Football League Two

Coca-Cola League 2

Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Coca-Cola Football League 2 for sponsorship reasons) is the third-highest division of The Football League and fourth-highest division overall in the English football league system.

Football League Two was introduced for the 2004-2005 season. It replaced the Football League Third Division.

Structure

There are 24 teams in Football League Two. Each team plays each of the other teams twice (once at home, once away) and are awarded three points for a win, one for a draw and zero for a loss. From these points a league table is constructed.

At the end of each season the top three teams, together with the winner of the play-offs between the teams which finished in 4th–7th position, are promoted to Football League One and are replaced by the four teams that finished at the bottom of that division.

Similarly the two teams that finished at the bottom of Football League Two are relegated to the Conference National and are replaced by the team that finished 1st and the team that won the 2nd–5th place play-off in that division.

Final League position is determined, in this order, by points obtained, goal difference, goals scored, a mini-league of the results between two or more teams ranked using the previous three criteria and finally a series of one or more play off matches.

There is a mandatory wage cap in this division that limits spending on players' wages to 60% of club turnover.

Football League Two clubs, 2006-07

Club	Finishing position last season
Accrington Stanley	1st in Nationwide Conference
Barnet	18th
Boston United	11th
Bristol Rovers	12th
Bury	19th
Chester City	15th
Darlington	8th
Grimsby Town	4th
Hartlepool United	21st in League One
Hereford United	2nd in Nationwide Conference
Lincoln City	7th
Macclesfield Town	17th
Mansfield Town	16th
Milton Keynes Dons	22nd in League One
Notts County	21st
Peterborough United	9th
Rochdale	14th
Shrewsbury Town	10th
Stockport County	22nd
Swindon Town	23rd in League One
Torquay United	20th
Walsall	24th in League One
Wrexham	13th
Wycombe Wanderers	6th

Winners of Football League Two

|2004-05|2005-06

Season	Winner	Runner-Up	3rd Place!Promoted Play-Off Winner
Yeovil Town	Scunthorpe United	Swansea City	Southend United
Carlisle United	Northampton Town	Leyton Orient	Cheltenham Town

For past winners at this level before 2004, see List of winners of English Football League Two and predecessors.

Play-off results

|2004-05|2005-06|2006-07

Season	Semifinal (1st Leg)	Semifinal (2nd Leg)	Final
Lincoln City 1-0 Macclesfield Town Northampton Town 0-0 Southend United	Macclesfield Town 1-1 Lincoln City Southend United 1-0 Northampton Town	Lincoln City 0-2 Southend United
Lincoln City 0-1 Grimsby Town Wycombe Wanderers 1-2 Cheltenham Town	Grimsby Town 2-1 Lincoln City Cheltenham Town 0-0 Wycombe Wanderers	Grimsby Town 0-1 Cheltenham Town

Relegated teams

|2004-05|2005-06

Season	Clubs
Kidderminster Harriers, Cambridge United
Oxford United, Rushden & Diamonds

Top Scorers

|2004-05|2005-06

Season	Top scorer, club!Goals
Phil Jevons, Yeovil Town	27
Karl Hawley, Carlisle United Rickie Lambert, Rochdale	22

See also

*Football League Fourth Division (1958/59-1991/92)
*Football League Third Division (1992/93-2003/04)

External links

* Football League Two official site
*Football League Two clubs' locations
*4th Dimension - The football fan's home of League 2 Football
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