Unofficial Champions of England: Oldham Athletic, Peterborough United, Swansea City, West Bromwich Albion, Derby County, 2000-01

Oldham Athletic 1-0 Huddersfield Town, 22/08/2000

Huddersfield Town's time as English champions would run to 3 matches before a League Cup tie against Oldham Athletic at Boundary Park. A 1-0 win for the Latics was enough for the win and brought the English championship back into Division 2 after a 2 year gap.

Oldham Athletic 1-4 Peterborough United, 26/08/2000

Oldham would immediately surrender the title however in a 1-4 home drubbing by Peterborough United, claiming their maiden English Championship.



Peterborough United 0-2 Swansea City, 28/08/2000

Peterborough's time at the top would only last two days however as they surrendered their title to Swansea City, the second side to bring the English Championship back to Wales (after Wrexham).
A 0-2 win was enough for the Swans.

I don't know what was going on with the fixture list at this time but this was the fourth title change in 9 days.



West Bromwich Albion 2-1 Swansea City, 06/09/2000

Swansea held on to the title for a little longer but a League Cup match at the Hawthorns where a 2-1 win was enough to gain West Brom the English Championship and take it back into Division One.



West Bromwich Albion 2-4 Derby County, 26/09/2000

West Brom done well to hold on to their title but another League Cup tie brought Premier League side Derby County to The Hawthorns.

A valiant effort by the Baggies but they couldn't stop the Rams from claiming the title.

Unofficial Champions of England: Sheffield Wednesday 2-3 Huddersfield Town, 19/08/2000

Kevin Gallen extends Huddersfield's lead

Sheffield Wednesday were the first team to be relegated as English Champions. Life in Division One started relatively well with a draw away at Wolverhampton Wanderers but their second game was a Yorkshire derby against Huddersfield Town.

While Wednesday had struggled the previous season, by contrast Huddersfield had just missed out on the Division One play-offs. The moods around the two clubs couldn't have been more contrasting.

Huddersfield started like a house on fire and raced into a three goal lead by forty minutes thanks to two goals from Martin Smith sandwiching Kevin Gallen's effort.
Wednesday weren't going down easy though and came back with goals from Andy Booth and Andy Hinchcliffe but too little, too late.

A third English Championship for Huddersfield.

Unofficial Champions of England: Bolton Wanderers 1-0 Huddersfield Town, 16/10/1999

After the elation of beating high flying Chelsea to become English Champions, it was back to league action in Division One for Huddersfield Town.

Just three days on, the Terriers were defending their title at the Reebok Stadium against Bolton Wanderers. Bolton were looking to make a return to the Premier League (as well as claim their second Unofficial Championship) but a poor start to the season had cost manager Colin Todd his job, with Phil Brown taking charge in a caretaker role. Watching from the stands was Bolton's next full-time manager, Samuel 'Big Sam' Allardyce.

One goal was all that was required on the day, coming from Jamaican Ricardo Gardner. Big Sam's dream had come true, he was taking over a championship winning side.

Unofficial Champions of England: Chelsea 0-1 Huddersfield Town, 13/10/1999

Imagine the scene: you've just beaten the League and European Champions 5-0 whilst barely breaking a sweat.

Next up is a League Cup tie at home against a second-tier side. Piece of cake, right.
Football is never that simple.

Huddersfield weren't doing too badly in Division One at the time but not many really thought they would beat Chelsea in this tie.

Sure, Chelsea rested a lot of players but that shouldn't take away from a determined Huddersfield outfit.
The winning goal came on 77 minutes, Kenny Irons writing himself into Terriers folklore with a 30 yard effort into the top corner.

A memorable night for Huddersfield Town as they claimed their maiden Unofficial English Championship.

Match report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sport/football/474278.stm