Days in first place: EFL Championship title races, 1992-93 to 2025-26
The longest anyone has led an EFL Championship race without winning it: Southampton ended 74 of the 2011-12 EFL Championship race's 102 playing days in first place, 73% of them, and finished behind Reading. The longest unbroken spell of that lead ran 45 days. At the other end of the same race, Reading won it having led on seven of those 102, never more than six in a row. Both lists below rank by the share of a race's playing days a team spent in first place. How that is counted is spelled out under the lists.
Southampton led the 2011-12 EFL Championship race on 74 of its 102 playing days, 73% of them, and finished behind Reading.
West Bromwich Albion led the 2019-20 EFL Championship race on 57 of its 116 playing days, 49% of them, and finished behind Leeds United.
Wigan Athletic led the 2004-05 EFL Championship race on 54 of its 112 playing days, 48% of them, and finished behind Sunderland.
Watford led the 2007-08 EFL Championship race on 38 of its 89 playing days, 43% of them, and finished behind West Bromwich Albion.
Sheffield United led the 2005-06 EFL Championship race on 39 of its 102 playing days, 38% of them, and finished behind Reading.
Leeds United led the 2018-19 EFL Championship race on 38 of its 104 playing days, 37% of them, and finished behind Norwich City.
Brighton & Hove Albion led the 2015-16 EFL Championship race on 39 of its 113 playing days, 35% of them, and finished behind Burnley.
Brighton & Hove Albion led the 2016-17 EFL Championship race on 35 of its 110 playing days, 32% of them, and finished behind Newcastle United.
Cardiff City led the 2006-07 EFL Championship race on 35 of its 111 playing days, 32% of them, and finished behind Sunderland.
Wolverhampton Wanderers led the 2001-02 EFL Championship race on 40 of its 140 playing days, 29% of them, and finished behind Manchester City.
Winners who led least
Reading won the 2011-12 EFL Championship race having led on 7 of its 102 playing days, 7% of them, and took first place for good on April 13, 2012.
Sunderland won the 2006-07 EFL Championship race having led on 8 of its 111 playing days, 7% of them, and took first place for good on May 6, 2007.
Burnley won the 2015-16 EFL Championship race having led on 21 of its 113 playing days, 19% of them, and took first place for good on May 2, 2016.
Sunderland won the 2004-05 EFL Championship race having led on 21 of its 112 playing days, 19% of them, and took first place for good on March 19, 2005.
West Bromwich Albion won the 2007-08 EFL Championship race having led on 19 of its 89 playing days, 21% of them, and took first place for good on April 28, 2008.
Sunderland won the 1995-96 EFL Championship race having led on 33 of its 103 playing days, 32% of them, and took first place for good on March 17, 1996.
Manchester City won the 2001-02 EFL Championship race having led on 47 of its 140 playing days, 34% of them, and took first place for good on March 12, 2002.
Leeds United won the 2019-20 EFL Championship race having led on 47 of its 116 playing days, 41% of them, and took first place for good on July 9, 2020.
AFC Bournemouth won the 2014-15 EFL Championship race having led on 38 of its 93 playing days, 41% of them, and took first place for good on May 2, 2015.
Leeds United won the 2024-25 EFL Championship race having led on 57 of its 126 playing days, 45% of them, and took first place for good on April 28, 2025.
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 time in first place is counted once per season, at its longest, whichever of its charted races it came in.
Longest leads lost is the club that ended the most of a race's playing days in first place and did not finish first. Any club in the race qualifies, not the runner-up alone, because a club can lead for four months and finish fifth.
Winners who led least is the same count for the club that did win, ranked from the fewest days up. Each row closes on the day that winner took first place for good, which the comebacks page ranks on.
Only days this race's teams played are counted, the same rule the closest races page counts closeness over. A strike or a pause freezes the standings, and a leader sitting out an idle stretch would collect time on top for nothing.
The ranking is by share rather than by the raw count, because a league's seasons are not all the same length and a short one would otherwise win by being short. Seasons cut short by a strike or a stoppage are ranked on what was played, which is the same rule and the reason for it. The count and the total are printed beside the share, so the order can be checked; where two rows print the same whole percent, the unrounded share put them in that order.
A day two clubs end level at the top is a day in first place for both of them, which is what holding first place means in English. So the two counts of one race can add up to more than the race's playing days. Races whose top two the standings cannot separate appear on neither list: with no winner, the data can name neither the club that lost a lead nor the club that kept one.
A lead measured in days and a lead measured in points are different questions, and the two lists often disagree about which season was the bigger collapse; the comebacks page ranks the same blown leads by size. Only finished seasons are ranked; every irregularity in the record is listed in the data notes.