Now, after many years with Chelsea, he was the veteran star of Palace. Tradition works, though… a team with Droy was never a winning team.
Portsmouth – strong season, battling for promotion, but failing short at the end: 4th with 73 points.
Wimbledon was on focus in recent years and the season was sensational, but they were still a minor sensation: 3rd with 76 points. Overcoming Portsmouth and missing 2nd place by a point – and promoted to the top league. What a joy – in 1982-83 they were still playing in Forth Division and now were going to the First, practically repeating the amazing climb of Watford. But they were less spectacular than Watford and surviving among the best was questionable.
Charlton Athletic clinched 2nd place with 77 points. The trend, started in the second half of the 1970s, of smallish clubs climbing and sometimes even playing for a few season in the First Division was still going on.
Norwich City had no real rival and won the championship with 84 points. 25 wins, 9 ties, 8 losses, 84-39 goal-difference. Comfortable victory, which in a way was a commentary of sudden decline of second level standards: Norwich was just relegated and immediately they were going back to top football. But they were relegated largely for having inferior squad and this one was similar – experience helped, but… it was a team with much promise. The problem was not Norwich itself – they hardly could afford big names – but clubs like Leeds, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, Sheffield, Stoke, which were in dire straits and unable to gather even a squad similar to Norwich’s. As for the winners – they deserved their triumph, their second division title and their return to top flight.