1997–98 Aston Villa F.C. season

Aston Villa

1997–98 season
Chairman	Doug Ellis
Manager	Brian Little (until 24 February) John Gregory (from 25 February)
Stadium	Villa Park
Premiership	7th
FA Cup	Fifth round
League Cup	Third round
UEFA Cup	Quarter-finals
Top goalscorer	League: Yorke (12) All: Yorke (14)
Average home league attendance	36,137
← 1996–97 1998–99 →

During the 1997–98 English football season, Aston Villa competed in the FA Premier League (known as the FA Carling Premiership for sponsorship reasons).

Season summary

When Brian Little resigned as Aston Villa manager in February, Villa were 15th in the Premiership and were starting to look like outside bets for relegation.^[1] Ruud Gullit, recently sacked by Chelsea, was linked with the vacancy, but the surprise choice for the job was Wycombe manager John Gregory, a former Villa coach.^[2] He influenced a late run of form which saw Villa climb to seventh place and become the lowest-placed English team to achieve automatic UEFA Cup qualification.^[3]

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Arsenal (C)	38	23	9	6	68	33	+35	78	1998–99 UEFA Champions League Group stage
2	Manchester United	38	23	8	7	73	26	+47	77	1998–99 UEFA Champions League Second qualifying round
3	Liverpool	38	18	11	9	68	42	+26	65	1998–99 UEFA Cup First round
4	Chelsea	38	20	3	15	71	43	+28	63	1998–99 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup First round ^1
5	Leeds United	38	17	8	13	57	46	+11	59	1998–99 UEFA Cup First round
6	Blackburn Rovers	38	16	10	12	57	52	+5	58
7	Aston Villa	38	17	6	15	49	48	+1	57
8	West Ham United	38	16	8	14	56	57	−1	56
9	Derby County	38	16	7	15	52	49	+3	55
10	Leicester City	38	13	14	11	51	41	+10	53
11	Coventry City	38	12	16	10	46	44	+2	52
12	Southampton	38	14	6	18	50	55	−5	48
13	Newcastle United	38	11	11	16	35	44	−9	44	1998–99 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup First round ^2
14	Tottenham Hotspur	38	11	11	16	44	56	−12	44
15	Wimbledon	38	10	14	14	34	46	−12	44
16	Sheffield Wednesday	38	12	8	18	52	67	−15	44
17	Everton	38	9	13	16	41	56	−15	40
18	Bolton Wanderers (R)	38	9	13	16	41	61	−20	40	Relegation to 1998–99 Football League First Division
19	Barnsley (R)	38	10	5	23	37	82	−45	35
20	Crystal Palace (R)	38	8	9	21	37	71	–34	33	1998 UEFA Intertoto Cup Third round ^3
										Relegation to the 1998–99 Football League First Division

Updated to games played on 10 May 1998.
Source: Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
¹ Chelsea qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup as defending champions and were the League Cup winners.
² As Arsenal qualified for the Champions League, their Cup Winners' Cup place as FA Cup winners defaulted to Newcastle United, the losing finalists.
³ Despite being relegated, Crystal Palace qualified for the 1998 Intertoto Cup.
(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.

Results Summary

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
38	17	6	15	49	48	+1	57	9	3	7	26	24	+2	8	3	8	23	24	−1

Source: 1997-98 FA Premier League table

Results by round

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38
Ground	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H
Result	L	L	L	L	W	W	W	L	D	W	L	D	L	D	W	L	W	L	D	W	D	D	L	L	W	L	L	W	W	L	W	W	W	W	W	L	W	W
Position	18	20	20	20	19	12	9	11	14	8	11	13	14	15	11	13	11	12	12	11	10	10	12	15	13	14	15	14	13	13	12	11	9	8	8	8	7	7

Source: 11v11.com: 1997-98 Aston Villa results
Ground: A = Away; H = Home. Result: D = Draw; L = Loss; W = Win; P = Postponed.

