2002–03 Football League

Football League, Second Division
Season	2002–03
Champions	Wigan Athletic (1st third tier title)
Direct promotion	Wigan Athletic,; Crewe Alexandra
Promoted through play-offs	Cardiff City
Relegated	Cheltenham Town,; Huddersfield Town,; Mansfield Town,; Northampton Town
Matches played	552
Goals scored	1,421 (2.57 per match)
Top goalscorer	Robert Earnshaw (Cardiff City), 31
	← 2001–02 2003–04 →

Football League, First Division
Season	2002–03
Champions	Portsmouth (1st second tier title)
Direct promotion to FA Premier League	Portsmouth,; Leicester City
Promoted to FA Premier League through play-offs	Wolverhampton Wanderers
Relegated	Brighton & Hove Albion,; Grimsby Town,; Sheffield Wednesday
Matches played	552
Goals scored	1,512 (2.74 per match)
Top goalscorer	Svetoslav Todorov (Portsmouth), 26
	← 2001–02 2003–04 →

The Football League
Season	2002–03
Champions	Portsmouth
Promoted	Portsmouth; Leicester City; Wolverhampton Wanderers
Relegated	Shrewsbury Town; Exeter City
New Club in League	Boston United
	← 2001–02 2003–04 →

The 2002–03 Football League (known as the Nationwide Football League for sponsorship reasons) was the 104th completed season of The Football League.

Portsmouth won the First Division by some distance, passing manager Harry Redknapp's old club, West Ham on the way down. Leicester City earned a somewhat controversial promotion, as administration and a Creditor's Voluntary Agreement wrote off much of their debt. Partly as a result of this, the League would introduce a ten-point deduction for any teams going into administration from the next season onwards. The play-offs were won by Wolves, returning to the top flight after nearly 20 years and finally allowing owner Sir Jack Hayward to see the return he wanted on his years of investment.

Grimsby Town were relegated, after struggling in the division for five years on extremely limited resources. Both Brighton and Sheffield Wednesday suffered awful starts to the season (Brighton managing only a single win from their first sixteen matches), and despite good runs of form late in the season, neither were able to survive.

Wigan won their first promotion beyond the Second Division, helped by considerable investment in the team. Crewe Alexandra managed a promotion on considerably less resources, while play-off winners Cardiff City were another big-spending team that were able to earn promotion.

An ill-advised managerial change mid-season helped send Northampton down. Mansfield Town's first season out of the bottom division in over a decade ended as their previous spell had; with immediate relegation. Huddersfield started badly, and a financial crisis later in the season helped condemn them to relegation, only three years after they looked Premiership-bound. Cheltenham came close to survival, but a defeat on the final day of the season saw them return to the Third Division.

Rushden & Diamonds continued their meteoric rise, winning the Third Division title. They were helped in no small part by runners-up Hartlepool suffering a shocking late-season collapse, which cost them the title and manager Mike Newell his job. Wrexham took the last automatic promotion spot and bounced back from the previous season's relegation, as did play-off winners AFC Bournemouth.

A shock FA Cup victory over Everton did little to help Shrewsbury, and they finished bottom of the League. Exeter City were bought out pre-season in a high-profile takeover spearheaded by Uri Geller; Geller's associates proceeded to asset-strip the club, and despite a late-season run of form, Exeter fell victim to the first dual relegation from the League.

Final league tables and results

The tables and results below are reproduced here in the exact form that they can be found at The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation website,^[1] with home and away statistics separated. Play-off results are from the same website.

