A fiercely-contested title race went right to the wire, with the title-deciding game featuring both contenders not being played until 26 May – six days after the FA Cup final – as the league season was extended following the Hillsborough disaster on 15 April, in which 97 Liverpool fans died.
Their East Midlands rivals Derby County were on the fringes of the title race for much of the season, and their fifth-place finish was their highest for well over a decade.
The loss of Paul Gascoigne to Tottenham in the first £2 million deal between English clubs gave Newcastle manager Willie McFaul a chance to spend heavily in the transfer market, but his signings failed to gel and he was sacked in October with the Tynesiders bottom of the First Division.
John Lyall's 15-year spell as West Ham manager came to an end after relegation and the decision of the board not to renew his contract.
Bull, who broke the 50-goal barrier in all competitions for the second successive season, then became one of the few Third Division players to be selected for the senior England side when he was capped for his country for the first time.
Gillingham, who had almost won promotion two years earlier, as did Chesterfield, and a Southend side whose 54 points was a greater tally than any other team to suffer relegation in Football League history.
The final automatic promotion place went to Crewe, who had spent 20 consecutive seasons in the Fourth Division and had to apply for re-election seven times, before the arrival of Dario Gradi as manager in June 1983 had overseen an upturn in fortunes at Gresty Road.
Promotion had seemed out of the question for Leyton Orient, when they stood 15th in the league on 1 March 1989 with barely a quarter of the season left to play.