1976–77 Football League First Division

Football League First Division
Season	1976–77
Champions	Liverpool (10th English title)
Relegated	Stoke City; Sunderland,; Tottenham Hotspur
European Cup 1977–78	Liverpool
FA Cup winners; European Cup Winners' Cup 1977–78	Manchester United (4th FA Cup title)
UEFA Cup 1977–78	Aston Villa,; Ipswich Town; Manchester City,; Newcastle United
Matches played	462
Goals scored	1183 (2.56 per match)
Top goalscorer	Andy Gray (Aston Villa), 25; Malcolm Macdonald (Arsenal), 25
Biggest home win	Ipswich – West Brom 7–0 (6 Nov 1976)
Biggest away win	Leicester – West Brom 0–5 (7 Mar 1977)
Highest scoring	Derby – Tottenham 8–2 (16 Oct 1976)
	← 1975–76 1977–78 →

Statistics of Football League First Division in the 1976-77 season.

Overview

Liverpool retained their league championship trophy and won their first European Cup to confirm Bob Paisley as a successful replacement for Bill Shankly in his third season at the helm. Tottenham Hotspur and Stoke City's long spells in the First Division came to an end with relegation. Stoke sacked their manager Tony Waddington. On the last day of the season, Coventry City and Bristol City played out a controversial 2–2 draw, with play virtually stopping when it was heard that Sunderland had lost to Everton. Both clubs survived while Sunderland were relegated.

After Manchester United manager Tommy Docherty had admitted his affair with the wife of the club's physiotherapist, the club's directors decided that he had broken their moral code and he was sacked.

League standings

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Liverpool	42	18	3	0	47	11	5	8	8	15	22	62	33	+29	57
2	Manchester City	42	15	5	1	38	13	6	9	6	22	21	60	34	+ 26	56
3	Ipswich Town	42	15	4	2	41	11	7	4	10	25	28	66	39	+ 27	52
4	Aston Villa	42	17	3	1	55	17	5	4	12	21	33	76	50	+ 26	51
5	Newcastle United	42	14	6	1	40	15	4	7	10	24	34	64	49	+ 15	49
6	Manchester United	42	12	6	3	41	22	6	5	10	30	40	71	62	+ 9	47
7	West Bromwich Albion	42	10	6	5	38	22	6	7	8	24	34	62	56	+ 6	45
8	Arsenal	42	11	6	4	37	20	5	5	11	27	39	64	59	+ 5	43
9	Everton	42	9	7	5	35	24	5	7	9	27	40	62	64	– 2	42
10	Leeds United	42	8	8	5	28	26	7	4	10	20	25	48	51	– 3	42
11	Leicester City	42	8	9	4	30	28	4	9	8	17	32	47	60	– 13	42
12	Middlesbrough	42	11	6	4	25	14	3	7	11	15	31	40	45	– 5	41
13	Birmingham City	42	10	6	5	38	25	3	6	12	25	36	63	61	+ 2	38
14	Queens Park Rangers	42	10	7	4	31	21	3	5	13	16	31	47	52	– 5	38
15	Derby County	42	9	9	3	36	18	0	10	11	14	37	50	55	– 5	37
16	Norwich City	42	12	4	5	30	23	2	5	14	17	41	47	64	– 17	37
17	West Ham United	42	9	6	6	28	23	2	8	11	18	42	46	65	– 19	36
18	Bristol City	42	8	7	6	25	19	3	6	12	13	29	38	48	– 10	35
19	Coventry City	42	7	9	5	34	26	3	6	12	14	33	48	59	– 11	35
20	Sunderland	42	9	5	7	29	16	2	7	12	17	38	46	54	– 8	34
21	Stoke City	42	9	8	4	21	16	1	6	14	7	35	28	51	– 23	34
22	Tottenham Hotspur	42	9	7	5	26	20	3	2	16	22	52	48	72	– 24	33

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

Key
	League Champions, qualified for European Cup
	FA Cup winners, qualified for Cup Winners' Cup
	Qualified for UEFA Cup
	League Cup winners, qualified for UEFA Cup
	Relegated

