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The biggest EFL Championship comebacks and collapses, 1992-93 to 2025-26

The deepest hole an EFL Championship winner has climbed out of is 18 points: Reading sat that far behind in the 2011-12 EFL Championship on November 5, 2011, and won it by 1 point. The biggest lead lost: Derby County led the 1995-96 EFL Championship by 9 points as late as March 2, 1996, and finished behind Sunderland. Every charted race since 1992-93 is ranked below; how the numbers are read is spelled out under the lists.

Companion pages: Closest EFL Championship races and Days in first place.

Biggest comebacks

  1. Reading trailed the 2011-12 EFL Championship race by 18 points on November 5, 2011, and won it by 1 point.
  2. Sunderland trailed the 2006-07 EFL Championship race by 16 points on October 17, 2006, and won it by 2 points.
  3. Sunderland trailed the 1995-96 EFL Championship race by 12 points on January 20, 1996, and won it by 4 points.
  4. Sunderland trailed the 2004-05 EFL Championship race by 11 points on October 23, 2004, and won it by 7 points.
  5. Manchester City trailed the 2001-02 EFL Championship race by 10 points on November 23, 2001, and won it by 10 points.
  6. Burnley trailed the 2015-16 EFL Championship race by 10 points on January 2, 2016, and won it by 4 points.
  7. Norwich City trailed the 2018-19 EFL Championship race by 10 points on August 31, 2018, and won it by 5 points.
  8. West Bromwich Albion trailed the 2007-08 EFL Championship race by 9 points on October 20, 2007, and won it by 2 points.
  9. AFC Bournemouth trailed the 2014-15 EFL Championship race by 9 points on September 17, 2014, and won it by 1 point.
  10. Norwich City trailed the 2020-21 EFL Championship race by 8 points on October 3, 2020, and won it by 6 points.

Biggest collapses

  1. Derby County led the 1995-96 EFL Championship race by 9 points as late as March 2, 1996, and finished behind Sunderland.
  2. Birmingham City led the 2006-07 EFL Championship race by 9 points as late as December 29, 2006, and finished behind Sunderland.
  3. Watford led the 2007-08 EFL Championship race by 9 points as late as October 23, 2007, and finished behind West Bromwich Albion.
  4. Wolverhampton Wanderers led the 2001-02 EFL Championship race by 8 points as late as March 2, 2002, and finished behind Manchester City.
  5. Sheffield United led the 2005-06 EFL Championship race by 7 points as late as September 27, 2005, and finished behind Reading.
  6. Brighton & Hove Albion led the 2016-17 EFL Championship race by 7 points as late as April 23, 2017, and finished behind Newcastle United.
  7. West Bromwich Albion led the 2019-20 EFL Championship race by 7 points as late as February 25, 2020, and finished behind Leeds United.
  8. Reading led the 2020-21 EFL Championship race by 7 points as late as October 27, 2020, and finished behind Norwich City.
  9. Manchester City led the 1999-00 EFL Championship race by 6 points as late as November 5, 1999, and finished behind Charlton Athletic.
  10. Wigan Athletic led the 2004-05 EFL Championship race by 6 points as late as November 5, 2004, and finished behind Sunderland.

Latest deciding day

  1. With no charted days left to play, Sunderland took first place in the 2006-07 EFL Championship race for good on May 6, 2007, having led on 15 of the race's 275 charted days.
  2. With no charted days left to play, AFC Bournemouth took first place in the 2014-15 EFL Championship race for good on May 2, 2015, having led on 113 of the race's 268 charted days.
  3. With no charted days left to play, Newcastle United took first place in the 2016-17 EFL Championship race for good on May 7, 2017, having led on 137 of the race's 276 charted days.
  4. With five charted days left to play, Burnley took first place in the 2015-16 EFL Championship race for good on May 2, 2016, having led on 57 of the race's 275 charted days.
  5. With five charted days left to play, Leeds United took first place in the 2024-25 EFL Championship race for good on April 28, 2025, having led on 117 of the race's 268 charted days.
  6. With six charted days left to play, West Bromwich Albion took first place in the 2007-08 EFL Championship race for good on April 28, 2008, having led on 74 of the race's 268 charted days.
  7. With 13 charted days left to play, Leeds United took first place in the 2019-20 EFL Championship race for good on July 9, 2020, having led on 188 of the race's 356 charted days.
  8. With 13 charted days left to play, Portsmouth took first place in the 2002-03 EFL Championship race for good on April 21, 2003, having led on 247 of the race's 268 charted days.
  9. With 14 charted days left to play, Newcastle United took first place in the 1992-93 EFL Championship race for good on April 25, 1993, having led on 239 of the race's 268 charted days.
  10. With 14 charted days left to play, Leicester City took first place in the 2023-24 EFL Championship race for good on April 20, 2024, having led on 203 of the race's 275 charted days.

How these lists are ranked

Everything on this page comes from the same season files the charts draw, with standings read as each day ended. All 34 charted EFL Championship races from 34 finished seasons enter: every title race from 1992-93 to 2025-26. Wild card races are not ranked; their story is the playoff cutoff, not first place. The 2026-27 season joins these lists when it ends. A team's comeback or collapse is counted once per season, at its deepest, whichever of its charted races it came in.

Biggest comebacks: the deepest deficit the eventual winner faced at the end of a charted day, in points behind that day's leader, dated to the first day it reached that depth. These are the same numbers the turning points on each race page state.

Biggest collapses: the largest lead over second place held at the end of a charted day by a team that did not finish first, dated to the last day the team still held that full lead. A comeback and a collapse read the same race from opposite ends, so they can disagree about one summer.

Latest deciding day ranks winners by how few charted days remained when they took first place for good, which is the day after the last one the winner ended behind or level with another club: a day it only shared the top is not a day it held first place for good, so a late tie pushes the date later. Races whose top two the standings cannot separate appear on none of these lists: the data cannot name a winner. Only finished seasons are ranked; every irregularity in the record is listed in the data notes.