A year after almost being relegated to Division Two, Portsmouth made strong progress in their second full season under the management of Terry Fenwick and just missed out on the playoffs.
Vale's local rivals Stoke City finished 12th in their final season at the 119-year-old Victoria Ground before moving to the new Britannia Stadium.
Southend United's six-year spell in the league's second tier came to an end as they finished bottom of Division One, with relegation quickly being followed by the dismissal of manager Ronnie Whelan.
Alan Buckley, sacked mid-season by West Bromwich Albion, returned to Grimsby Town for his second spell as manager but was unable to keep the Mariners up, the battle against relegation being lost on the final day of the season.
Notts County finished bottom of the table to make it three relegations in six seasons, condemning them to fourth tier football only a few years after they had been in the top flight.
In their second season under the management of John Deehan and ownership of ambitious chairman Dave Whelan, Wigan finished champions of Division Three, with striker Graeme Jones being the league's top scorer with 31 goals.
Brighton, deep in debt and faced with being left homeless through the sale of the Goldstone Ground, looked doomed by Christmas as they trailed the rest of the Division Three sides by a long distance.
Brighton were then faced with several weeks of uncertainty about their future as the search for a new home continued, ending when a groundsharing deal was agreed with Gillingham in Kent.
Coming up from the Conference were Macclesfield Town, who had overturned a wide lead by Kidderminster Harriers during the second half of the season to clinch the Conference title on the final day of the season and claim the Football League status which they had been denied two years earlier when their Moss Rose stadium failed to meet the league's capacity requirements.