First Division results

Home ╲ Away	ARS	AST	BIR	BRI	COV	DER	EVE	IPS	LEE	LEI	LIV	MCI	MUN	MID	NEW	NOR	QPR	STK	SUN	TOT	WBA	WHU
Arsenal		3–0	4–0	0–1	2–0	0–0	3–1	1–4	1–1	3–0	1–1	0–0	3–1	1–1	5–3	1–0	3–2	2–0	0–0	1–0	1–2	2–3
Aston Villa	5–1		1–2	3–1	2–2	4–0	2–0	5–2	2–1	2–0	5–1	1–1	3–2	1–0	2–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	4–1	2–1	4–0	4–0
Birmingham City	3–3	2–1		3–0	3–0	5–1	1–1	2–4	0–0	1–1	2–1	0–0	2–3	3–1	1–2	3–2	2–1	2–0	2–0	1–2	0–1	0–0
Bristol City	2–0	0–0	0–1		0–0	2–2	1–2	1–2	1–0	0–1	2–1	1–0	1–1	1–2	1–1	3–1	1–0	1–1	4–1	1–0	1–2	1–1
Coventry City	1–2	2–3	2–1	2–2		2–0	4–2	1–1	4–2	1–1	0–0	0–1	0–2	1–1	1–1	2–0	2–0	5–2	1–2	1–1	1–1	1–1
Derby County	0–0	2–1	0–0	2–0	1–1		2–3	0–0	0–1	1–0	2–3	4–0	0–0	0–0	4–2	2–2	2–0	2–0	1–0	8–2	2–2	1–1
Everton	2–1	0–2	2–2	2–0	1–1	2–0		1–1	0–2	1–2	0–0	2–2	1–2	2–2	2–0	3–1	1–3	3–0	2–0	4–0	1–1	3–2
Ipswich Town	3–1	1–0	1–0	1–0	2–1	0–0	2–0		1–1	0–0	1–0	1–0	2–1	0–1	2–0	5–0	2–2	0–1	3–1	3–1	7–0	4–1
Leeds United	2–1	1–3	1–0	2–0	1–2	2–0	0–0	2–1		2–2	1–1	0–2	0–2	2–1	2–2	3–2	0–1	1–1	1–1	2–1	2–2	1–1
Leicester City	4–1	1–1	2–6	0–0	3–1	1–1	1–1	1–0	0–1		0–1	2–2	1–1	3–3	1–0	1–1	2–2	1–0	2–0	2–1	0–5	2–0
Liverpool	2–0	3–0	4–1	2–1	3–1	3–1	3–1	2–1	3–1	5–1		2–1	1–0	0–0	1–0	1–0	3–1	4–0	2–0	2–0	1–1	0–0
Manchester City	1–0	2–0	2–1	2–1	2–0	3–2	1–1	2–1	2–1	5–0	1–1		1–3	1–0	0–0	2–0	0–0	0–0	1–0	5–0	1–0	4–2
Manchester United	3–2	2–0	2–2	2–1	2–0	3–1	4–0	0–1	1–0	1–1	0–0	3–1		2–0	3–1	2–2	1–0	3–0	3–3	2–3	2–2	0–2
Middlesbrough	3–0	3–2	2–2	0–0	1–0	2–0	2–2	0–2	1–0	0–1	0–1	0–0	3–0		1–0	1–0	0–2	0–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	1–1
Newcastle United	0–2	3–2	3–2	0–0	1–0	2–2	4–1	1–1	3–0	0–0	1–0	2–2	2–2	1–0		5–1	2–0	1–0	2–0	2–0	2–0	3–0
Norwich City	1–3	1–1	1–0	2–1	3–0	0–0	2–1	0–1	1–2	3–2	2–1	0–2	2–1	1–0	3–2		2–0	1–1	2–2	1–3	1–0	1–0
Queens Park Rangers	2–1	2–1	2–2	0–1	1–1	1–1	0–4	1–0	0–0	3–2	1–1	0–0	4–0	3–0	1–2	2–3		2–0	2–0	2–1	1–0	1–1
Stoke City	1–1	1–0	1–0	2–2	2–0	1–0	0–1	2–1	2–1	0–1	0–0	0–2	3–3	3–1	0–0	0–0	1–0		0–0	0–0	0–2	2–1
Sunderland	2–2	0–1	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–0	0–1	0–0	0–1	0–2	2–1	4–0	2–2	0–1	1–0	0–0		2–1	6–1	6–0
Tottenham Hotspur	2–2	3–1	1–0	0–1	0–1	0–0	3–3	1–0	1–0	2–0	1–0	2–2	1–3	0–0	0–2	1–1	3–0	2–0	1–1		0–2	2–1
West Bromwich Albion	0–2	1–1	2–1	1–1	1–1	1–0	3–0	4–0	1–2	2–2	0–1	0–2	4–0	2–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	3–1	2–3	4–2		3–0
West Ham United	0–2	0–1	2–2	2–0	2–0	2–2	2–2	0–2	1–3	0–0	2–0	1–0	4–2	0–1	1–2	1–0	1–0	1–0	1–1	5–3	0–0

Source: Ian Laschke: Rothmans Book of Football League Records 1888–89 to 1978–79. Macdonald and Jane’s, London & Sydney, 1980.
1 ^{^} The home team is listed in the left-hand column.
Colours: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.