1995–96 in English football Bolton Wanderers, Queens Park Rangers and Manchester City were relegated, while Coventry City and Southampton stayed up on goal difference. Leading goalscorer: Alan Shearer (Blackburn Rovers) - 31 Sunderland gave their best performance in years by clinching the Division One title, and were joined among the elite by runners-up Derby County and play-off winners Leicester City. Crystal Palace conceded a last-minute Leicester winner at Wembley, and would have gone up automatically had it not been for their dismal first half of the season. Luton Town, Watford and Millwall, who had all played in the top flight at some stage in
Alan Shearer 2009, he briefly left his BBC role to become Newcastle United's manager in the last eight games of their 2008–09 season, in an unsuccessful attempt to save them from relegation. Shearer is a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), a Deputy Lieutenant of Northumberland, a Freeman of Newcastle upon Tyne and an honorary Doctor of Civil Law of Northumbria and Newcastle Universities. Shearer was born in Gosforth, Newcastle, in 1970 to working-class parents Alan and Anne Shearer. His father, a sheet-metal worker, encouraged a keen Shearer to play football in his youth, and the young player continued