List of Birmingham City F C seasons

Birmingham City Football Club, an association football club based in Birmingham, England, was founded in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance. For the first thirteen years of their existence, there was no league football, so matches were arranged on an ad hoc basis, supplemented by cup competitions organised at local and national level. Small Heath first entered the FA Cup in the 1881–82 season, and won their first trophy, the Walsall Cup, the following season. During the 1880s, they played between 20 and 30 matches each season.

Small Heath F.C., champions of the inaugural Football League Second Division 1892–93

In 1888, the club became a limited company under the name of Small Heath F.C. Ltd, and joined the Combination, a league set up to provide organised football for those clubs not invited to join the Football League which was to start the same year. However, the Combination was not well organised and folded in April 1889 with many fixtures still outstanding. Small Heath were founder members of the Football Alliance in 1889–90, and three years later were elected to the newly formed Second Division of the Football League. They topped the table in their first season, failing to win promotion via the test match system then in operation, but reached the top flight for the first time in 1894. They were renamed Birmingham in 1905, finally becoming Birmingham City in 1943.

The club's official history rated 1955–56 as their best season to date. The newly promoted club achieved their highest ever finishing position of sixth in the First Division, reached the 1956 FA Cup Final, and became the first English club side to participate in European competition when they played their opening game in the group stages of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. Their only major trophy is the League Cup, which they won in 1963 and 2011; they reached the FA Cup final twice and the final of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup twice. During the 1990s, they twice won the Football League Trophy, a competition open to clubs in the third and fourth tiers of English football.

As of the end of the 2023–24 season, the club's first team had spent 57 seasons in the top division of English football, 60 in the second and 4 in the third. The table details their achievements in first-team competitions, and records their top goalscorer and average home league attendance, for each completed season since their first appearance in the Birmingham Senior Cup in 1878–79.

Key

Key to divisions:

Comb – The Combination
All – Football Alliance
United – United League
Div 1 – Football League First Division
Div 2 – Football League Second Division
Div 3 – Football League Third Division
Champ – Football League Championship/EFL Championship
Prem – Premier League

Key to rounds:

Prelim – Preliminary round
Group – Group stage
QR3 – Third qualifying round
QR4 – Fourth qualifying round, etc.
IntR – Intermediate round (between qualifying rounds and rounds proper)
R1 – First round
R2 – Second round, etc.
QF – Quarter-final
SF – Semi-final
P3rd – Third place
F – Finalists
W – Winners
DQ – Disqualified
DNE – Did not enter

Details of abandoned competitions – The Combination in 1888–89 and the 1939–40 Football League – are shown in italics and appropriately footnoted.

