1995–96 West Ham United F.C. season

West Ham United

1995–96 season
Chairman	Terry Brown
Manager	Harry Redknapp
Stadium	Upton Park
Premiership	10th
FA Cup	Fourth round
League Cup	Third round
Top goalscorer	League: Cottee/Dicks (10) All: Cottee (12)
Highest home attendance	24,324 vs Liverpool (22 Nov 1995, Premier League)
Lowest home attendance	15,375 vs Bristol Rovers (4 Oct 1995, League Cup)
Average home league attendance	22,340
Home colours
← 1994–95 1996–97 →

During the 1995–96 English football season, West Ham United competed in the FA Premier League (known as the FA Carling Premiership for sponsorship reasons).

Season summary

West Ham progressed further following the previous season's 14th-place finish (and last-minute scramble away from relegation danger) and climbed to 10th place in the final table – their best finish since they came third in 1986. They were never in any danger of going down, but they never looked like challenging for a UEFA Cup spot. Nor did they make much of an impact in the cup competitions, though striker Tony Cottee showed little sign of his advancing years, coming joint top scorer with penalty taking left-back Julian Dicks.

Manager Harry Redknapp spent heavily over the summer, mostly on foreign players, in hope of building a West Ham side capable of chasing European qualification and major trophies.

The season also brought the debut of two teenage players - defender Rio Ferdinand and midfielder Frank Lampard.

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Manchester United (C)	38	25	7	6	73	35	+38	82	1996–97 UEFA Champions League Group stage
2	Newcastle United	38	24	6	8	66	37	+29	78	1996–97 UEFA Cup First round
3	Liverpool	38	20	11	7	70	34	+36	71	1996–97 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup First round ^1
4	Aston Villa	38	18	9	11	52	35	+17	63	1996–97 UEFA Cup First round
5	Arsenal	38	17	12	9	49	32	+17	63
6	Everton	38	17	10	11	64	44	+20	61
7	Blackburn Rovers	38	18	7	13	61	47	+14	61
8	Tottenham Hotspur	38	16	13	9	50	38	+12	61
9	Nottingham Forest	38	15	13	10	50	54	−4	58
10	West Ham United	38	14	9	15	43	52	−9	51
11	Chelsea	38	12	14	12	46	44	+2	50
12	Middlesbrough	38	11	10	17	35	50	−15	43
13	Leeds United	38	12	7	19	40	57	−17	43
14	Wimbledon	38	10	11	17	55	70	−15	41
15	Sheffield Wednesday	38	10	10	18	48	61	−13	40
16	Coventry City	38	8	14	16	42	60	−18	38
17	Southampton	38	9	11	18	34	52	−18	38
18	Manchester City (R)	38	9	11	18	33	58	−25	38	Relegation to 1996–97 Football League First Division
19	Queens Park Rangers (R)	38	9	6	23	38	57	−19	33
20	Bolton Wanderers (R)	38	8	5	25	39	71	−32	29

Updated to games played on 5 May 1996.
Source: Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
¹ Liverpool qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup as FA Cup runners-up, as winners Manchester United already qualified for the Champions League.
(C) = Champion; (R) = Relegated; (P) = Promoted; (E) = Eliminated; (O) = Play-off winner; (A) = Advances to a further round.
Only applicable when the season is not finished:
(Q) = Qualified to the phase of tournament indicated; (TQ) = Qualified to tournament, but not yet to the particular phase indicated; (RQ) = Qualified to the relegation tournament indicated; (DQ) = Disqualified from tournament.
P = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points

Results

West Ham United's score comes first^[1]

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

FA Premier League

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
19 August 1995	Leeds United	H	1–2	22,901	Williamson
23 August 1995	Manchester United	A	1–2	31,966	Bruce (own goal)
26 August 1995	Nottingham Forest	A	1–1	26,645	Allen
30 August 1995	Tottenham Hotspur	H	1–1	23,516	Hutchison
11 September 1995	Chelsea	H	1–3	19,228	Hutchison
16 September 1995	Arsenal	A	0–1	38,065
23 September 1995	Everton	H	2–1	21,085	Dicks (2 pens)
2 October 1995	Southampton	A	0–0	13,568
16 October 1995	Wimbledon	A	1–0	9,411	Cottee
21 October 1995	Blackburn Rovers	H	1–1	21,776	Dowie
28 October 1995	Sheffield Wednesday	A	1–0	23,917	Dowie
4 November 1995	Aston Villa	H	1–4	23,637	Dicks (pen)
18 November 1995	Bolton Wanderers	A	3–0	19,047	Bishop, Cottee, Williamson
22 November 1995	Liverpool	H	0–0	24,324
25 November 1995	Queens Park Rangers	H	1–0	21,504	Cottee
2 December 1995	Blackburn Rovers	A	2–4	26,638	Dicks (pen), Slater
11 December 1995	Everton	A	0–3	31,778
16 December 1995	Southampton	H	2–1	18,501	Cottee, Dowie
23 December 1995	Middlesbrough	A	2–4	28,640	Cottee, Dicks
1 January 1996	Manchester City	A	1–2	26,024	Dowie
13 January 1996	Leeds United	A	0–2	30,658
22 January 1996	Manchester United	H	0–1	24,197
31 January 1996	Coventry City	H	3–2	18,884	Cottee, Rieper, Dowie
3 February 1996	Nottingham Forest	H	1–0	21,257	Slater
12 February 1996	Tottenham Hotspur	A	1–0	29,781	Dani
17 February 1996	Chelsea	A	2–1	25,252	Dicks, Williamson
21 February 1996	Newcastle United	H	2–0	23,843	Williamson, Cottee
24 February 1996	Arsenal	H	0–1	24,217
2 March 1996	Coventry City	A	2–2	17,459	Cottee, Rieper
9 March 1996	Middlesbrough	H	2–0	23,850	Dowie, Dicks (pen)
18 March 1996	Newcastle United	A	0–3	36,331
23 March 1996	Manchester City	H	4–2	24,017	Dowie (2), Dicks, Dani
6 April 1996	Wimbledon	H	1–1	20,402	Dicks
8 April 1996	Liverpool	A	0–2	40,326
13 April 1996	Bolton Wanderers	H	1–0	23,086	Cottee
17 April 1996	Aston Villa	A	1–1	26,768	Cottee
27 April 1996	Queens Park Rangers	A	0–3	18,828
5 May 1996	Sheffield Wednesday	H	1–1	23,790	Dicks

