The 2011–12 season was

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

s first season back in the Football League Championship, after being relegated from the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

at the conclusion of

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

campaign. They also competed in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

and the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

. It was their first season under

Sam Allardyce Samuel Allardyce (; born 19 October 1954), colloquially referred to as Big Sam, is an English football manager and former professional player. Allardyce made 578 league and cup appearances in a 21-year career spent mostly in the Football Lea ...

, who was appointed in May 2011 after the sacking of the club's previous manager,

Avram Grant Avraham "Avram" Grant ( he, אברהם "אברם" גרנט; born Avraham Granat; ) is an Israeli professional football manager. He has spent the majority of his career coaching and managing in Israel, winning a number of national league and cup ...

. On 19 May 2012, West Ham gained promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt, as they won the play-off final by defeating Blackpool 2–1 at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

Season summary

was appointed as the club's new manager on 1 June 2011, after his predecessor

was sacked following the club's relegation with a 3–2 defeat at

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

. For the majority of the season West Ham looked on course for automatic promotion, and even briefly topped the division on 1 March, but eventually finished third, after being beaten to automatic promotion by

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

on the final day of the season, despite a 2–1 win against

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...

. Failure to win a league game in March saw West Ham overtaken by

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

, who defeated the Hammers 4–2 in a key game at Upton Park, and Southampton. and despite a late rally the team had to settle for a play-off place. West Ham's 13 away wins constituted a club record for any league season. They also recorded the fewest defeats (8) of any team in the Championship this season and had the second best goal difference, but 14 draws saw the club miss out on automatic promotion. West Ham faced Cardiff City in the semi-finals of the

play-offs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

, with the Hammers comfortably beating the Bluebirds 5–0 on aggregate. West Ham then sealed their promotion back to the

on 19 May 2012, beating Blackpool 2–1 at

with goals from Carlton Cole and

Ricardo Vaz Tê Ricardo Jorge Vaz Tê (born 1 October 1986) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward. Vaz Tê has previously played for English clubs Bolton Wanderers, Hull City, Barnsley and West Ham United, Greek club Panionios, Scottis ...

. This was West Ham's first appearance at the national stadium since the 1981 League Cup Final.

League table

Squad

Out on loan

Results

Pre-season

Championship

Championship play-offs

Football League Cup

FA Cup

Statistics

Overview

Goalscorers

League position by matchday

Appearances and goals

, - ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center, Goalkeepers , - ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center, Defenders , - ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center, Midfielders , - ! colspan=14 style=background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center, Forwards

Transfers

Summer

In

Out

Winter

In

Out

References

External links

West Ham United FC Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:2011-12 West Ham United F.C. season

West Ham United F.C. seasons West Ham United F.C. season West Ham United F.C. season