THEARCHV

Football Leagues · Friday

Coventry, Ipswich and Hull come up.

A runaway champion, a bounce-back, a 95th-minute winner.

Three promoted clubs, three different routes in. Coventry City won the Championship by eleven points under Frank Lampard and sealed it with three games to spare. This is their first top-flight season since 2000-01. Why it matters: a founder member of the Premier League has been outside it for 25 years, and the return is a heavyweight story on its own. Ipswich Town finished second and go straight back up, a year after relegation. Why it matters: an instant return keeps a squad and a structure built for this level intact, and no promoted side arrives more familiar with what is coming. Hull City finished sixth, then beat Middlesbrough 1-0 in the play-off final, Oli McBurnie scoring in the fifth minute of stoppage time at Wembley. Why it matters: twelve months earlier Hull stayed out of the third tier on goal difference. No club in the division has travelled further in a year.

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