The

1979–80 Football League The 1979– 80 season was the 81st completed season of The Football League. Bob Paisley's Liverpool retained their league championship trophy after fighting off a determined challenge by Dave Sexton's Manchester United. Nottingham Forest failed t ...

season was

Birmingham City Football Club Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first tea ...

's 77th in the Football League and their 32nd in the Second Division, to which they were relegated in 1978–79. They finished in third position in the 22-team division, level on points with Chelsea but with a better

goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

, so were

promoted Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

to the First Division for 1980–81. They entered the

1979–80 FA Cup The 1979–80 FA Cup was the 99th season of the world's oldest football knockout competition, The Football Association Challenge Cup, or FA Cup. The final saw second division West Ham United beat holders Arsenal 1–0. As of 2022, this was the las ...

in the third round proper and lost to Tottenham Hotspur in the fifth, and were eliminated from the third round of the League Cup by Exeter City. They also entered the Anglo-Scottish Cup, but failed to progress past the group stage. Twenty-one players made at least one appearance in nationally organised first-team competition, and there were eleven different goalscorers. Midfielder

Alan Curbishley Llewellyn Charles "Alan" Curbishley (born 8 November 1957) is an English former football player and manager. He played as a midfielder for West Ham United, Birmingham City, Aston Villa, Charlton Athletic and Brighton & Hove Albion and has worke ...

appeared in all 51 first-team games of the season – defender Joe Gallagher missed only one – and

Keith Bertschin Keith Edwin Bertschin (born 25 August 1956) is a former professional footballer and coach. Bertschin, a striker, began his professional career with Ipswich Town (1973–1977), before playing for Birmingham City (1977–1981), Norwich City (1981 ...

was the club's top scorer with 18 goals, of which 12 were scored in the league.

Football League Second Division

The league programme did not end on the same day for all clubs. Although Birmingham were in second place after their last match, on 3 May, the last Second Division fixture was played nine days later, they were overtaken by

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, and finished third.

League table (part)

FA Cup

League Cup

Anglo-Scottish Cup

Appearances and goals

:Numbers in parentheses denote appearances as substitute. :Players with names ''in italics'' and marked * were on loan from another club for the whole of their season with Birmingham.

References

;General * * * Source for match dates and results: * Source for lineups, appearances, goalscorers and attendances: Matthews (2010), ''Complete Record'', pp. 394–95. * Source for Anglo-Scottish Cup attendances: Matthews (1995), ''Complete Record'', p. 243. ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:1979-80 Birmingham City F.C. season Birmingham City F.C. seasons Birmingham City