Results

Aston Villa's score comes first^[4]

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

FA Premier League

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
9 August 1997	Leicester City	A	0–1	20,304
13 August 1997	Blackburn Rovers	H	0–4	37,112
23 August 1997	Newcastle United	A	0–1	36,783
27 August 1997	Tottenham Hotspur	A	2–3	26,317	Yorke 27', Collymore 58'
30 August 1997	Leeds United	H	1–0	39,027	Yorke 67'
13 September 1997	Barnsley	A	3–0	18,649	Ehiogu 25', Draper 50', Taylor 72'
20 September 1997	Derby County	H	2–1	35,444	Yorke 72', Joachim 75'
22 September 1997	Liverpool	A	0–3	34,843
27 September 1997	Sheffield Wednesday	H	2–2	32,044	Staunton 32', Taylor 49'
4 October 1997	Bolton Wanderers	A	1–0	24,186	Milošević 12'
18 October 1997	Wimbledon	H	1–2	32,087	Taylor 45'
26 October 1997	Arsenal	A	0–0	38,061
1 November 1997	Chelsea	H	0–2	39,372
8 November 1997	Crystal Palace	A	1–1	21,097	Joachim 86'
22 November 1997	Everton	H	2–1	36,389	Milošević 37', Ehiogu 56'
29 November 1997	West Ham United	A	1–2	24,976	Yorke 47'
6 December 1997	Coventry City	H	3–0	33,250	Collymore 21', Hendrie 71', Joachim 85'
15 December 1997	Manchester United	A	0–1	55,151
20 December 1997	Southampton	H	1–1	29,343	Taylor 64'
26 December 1997	Tottenham Hotspur	H	4–1	38,644	Draper 38', 68', Collymore 81', 89'
28 December 1997	Leeds United	A	1–1	36,287	Milošević 85'
10 January 1998	Leicester City	H	1–1	36,429	Joachim 87'
17 January 1998	Blackburn Rovers	A	0–5	24,834
1 February 1998	Newcastle United	H	0–1	38,266
7 February 1998	Derby County	A	1–0	30,251	Yorke 90'
18 February 1998	Manchester United	H	0–2	39,372
21 February 1998	Wimbledon	A	1–2	13,131	Milošević 41'
28 February 1998	Liverpool	H	2–1	39,372	Collymore 10', 65'
8 March 1998	Chelsea	A	1–0	33,018	Joachim 51'
11 March 1998	Barnsley	H	0–1	29,519
14 March 1998	Crystal Palace	H	3–1	33,781	Taylor 1', Milošević pen 14', 35'
28 March 1998	Everton	A	4–1	36,471	Joachim 12', Charles 62', Yorke pen 72', 81'
4 April 1998	West Ham United	H	2–0	39,372	Joachim 76', Milošević 82'
11 April 1998	Coventry City	A	2–1	22,792	Yorke 5', 48'
18 April 1998	Southampton	A	2–1	15,238	Hendrie 6', Yorke 60'
25 April 1998	Bolton Wanderers	H	1–3	38,392	Taylor 57'
2 May 1998	Sheffield Wednesday	A	3–1	34,177	Yorke 21', Hendrie 25', Joachim 50'
10 May 1998	Arsenal	H	1–0	39,372	Yorke 37' (pen)

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	3 January 1998	Portsmouth	A	2–2	16,013	Staunton 41', Grayson 88'
R3R	14 January 1998	Portsmouth	H	1–0	23,355	Milošević 21'
R4	24 January 1998	West Bromwich Albion	H	4–0	39,372	Grayson 4', Yorke 61', 64', Collymore 72'
R5	14 February 1998	Coventry City	H	0–1	36,979

League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	15 October 1997	West Ham United	A	0–3	20,360

UEFA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1 1st leg	16 September 1997	Bordeaux	A	0–0	16,800
R1 2nd leg	30 September 1997	Bordeaux	H	1–0 (won 1-0 on agg)	33,072	Milošević 111'
R2 1st leg	21 October 1997	Athletic Bilbao	A	0–0	46,000
R2 2nd leg	4 November 1997	Athletic Bilbao	H	2–1 (won 2-1 on agg)	35,915	Taylor 28', Yorke 50'
R3 1st leg	25 November 1997	Steaua Bucharest	A	1–2	24,000	Yorke 54'
R3 2nd leg	9 December 1997	Steaua Bucharest	H	2–0 (won 3-2 on agg)	35,102	Milošević 71', Taylor 85'
QF 1st leg	3 March 1998	Atlético Madrid	A	0–1	45,000
QF 2nd leg	17 March 1998	Atlético Madrid	H	2–1 (lost on away goals)	39,163	Taylor 72', Collymore 74'

