L1 | S3 | W30: Walsall crowned as Birmingham’s Ibrahimović writes the final chapter

📰 Season 3 in the books

Thirty weeks. One hundred and twenty games per division. And by the time the dust settled on Season 3 of the PBM Old Boys League, there were title winners, last-gasp survivals, a Cup Final demolition job, and enough drama across all four divisions to keep anyone glued to their Manager’s Report. Here’s how it all ended.

🏆 Division 1 – Walsall crowned, but Birmingham steal the show

Andy Sillars’ Walsall finished the season as deserving champions on 69 points – 14 points clear of the relegation zone at their worst, and never truly threatened from the moment they built their formidable home record (14 wins, 1 draw from 15 home games). Rob Earl’s Wigan Athletic pushed hardest in pursuit, finishing second on 65 points with the best form of the final five weeks in the division – four wins and a draw. Newport County (Justin Arandjelovic) rounded out the top three on 52 points, jumping Wigan’s rivals West Ham (AJP) on the final day.

💡 The performance of the season in Division 1 arguably belonged to Jamie Maycroft’s Birmingham City. Staring down relegation, they needed a win at Cheltenham Town on the final day. They got a hat-trick from Ibrahimović [30] – at minutes 21, 47 and 89 – and a 3-2 victory that kept them up by three points. The stuff of legend. Cheltenham Town (Bob Hope) and Barrow (Klopps Ghost) go down with them, along with the relegated bottom club Cheltenham on 22 points.

The relegation picture: Cheltenham Town (22 pts) and Barrow (23 pts) were confirmed down. Birmingham City survived on 26 points, saved entirely by that final-day result. Below them in the table, Port Vale (Del Sharratt, 27 pts) also survived – just. Coulibaly [19] of West Ham finished as Division 1’s top scorer on 20 goals.

💙 Division 2 – The tightest title race of the season

Shrewsbury Town (Kevin Randall) are Division 2 champions – but only just. They finished level on 57 points with Norwich City (Darren Green), with Shrewsbury taking the title on goal difference: +21 to Norwich’s +20. A single goal across the entire season separating two clubs. Lincoln City (Paul Lamming) finished third on 55 points, two behind the top two, in what was the most competitive divisional title race of Season 3.

🔍 Derby County (Ben Cole) finished 15th in Division 2 on 25 points and go down – which will raise an eyebrow given Derby carry the biggest fan base in the entire league (118,236 supporters). A huge club in the wrong division at the wrong time. Everton (Marc Murphy, 27 pts) and Fulham (El Diablo, 18 pts) join them in relegation. Fulham’s 18 points was the lowest total in Division 2 by some distance. Jerome [22] of Norwich City claimed the Division 2 golden boot on 24 goals.

❤️ Division 3 – York City nick the title on the final day

It went down to the wire. Cambridge United (Steve Broughton) had led Division 3 for much of the season and arrived at the final week a point ahead of York City (Paul Galdas). Cambridge lost 2-1 at Arsenal, while York hammered Tranmere Rovers 3-1 away – Welbeck [22] with a hat-trick at minutes 38, 69 and 88. York finished on 57 points, Cambridge on 56. Newcastle United (Mark Jeffs) took the third promotion spot on 52 points, jumping the standings with a 3-0 home win over Leicester City. Forest Green Rovers (Phil McCracken) and Aberdeen (Alex McMurray) narrowly missed out on 51 and 50 points respectively.

⚠️ Hibernian (David Blair, 29 pts), Sheffield United (Steve Ray, 29 pts) and Southend United (David Griffiths, 23 pts) go down. Crystal Palace (Oliver) survived on 32 points despite a wretched run of form to close out the season – five losses in their last five away matches. Morgan [23] of Cambridge United was Division 3’s top scorer on 22 goals.

🔍 One to file under “statistics that don’t make sense”: Sheffield United finished the season with the best attacking squad in the entire league – and got relegated from Division 3. Meanwhile, Forest Green Rovers have the best midfield ratings in the whole league and finished 4th. The game has a way of humbling even the best-equipped squads.

💛 Division 4 – Blackburn dominant, Exeter rock bottom

Blackburn Rovers (Alexander) were the most comfortable champions of any division, leading for most of the season and finishing on 59 points with both the strongest home and away form records in Division 4. Millwall (Russy Q) came second on 55 points, and Ipswich Town (Bradley Hayward) third on 53. Díaz [21] of Millwall was the league’s overall golden boot winner with a remarkable 28 goals – including 11 penalties – across the season.

⚠️ Tottenham Hotspur (mark wilson, 23 pts), Luton Town (Salvatore Machiaveli, 28 pts) and Exeter City (Michael Kensett, 19 pts) go down. Exeter’s record was particularly grim: 1 home win and 4 away wins across 30 games, finishing bottom with the worst goal difference in the division (-30). Exeter also carry the second-lowest average home attendance in the league (9,511) – not a great season by any measure.

🏆 Supremos Cup – Sutton United lift the trophy

Sutton United (Daffy Duck) are your Season 3 Supremos Cup winners, beating Shrewsbury Town 2-0 in the final with goals from Kane [31] at minutes 31 and 56. A comfortable victory for a Sutton side who, interestingly, also ended the season as the cash-richest club in the entire league. The prize money: £1,100,000 to Sutton United, £660,000 to runners-up Shrewsbury Town. Kevin Randall’s Shrewsbury can at least console themselves with a Division 2 title to go alongside the runners-up medal.

🔎 The wider league picture

A few standout numbers from across the season. Huddersfield Town (Tim W) finished mid-table in Division 2 yet own the best overall squad in the entire league – a rating that suggests they should be competing at a higher level, or at least doing rather better in Division 2. Something to watch next season. Stevenage (Dynamo Drongo) posted the highest average home attendance in the league at 58,807 per game – remarkable for a Division 3 side. Oxford United (ybbig) at the other end had an average home gate of just 7,817, the lowest in the league.

💡 Liverpool (Stuart Merry) finished 9th in Division 1 on 37 points – safe and comfortable. But they are the cash-poorest club in the entire league. Survival costs money. Meanwhile, Manchester City (Eusebio 21) in Division 3 had the worst disciplinary record in the league: 232 points. That is not a stat to be proud of.

🔍 The clean sheet table tells a story about how Walsall won Division 1: 20 clean sheets from 30 games. Their goalkeeper kept a clean sheet in two-thirds of their matches. Norwich City (17 clean sheets) were similarly miserly in Division 2. These were defensive seasons that earned their results.

On the rivalry front, the Huddersfield Town – Shrewsbury Town pairing tops the league’s rivalry table on 173 points, with Shrewsbury also claiming the Division 2 title this season. York City and Stevenage are developing a fiery one in Division 3 (163 points). The Wigan Athletic – Rangers rivalry in Division 1 (124 points) has been building all season and should reach Official Rivalry status before long.

👋 Community and looking forward

League 1 is a full house – not a single unmanaged club across all four divisions, which is exactly how it should be. The Season 3 score draw winners were Alex McMurray (Aberdeen), Paul Lamming (Lincoln City), Justin Arandjelovic (Newport County) and Steve Earl (Hull City), who each pocketed £200,000 for getting eight score draws right in Week 30. Well done to all four.

The arrival of Internationals adds a new dimension to Season 4. Managers have been placed into four regions – United Kingdom, Europe, Americas, and Rest of World – with regional votes deciding who takes charge of senior and U21 fixtures each season. Six fixtures per level, per season. That is a meaningful new competition to get involved in.