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	6 January 1996	Southend United	H	2–0	23,284	Moncur, Hughes
R4	7 February 1996	Grimsby Town	H	1–1	22,030	Dowie
R4R	14 February 1996	Grimsby Town	A	0–3	8,382

League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R2 1st Leg	20 September 1995	Bristol Rovers	A	1–0	7,103	Moncur
R2 2nd Leg	4 October 1995	Bristol Rovers	H	3–0 (won 4–0 on agg)	15,375	Dicks (pen), Bishop, Cottee
R3	25 October 1995	Southampton	A	1–2	11,059	Cottee

First-team squad

Squad at end of season^[2]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Luděk Mikloško 2 DF Tim Breacker 3 DF Julian Dicks 4 DF Steve Potts 5 DF Alvin Martin 7 MF Ian Bishop 8 DF Marc Rieper 9 FW Tony Cottee 10 MF John Moncur 11 FW Marco Boogers 12 DF Keith Rowland 14 FW Iain Dowie[3] 15 DF Kenny Brown 16 FW Dani (on loan from Sporting CP)

No. Position Player 17 MF Stan Lazaridis 18 MF Ilie Dumitrescu 19 MF Robbie Slater 20 MF Danny Williamson 21 GK Peter Shilton 22 DF Adrian Whitbread 23 MF Dale Gordon 24 MF Michael Hughes (on loan from RC Strasbourg) 26 MF Frank Lampard 28 DF Slaven Bilić 29 FW Mark Watson 30 GK Les Sealey 31 GK Neil Finn 32 DF Rio Ferdinand

Left club during season

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 6 MF Martin Allen (to Portsmouth) 14 MF Matthew Rush (to Norwich City) 16 MF Don Hutchison (to Sheffield United) 18 MF Simon Webster (retired) 21 GK Ian Feuer (to Luton Town)

No. Position Player 24 MF Paul Mitchell (to Bournemouth) 25 FW Jeroen Boere (to Crystal Palace) 25 MF John Harkes (on loan from Derby County) 27 DF Chris Whyte (on loan from Birmingham City)

Reserve squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player GK Steve Mautone DF Chris Coyne MF Scott Canham

No. Position Player MF Darren Currie MF Emmanuel Omoyinmi

Transfers

In

Date	Pos	Name	From	Fee
1 July 1995	FW	Marco Boogers	Sparta Rotterdam	£1,000,000
14 August 1995	MF	Robbie Slater	Blackburn Rovers	£600,000
8 September 1995	FW	Iain Dowie	Crystal Palace	£500,000
8 September 1995	MF	Stan Lazaridis	West Adelaide	£300,000
11 January 1996	GK	Peter Shilton	Coventry City	Free transfer
29 March 1996	GK	Steve Mautone	Canberra Cosmos	£30,000

Out

Date	Pos	Name	To	Fee
1 July 1995	DF	Jamie Victory	Bournemouth	Free transfer
15 August 1995	MF	Matty Holmes	Blackburn Rovers	£1,200,000
18 August 1995	MF	Matthew Rush	Norwich City	£330,000
7 September 1995	FW	Jeroen Boere	Crystal Palace	£375,000
3 November 1995	FW	Chris Moors	Torquay United	Free transfer
16 December 1995	GK	Ian Feuer	Luton Town	£580,000
10 January 1996	MF	Don Hutchison	Sheffield United	£1,200,000
7 February 1996	MF	Darren Currie	Shrewsbury Town	£70,000
22 February 1996	MF	Martin Allen	Portsmouth	£500,000
28 March 1996	MF	Paul Mitchell	Bournemouth	Free transfer

Transfers in: £2,430,000

Transfers out: £4,255,000

Total spending: £1,825,000

Statistics

Starting 11

Considering starts in all competitions^[4]

No. Pos Nat Name MS Notes 1 GK Luděk Mikloško 42 2 RB Tim Breacker 21 8 CB Marc Rieper 40 4 CB Steve Potts 40 3 LB Julian Dicks 40 20 RM Danny Williamson 31 7 CM Ian Bishop 41 24 CM Michael Hughes 33 10 LM John Moncur 23 14 CF Iain Dowie 39 9 CF Tony Cottee 36 References http://www.statto.com/football/teams/west-ham-united/1995-1996/results http://www.footballsquads.co.uk/eng/1995-1996/faprem/westham.htm Dowie was born in Hatfield, England. http://www.11v11.com/teams/west-ham-united/tab/players/season/1996