First Division

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Portsmouth (C, P)	46	29	11	6	97	45	+52	98	Promotion to 2003–04 FA Premier League
2	Leicester City (P)	46	26	14	6	73	40	+33	92	Promotion to 2003–04 FA Premier League
3	Sheffield United	46	23	11	12	72	52	+20	80	Qualification for First Division Playoffs
4	Reading	46	25	4	17	61	46	+15	79
5	Wolverhampton Wanderers (O, P)	46	20	16	10	81	44	+37	76
6	Nottingham Forest	46	20	14	12	82	50	+32	74
7	Ipswich Town	46	19	13	14	80	64	+16	70
8	Norwich City	46	19	12	15	60	49	+11	69
9	Millwall	46	19	9	18	59	69	−10	66
10	Wimbledon	46	18	11	17	76	73	+3	65
11	Gillingham	46	16	14	16	56	65	−9	62
12	Preston North End	46	16	13	17	68	70	−2	61
13	Watford	46	17	9	20	54	70	−16	60
14	Crystal Palace	46	14	17	15	59	52	+7	59
15	Rotherham United	46	15	14	17	62	62	0	59
16	Burnley	46	15	10	21	65	89	−24	55
17	Walsall	46	15	9	22	57	69	−12	54
18	Derby County	46	15	7	24	55	74	−19	52
19	Bradford City	46	14	10	22	51	73	−22	52
20	Coventry City	46	12	14	20	46	62	−16	50
21	Stoke City	46	12	14	20	45	69	−24	50
22	Sheffield Wednesday (R)	46	10	16	20	56	73	−17	46	Relegation to 2003–04 Second Division
23	Brighton & Hove Albion (R)	46	11	12	23	49	67	−18	45
24	Grimsby Town (R)	46	9	12	25	48	85	−37	39

Updated to match(es) played on 11 May 2003. Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated

Play-offs

Semifinals 1st leg – 10 May; 2nd leg – 14/15 May 2003					Final at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff 26 May 2003

3rd	Sheffield United	1	4	5

6th	Nottingham Forest	1	3	4
					3rd	Sheffield United	0

					5th	Wolverhampton Wanderers	3
4th	Reading	1	0	1

5th	Wolverhampton Wanderers	2	1	3

^[1]

First Division maps

Wolverhampton Wanderers

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Locations of the Football League First Division 2002–2003 teams

Locations of the Football League First Division London teams 2002–2003

Second Division

Pos	Team	Pld	HW	HD	HL	HGF	HGA	AW	AD	AL	AGF	AGA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Wigan Athletic (C, P)	46	14	7	2	37	16	15	6	2	31	9	+43	100	Promoted
2	Crewe Alexandra (P)	46	11	5	7	29	19	14	6	3	47	21	+36	86	Promoted
3	Bristol City	46	15	5	3	43	15	9	6	8	36	33	+31	83	Participated in play-offs
4	Queens Park Rangers	46	14	4	5	38	19	10	7	6	31	26	+24	83
5	Oldham Athletic	46	11	6	6	39	18	11	10	2	29	20	+30	82
6	Cardiff City (O, P)	46	12	6	5	33	20	11	6	6	35	23	+25	81
7	Tranmere Rovers	46	14	5	4	38	23	9	6	8	28	34	+9	80
8	Plymouth Argyle	46	11	6	6	39	24	6	8	9	24	28	+11	65
9	Luton Town	46	8	8	7	32	28	9	6	8	35	34	+5	65
10	Swindon Town	46	10	5	8	34	27	6	7	10	25	36	−4	60
11	Peterborough United	46	8	7	8	25	20	6	9	8	26	34	−3	58
12	Colchester United	46	8	7	8	24	24	6	9	8	28	32	−4	58
13	Blackpool	46	10	8	5	35	25	5	5	13	21	39	−8	58
14	Stockport County	46	8	8	7	39	38	7	2	14	26	32	−5	55
15	Notts County	46	10	7	6	37	32	3	9	11	25	38	−8	55
16	Brentford	46	8	8	7	28	21	6	4	13	19	35	−9	54
17	Port Vale	46	9	5	9	34	31	5	6	12	20	39	−16	53
18	Wycombe Wanderers	46	8	7	8	39	38	5	6	12	20	28	−7	52
19	Barnsley	46	7	8	8	27	31	6	5	12	24	33	−13	52
20	Chesterfield	46	11	4	8	29	28	3	4	16	14	45	−30	50
21	Cheltenham Town (R)	46	6	9	8	26	31	4	9	10	27	37	−15	48	Relegated
22	Huddersfield Town (R)	46	7	9	7	27	24	4	3	16	12	37	−22	45
23	Mansfield Town (R)	46	9	2	12	38	45	3	6	14	28	52	−31	44
24	Northampton Town (R)	46	7	4	12	23	31	3	5	15	17	48	−39	39