Squad

^[5] 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 Mark Bosnich 2 DF Gary Charles 3 DF Steve Staunton 4 DF Gareth Southgate 5 DF Ugo Ehiogu 7 MF Ian Taylor 8 MF Mark Draper 9 FW Savo Milošević[6] 10 FW Dwight Yorke 11 FW Stan Collymore 12 FW Julian Joachim 13 GK Michael Oakes 14 DF Alan Wright

No. Position Player 15 DF Fernando Nélson 16 DF Simon Grayson 17 MF Lee Hendrie 19 DF David Hughes 20 DF Riccardo Scimeca 21 DF Lee Collins 22 FW Darius Vassell 23 FW Neil Davis 24 DF Gareth Barry 25 FW Darren Byfield[7] 27 FW Richard Walker 29 GK Matthew Ghent 30 GK Adam Rachel

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 Andy Townsend[8] (to Middlesbrough) 18 MF Saša Ćurčić (to Crystal Palace) 24 MF Scott Murray (to Bristol City)

No. Position Player 29 GK Paul Crichton (on loan from West Bromwich) 31 GK Stuart Brock (to Kidderminster Harriers)

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 - MF Michael Blackwood - DF Reuben Hazell - DF Tommy Jaszczun - FW Alan Lee

No. Position Player - DF Aaron Lescott - FW Darren Middleton - DF Ben Petty - MF Michael Standing

Statistics

Starting 11

No. Pos Nat Name MS Notes 1 GK Mark Bosnich 42 15 RB Fernando Nélson 28 Savo Milošević has 28 starts 5 CB Ugo Ehiogu 48 4 CB Gareth Southgate 43 3 LB Steve Staunton 38 8 RM Mark Draper 43 16 CM Simon Grayson 36 7 CM Ian Taylor 42 14 LM Alan Wright 48 10 SS Dwight Yorke 40 11 CF Stan Collymore 34 Transfers In Date Pos Name From Fee Notes 27 November 1997 MF David Curtolo Västerås SK £30,000 5 June 1998 MF Alan Thompson Bolton Wanderers £4,500,000 24 June 1998 MF Fabio Ferraresi Cesena Free transfer 24 June 1998 DF David Unsworth West Ham United £3,000,000 Out Date Pos Name To Fee Notes 29 August 1997 MF Andy Townsend Middlesbrough £500,000 1 September 1997 GK Stuart Brock Kidderminster Harriers Free transfer 9 December 1997 MF Scott Murray Bristol City £150,000 26 March 1998 MF Saša Ćurčić Crystal Palace £1,000,000 1 July 1998 FW Savo Milošević Real Zaragoza £3,500,000 3 July 1998 DF Steve Staunton Liverpool Free transfer 7 July 1998 DF Fernando Nélson Porto £1,100,000 Transfers in: £7,530,000 Transfers out: £6,250,000 Total spending: £1,280,000 References "Little resigns from Villa". BBC Sport. 24 February 1998. Retrieved 22 November 2013. "Ex-backroom boy gets Villa job". BBC Sport. 25 February 1998. Retrieved 22 November 2013. Aston Villa 1997/1998. WorldFootball.net. Accessed 2 March 2012. Soccerbase: 1997-98 Aston Villa results http://www.footballsquads.co.uk/eng/1997-1998/faprem/avilla.htm Milošević was born in Bijeljina, SFR Yugoslavia (now Bosnia and Herzegovina). Byfield was born in Sutton Coldfield, England, but also qualified to represent Jamaica internationally and would make his international debut for Jamaica in 2003. Townsend was born in Maidstone, England, but also qualified to represent the Republic of Ireland internationally through his grandmother and made his international debut for the Republic of Ireland in February 1989.