Seasons

List of seasons, including league division and statistics, cup results, top scorer and average league attendance
Season	League									FA Cup	League Cup	Other		Top scorer(s)		Avg. attendance
Season	Division	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts	Pos	FA Cup	League Cup	Competition	Result	Player(s)	Goals	Avg. attendance
1878–79	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R1	n/a	—	—
1879–80	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R2	n/a	—	—
1880–81	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R4	n/a	—	—
1881–82	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	R2	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R2	Billy Slater	2	—
1882–83	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	R1	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R1	Billy Slater	2	—
1883–84	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	R1	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R3	Arthur James	2	—
1884–85	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	R1	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R2	No goalscorer	—	—
1885–86	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	SF	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R2	Eddy Stanley	7	—
1886–87	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	R1	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	SF	Jack Price	1	—
1887–88	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	R2	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R1	Walter Dixon Austin Smith	2	—
1888–89	Comb	11	6	3	2	24	17	15	6th	R1	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R1	Will Devey	5	—
1889–90	All	22	6	5	11	44	67	17	10th	R2	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R2	Will Devey	27	1,068
1890–91	All	22	7	2	13	58	66	16	10th	DQ	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R1	Will Devey Charlie Short	17	2,545
1891–92	All	22	12	5	5	53	36	29	3rd	R2	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R2	Fred Wheldon	29	2,100
1892–93	Div 2	22	17	2	3	90	35	36	1st	R1	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	SF	Fred Wheldon	26 ♦	2,181
1893–94	Div 2 ↑ United	28 6	21 2	0 1	7 3	103 14	44 14	42 5	2nd 3rd	R1	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R1	Frank Mobley	25 ♦	2,928
1894–95	Div 1	30	9	7	14	50	74	25	12th	R1	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	SF	Frank Mobley	13	6,440
1895–96	Div 1 ↓	30	8	4	18	39	79	20	15th	R1	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R1	Frank Mobley	11	6,233
1896–97	Div 2	30	16	5	9	69	47	37	4th	R1	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R2	Jimmy Inglis	16	4,526
1897–98	Div 2	30	16	4	10	58	50	36	6th	QR3	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R2	Walter Abbott	19	5,633
1898–99	Div 2	34	17	7	10	85	50	41	8th	R2	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R2	Walter Abbott	42 ♦	5,588
1899–1900	Div 2	34	20	6	8	78	38	46	3rd	QR5	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R1	Bob McRoberts	24	5,176
1900–01	Div 2 ↑	34	19	10	5	57	24	48	2nd	QF	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R1	Bob McRoberts	17	5,558
1901–02	Div 1 ↓	34	11	8	15	47	45	30	17th	IntR	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R1	Bob McRoberts	11	13,058