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Rules for classification: In the Football League goals scored (GF) takes precedence over goal difference (GD).
(C) Champion; (O) Play-off winner; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated

Play-offs

Semifinals 1st leg – 10 May; 2nd leg – 13/14 May 2003					Final at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff 28 May 2003

3rd	Bristol City	0	0	0

6th	Cardiff City	1	0	1
					6th	Cardiff City	1

					4th	Queens Park Rangers (a.e.t.)	0
4th	Queens Park Rangers	1	1	2

5th	Oldham Athletic	1	0	1

^[1]

Second Division maps

Locations of the Football League Second Division 2002–2003 teams

Brentford

Queens Park Rangers

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Locations of the Football League Second Division London teams 2002–2003

Third Division

Football League, Third Division
Season	2002–03
Champions	Rushden & Diamonds (1st fourth tier title)
Direct promotion	Rushden & Diamonds, Hartlepool United, Wrexham
Promoted through play-offs	AFC Bournemouth
Relegated to Conference	Exeter City Shrewsbury Town
New club in the league	Boston United
Matches played	552
Goals scored	1,419 (2.57 per match)
Top goalscorer	Andy Morrell (Wrexham), 34 ^[2]
← 2001–02 2003–04 →

Pos	Team	Pld	HW	HD	HL	HGF	HGA	AW	AD	AL	AGF	AGA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Rushden & Diamonds (C, P)	46	16	5	2	48	19	8	10	5	25	28	+26	87	Promoted
2	Hartlepool United (P)	46	16	5	2	49	21	8	8	7	22	30	+20	85
3	Wrexham (P)	46	12	7	4	48	26	11	8	4	36	24	+34	84
4	AFC Bournemouth (O, P)	46	14	7	2	38	18	6	7	10	22	30	+12	74	Participated in play-offs
5	Scunthorpe United	46	11	8	4	40	20	8	7	8	28	29	+19	72
6	Lincoln City	46	10	9	4	29	18	8	7	8	17	19	+9	70
7	Bury	46	8	8	7	25	26	10	8	5	32	30	+1	70
8	Oxford United	46	9	7	7	26	20	10	5	8	31	27	+10	69
9	Torquay United	46	9	11	3	41	31	7	7	9	30	40	0	66
10	York City	46	11	9	3	34	24	6	6	11	18	29	−1	66
11	Kidderminster Harriers	46	8	8	7	30	33	8	7	8	32	30	−1	63
12	Cambridge United	46	10	7	6	38	25	6	6	11	29	45	−3	61
13	Hull City	46	9	10	4	34	19	5	7	11	24	34	+5	59
14	Darlington	46	8	10	5	36	27	4	8	11	22	32	−1	54
15	Boston United^[a]	46	11	6	6	34	22	4	7	12	21	34	−1	54^[b]
16	Macclesfield Town	46	8	6	9	29	28	6	6	11	28	35	−6	54
17	Southend United	46	12	1	10	29	23	5	2	16	18	36	−12	54
18	Leyton Orient	46	9	6	8	28	24	5	5	13	23	37	−10	53
19	Rochdale	46	7	6	10	30	30	5	10	8	33	40	−7	52
20	Bristol Rovers	46	7	7	9	25	27	5	8	10	25	30	−7	51
21	Swansea City	46	9	6	8	28	25	3	7	13	20	40	−17	49
22	Carlisle United	46	5	5	13	26	40	8	5	10	26	38	−26	49
23	Exeter City (R)	46	7	7	9	24	31	4	8	11	26	33	−14	48	Relegated to Conference
24	Shrewsbury Town (R)	46	5	6	12	34	39	4	8	11	28	53	−30	41	Relegated to Conference

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
Rules for classification: In the Football League goals scored (GF) takes precedence over goal difference (GD).
(C) Champion; (O) Play-off winner; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated
Notes:

Play-offs

Semifinals 1st leg −10 May; 2nd leg −13/14 May 2003					Final at Millennium Stadium, Cardiff 24 May 2003

4th	AFC Bournemouth	0	3	3

7th	Bury	0	1	1
					4th	AFC Bournemouth	5

					6th	Lincoln City	2
5th	Scunthorpe United	3	0	3

6th	Lincoln City	5	1	6