I can't find a previous instance. Obviously it couldn't happen pre-2005, as we were never in the top division of the Football League until then.
We've been in the second tier of English football plenty of times in our history though. I would have thought we would have topped it at some point along the way
Absolutely, although that's not the question I asked. The last time we topped the second tier might be 1987/88 when Dyer was banging them in, although it's possible Bradford kept us off the top.
I’m sure in 87/88 we were joint top with Bradford for a while – can’t recall if we were actually 1st though.
Weren't we very briefly top during 07/08, after winning at Barnsley I think? But only until WBA won their game.
Cannot find any point in that season when we were top or joint top with Bradford. Closest was 3pts behind on 2 occasions. Best season for most time spent at the top of Div2 was in the first 3 months of the 1909/10 campaign.
In 70/71 surely City had some time at the top? Before we pissed it all away. If there'd been play offs then of course we'd have gone up
They both kicked off at 7.45, so I wouldn't consider that topping the table, even if our match did finish first.
Thanks for checking. My memory must be exaggerating it. We had great first half of the season that year then nose dived to the folly of Horton's sacking.
First game, that season, we scored after about 2 mins v Plymouth. We surely were proudly and smugly sitting top back then for many seconds even minutes.
87/88 was the first season I followed City properly - the 0-0 draw v Bradford being the first game I attended. I'm sure we very briefly went top early on in that season but only due to staggered kick-offs. I could be wrong though. I'm sure it was after that match v Bradford that our rapid decline began.
We have topped the second tier on several occasions notably early in the 1949-50 season when after 15 games our average home gate was 43,000 ! and 1970-71.
That picture by the way is the queue on a Sunday for tickets for the 6th round cup tie against Man U in 1949