1902–03	Div 2 ↑	34	24	3	7	74	36	51	2nd	R1	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R1	Arthur Leonard	16	7,411
1903–04	Div 1	34	11	8	15	39	52	30	11th	IntR	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	R1	Billy Jones Freddie Wilcox	8	11,386
1904–05	Div 1	34	17	5	12	54	38	39	7th	R1	—	Birmingham Senior Cup	W	Billy Jones	16	14,441
1905–06	Div 1	38	17	7	14	65	59	41	7th	QF	—	—	—	Billy Jones	24	11,868
1906–07	Div 1	38	15	8	15	52	52	38	9th	R1	—	—	—	Billy Jones	15	15,315
1907–08	Div 1 ↓	38	9	12	17	40	60	30	20th	R1	—	—	—	Edmund Eyre	9	15,473
1908–09	Div 2	38	14	9	15	58	61	37	11th	R1	—	—	—	Billy Beer Fred Chapple	8	10,607
1909–10	Div 2	38	8	7	23	42	78	23	20th	R1	—	—	—	Walter Freeman	10	8,921
1910–11	Div 2	38	12	8	18	42	64	32	16th	R1	—	—	—	Jack Hall	14	13,764
1911–12	Div 2	38	14	6	18	55	59	34	12th	R1	—	—	—	Jack Hall	21	13,052
1912–13	Div 2	38	18	10	10	59	44	46	3rd	R1	—	—	—	Billy Jones	16	15,157
1913–14	Div 2	38	12	10	16	48	60	34	14th	R3	—	—	—	Andy Smith	10	17,411
1914–15	Div 2	38	17	9	12	62	39	43	6th	R3	—	—	—	Andy Smith	24	11,315
1915–19	The Football League and FA Cup were suspended until after the First World War.
1919–20	Div 2	42	24	8	10	85	34	56	3rd	R3	—	—	—	Bert Millard	15	22,880
1920–21	Div 2 ↑	42	24	10	8	79	38	58	1st	R1	—	—	—	Harry Hampton	16	31,244
1921–22	Div 1	42	15	7	20	48	60	37	18th	DNE	—	—	—	Joe Bradford Johnny Crosbie	10	27,967
1922–23	Div 1	42	13	11	18	41	57	37	17th	R1	—	—	—	Joe Bradford	19	25,328
1923–24	Div 1	42	13	13	16	41	49	39	14th	R1	—	—	—	Joe Bradford	24	20,395
1924–25	Div 1	42	17	12	13	49	53	46	8th	R3	—	—	—	Joe Bradford George Briggs Ernie Islip	11	22,547
1925–26	Div 1	42	16	8	18	66	81	40	14th	R4	—	—	—	Joe Bradford	27	21,649
1926–27	Div 1	42	17	4	21	64	73	38	17th	R4	—	—	—	Joe Bradford	23	24,372
1927–28	Div 1	42	13	15	14	70	75	41	11th	R5	—	—	—	Joe Bradford	32	21,646
1928–29	Div 1	42	15	10	17	68	77	40	15th	R4	—	—	—	Joe Bradford	24	23,406
1929–30	Div 1	42	16	9	17	67	62	41	11th	R4	—	—	—	Joe Bradford	23	22,193
1930–31	Div 1	42	13	10	19	55	70	36	19th	F	—	—	—	Joe Bradford	22	21,275
1931–32	Div 1	42	18	8	16	78	67	44	9th	R4	—	—	—	Joe Bradford	28	23,380
1932–33	Div 1	42	14	11	17	57	57	39	13th	QF	—	—	—	Joe Bradford Ernie Curtis	14	20,044
1933–34	Div 1	42	12	12	18	54	56	36	20th	R5	—	—	—	Fred Roberts	8	24,718
1934–35	Div 1	42	13	10	19	63	81	36	19th	QF	—	—	—	Wilson Jones	17	22,795
1935–36	Div 1	42	15	11	16	61	63	41	12th	R3	—	—	—	Wilson Jones	20	22,955
1936–37	Div 1	42	13	15	14	64	60	41	11th	R3	—	—	—	Seymour Morris	16	25,452
1937–38	Div 1	42	10	18	14	58	62	38	18th	R3	—	—	—	Don Dearson Wilson Jones	9	26,434
1938–39	Div 1 ↓	42	12	8	22	62	84	32	21st	R5	—	—	—	Fred Harris	17	22,432
1939–40	Div 2	3	2	1	0	5	1	5	2nd	—	—	—	—	Jackie Brown Don Dearson Ted Duckhouse Tom Farrage	1	—
1939–45	The Football League and FA Cup were suspended until after the Second World War.
1945–46	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	SF	—	—	—	Jock Mulraney	7	—
1946–47	Div 2	42	25	5	12	74	33	55	3rd	QF	—	—	—	Cyril Trigg	19	32,462
1947–48	Div 2 ↑	42	22	15	5	55	24	59	1st	R3	—	—	—	Harold Bodle	14	36,467
1948–49	Div 1	42	11	15	16	36	38	37	17th	R3	—	—	—	Jackie Stewart	11	38,821
1949–50	Div 1 ↓	42	7	14	21	31	67	28	22nd	R3	—	—	—	Jimmy Dailey	9	34,310
1950–51	Div 2	42	20	9	13	64	53	49	4th	SF	—	—	—	Cyril Trigg	19	24,728
1951–52	Div 2	42	21	9	12	67	56	51	3rd	R4	—	—	—	Tommy Briggs	19	24,570
1952–53	Div 2	42	19	10	13	71	66	48	6th	QF	—	—	—	Peter Murphy	26	20,046
1953–54	Div 2	42	18	11	13	78	58	47	7th	R4	—	—	—	Ted Purdon	15	22,594
1954–55	Div 2 ↑	42	22	10	10	92	47	54	1st	QF	—	—	—	Peter Murphy	20	21,002
1955–56	Div 1	42	18	9	15	75	57	45	6th	F	—	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	—	Eddy Brown	29	33,828
1956–57	Div 1	42	15	9	18	69	69	39	12th	SF	—	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	—	Alex Govan	30	32,582
1957–58	Div 1	42	14	11	17	76	89	39	13th	R3	—	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	SF	Peter Murphy	23	29,647
1958–59	Div 1	42	20	6	16	84	68	46	9th	R5	—	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	—	Bunny Larkin	23	26,893
1959–60	Div 1	42	13	10	19	63	80	36	19th	R3	—	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	F	Johnny Gordon	19	26,880
1960–61	Div 1	42	14	6	22	62	84	34	19th	R5	R3	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	F	Jimmy Harris	17	25,751
1961–62	Div 1	42	14	10	18	65	81	38	17th	R3	R1	Inter-Cities Fairs Cup	R2	Jimmy Harris Ken Leek	20	23,587
1962–63	Div 1	42	10	13	19	63	90	33	20th	R3	W	—	—	Ken Leek	29	22,559
1963–64	Div 1	42	11	7	24	54	92	29	20th	R3	R2	—	—	Bertie Auld	10	21,996
1964–65	Div 1 ↓	42	8	11	23	64	96	27	22nd	R3	R2	—	—	Stan Lynn Geoff Vowden	10	19,714
1965–66	Div 2	42	16	9	17	70	75	41	10th	R4	R2	—	—	Geoff Vowden	23	14,398
1966–67	Div 2	42	16	8	18	70	66	40	10th	QF	SF	—	—	Geoff Vowden	21	19,798
1967–68	Div 2	42	19	14	9	83	51	52	4th	SF	R3	—	—	Barry Bridges	28	28,083
1968–69	Div 2	42	18	8	16	73	59	44	7th	R5	R2	—	—	Fred Pickering Phil Summerill	17	26,008
1969–70	Div 2	42	11	11	20	51	78	33	18th	R3	R2	—	—	Phil Summerill	13	24,028
1970–71	Div 2	42	17	12	13	58	48	46	9th	R3	R4	—	—	Phil Summerill	21	24,164
1971–72	Div 2 ↑	42	19	18	5	60	31	56	2nd	P3rd	R2	Anglo-Italian Cup	Group	Bob Latchford	30 ♦	32,337
1972–73	Div 1	42	15	12	15	53	54	42	10th	R3	R4	—	—	Bob Latchford	20	36,663
1973–74	Div 1	42	12	13	17	52	64	37	19th	R4	QF	Texaco Cup	QF	Bob Hatton	20	33,048
1974–75	Div 1	42	14	9	19	53	61	37	17th	SF	R2	Texaco Cup	SF	Bob Hatton	18	30,854
1975–76	Div 1	42	13	7	22	57	75	33	19th	R3	R3	—	—	Trevor Francis	18	28,002
1976–77	Div 1	42	13	12	17	63	61	38	13th	R4	R2	—	—	Trevor Francis	21	28,338
1977–78	Div 1	42	16	9	17	55	60	41	11th	R4	R2	Anglo-Scottish Cup	Group	Trevor Francis	29	23,910
1978–79	Div 1 ↓	42	6	10	26	37	64	22	21st	R3	R2	—	—	Alan Buckley	8	20,164
1979–80	Div 2 ↑	42	21	11	10	58	38	53	3rd	R5	R3	Anglo-Scottish Cup	Group	Keith Bertschin	18	20,427
1980–81	Div 1	42	13	12	17	50	61	38	13th	R4	QF	—	—	Frank Worthington	18	19,248
1981–82	Div 1	42	10	14	18	53	61	44	16th	R3	R2	—	—	Tony Evans	16	17,116
1982–83	Div 1	42	12	14	16	40	55	50	17th	R4	R4	—	—	Mick Ferguson	8	15,880
1983–84	Div 1 ↓	42	12	12	18	39	50	48	20th	QF	R4	—	—	Mick Harford	15	14,106
1984–85	Div 2 ↑	42	25	7	10	59	33	82	2nd	R3	R3	—	—	Wayne Clarke	19	12,522
1985–86	Div 1 ↓	42	8	5	29	30	73	29	21st	R3	R3	—	—	Andy Kennedy	8	10,899
1986–87	Div 2	42	11	17	14	47	59	50	19th	R4	R3	Full Members' Cup	R2	Wayne Clarke	19	7,426
1987–88	Div 2	44	11	15	18	41	66	48	19th	R5	R1	Full Members' Cup	R1	Steve Whitton	16	8,576
1988–89	Div 2 ↓	46	8	11	27	31	76	35	23rd	R3	R2	Full Members' Cup	R1	Steve Whitton	6	6,289
1989–90	Div 3	46	18	12	16	60	59	66	7th	R3	R2	Associate Members' Cup	Group	Dennis Bailey	20	8,558
1990–91	Div 3	46	16	17	13	45	49	65	12th	R2	R1	Associate Members' Cup	W	John Gayle Simon Sturridge	10	7,030
1991–92	Div 3 ↑	46	23	12	11	69	52	81	2nd	R1	R3	Associate Members' Cup	Group	Nigel Gleghorn	22	12,399
1992–93	Div 1	46	13	12	21	50	72	51	19th	R1	R1	Anglo-Italian Cup	R1	John Frain	8	12,328
1993–94	Div 1 ↓	46	13	12	21	52	69	51	22nd	R3	R2	Anglo-Italian Cup	Prelim	Paul Peschisolido Andy Saville	10	14,378
1994–95	Div 2 ↑	46	25	14	7	84	37	89	1st	R3	R2	Football League Trophy	W	Steve Claridge	25	16,941
1995–96	Div 1	46	15	13	18	61	64	58	15th	R3	SF	Anglo-Italian Cup	QF	Jonathan Hunt	15	18,098
1996–97	Div 1	46	17	15	14	52	48	66	10th	R5	R2	—	—	Paul Devlin	19	17,732
1997–98	Div 1	46	19	17	10	60	35	74	7th	R5	R3	—	—	Paul Furlong	19	18,751
1998–99	Div 1	46	23	12	11	66	37	81	4th	R3	R3	—	—	Dele Adebola	17	20,794
1999–2000	Div 1	46	22	11	13	65	44	77	5th	R4	R4	—	—	Paul Furlong	11	21,895
2000–01	Div 1	46	23	9	14	59	48	78	5th	R3	F	—	—	Geoff Horsfield	12	21,283
2001–02	Div 1 ↑	46	21	13	12	70	49	76	5th	R3	R3	—	—	Tommy Mooney	15	21,978
2002–03	Prem	38	13	9	16	41	49	48	13th	R3	R3	—	—	Stern John	9	28,831
2003–04	Prem	38	12	14	12	43	48	50	10th	R5	R2	—	—	Mikael Forssell	19	29,078
2004–05	Prem	38	11	12	15	40	46	45	12th	R4	R3	—	—	Emile Heskey	11	28,760
2005–06	Prem ↓	38	8	10	20	28	50	34	18th	QF	QF	—	—	Mikael Forssell Jiří Jarošík	8	27,392
2006–07	Champ ↑	46	26	8	12	67	42	86	2nd	R4	R4	—	—	Gary McSheffrey	16	22,273
2007–08	Prem ↓	38	8	11	19	46	62	35	19th	R3	R3	—	—	Mikael Forssell	9	26,181
2008–09	Champ ↑	46	23	14	9	54	37	83	2nd	R3	R2	—	—	Kevin Phillips	14	19,081
2009–10	Prem	38	13	11	14	38	47	50	9th	QF	R3	—	—	Cameron Jerome	11	25,246
2010–11	Prem ↓	38	8	15	15	37	58	39	18th	QF	W	—	—	Craig Gardner	10	25,461
2011–12	Champ	46	20	16	10	78	51	76	4th	R5	R3	UEFA Europa League	Group	Marlon King	18	19,126
2012–13	Champ	46	15	16	15	63	69	61	12th	R3	R2	—	—	Marlon King	14	16,702
2013–14	Champ	46	11	11	24	58	74	44	21st	R4	R4	—	—	Federico Macheda Lee Novak	10	15,457
2014–15	Champ	46	16	15	15	54	64	63	10th	R4	R2	—	—	Clayton Donaldson	16	16,111
2015–16	Champ	46	16	15	15	53	49	63	10th	R3	R3	—	—	Clayton Donaldson	11	17,602
2016–17	Champ	46	13	14	19	45	64	53	19th	R3	R1	—	—	Lukas Jutkiewicz	12	18,717
2017–18	Champ	46	13	7	26	38	68	46	19th	R4	R2	—	—	Ché Adams	9	21,041
2018–19	Champ	46	14	19	13	64	58	52	17th	R3	R1	—	—	Ché Adams	22	22,483
2019–20	Champ	46	12	14	20	54	75	50	20th	R5	R1	—	—	Lukas Jutkiewicz	15	20,411
2020–21	Champ	46	13	13	20	37	61	52	18th	R3	R1	—	—	Lukas Jutkiewicz	8	0
2021–22	Champ	46	11	14	21	50	75	47	20th	R3	R2	—	—	Scott Hogan	10	16,161
2022–23	Champ	46	14	11	21	47	58	53	17th	R4	R1	—	—	Scott Hogan	10	16,758
2023–24	Champ ↓	46	13	11	22	50	65	50	22nd	R4	R2	—	—	Jay Stansfield	13	21,180

Notes

References

Sources

Matthews, Tony (1995). Birmingham City: A Complete Record. Derby: Breedon Books. ISBN 978-1-85983-010-9.
Matthews, Tony (2000). The Encyclopedia of Birmingham City Football Club 1875–2000. Cradley Heath: Britespot. ISBN 978-0-9539288-0-4.
Matthews, Tony (2010). Birmingham City: The Complete Record. Derby: Derby Books. ISBN 978-1-85983-853-2.