1997–98 Sheffield United F.C. season

Sheffield United

1997–98 season
Chairman	Mike McDonald
Manager	Nigel Spackman (until 2 March) Russell Slade (caretaker from 2 March - 9 March) Steve Thompson (caretaker from 3 March)
Stadium	Bramall Lane
First Division	6th
FA Cup	Semi finals
League Cup	Third round
Top goalscorer	League: Deane (10) All: Deane (12) Fjørtoft (12)
Average home league attendance	17,942
← 1996–97 1998–99 →

During the 1997–98 English football season, Sheffield United competed in the Football League First Division.

Season summary

On 5 August 1997, Nigel Spackman was appointed as permanent manager of Sheffield United and his side had a good start to the season but huge losses and high wages from the previous season's promotion failure led to enforced sales of key personnel. The final straw being the sale of both of the club's top scoring strikers (Brian Deane – 11 league goals – went to S.L. Benfica & Jan Åge Fjørtoft – 9 league goals – to Barnsley) on the same day. Even though leaving midseason, Deane would go on to become the team's top scorer that year, such was the lack of replacements. Spackman was unhappy over this and resigned in March 1998, leaving Thompson and Slade in caretaker charge until the end of the season. The Blades finished in the playoffs but came up short in the playoff semi-finals against Sunderland, losing 3-2 on aggregate.

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Nottingham Forest (C)	46	28	10	8	82	42	+40	94	Promotion to 1998–99 FA Premier League
2	Middlesbrough (P)	46	27	10	9	77	41	+36	91
3	Sunderland	46	26	12	8	86	50	+36	90	Qualification for First Division play-offs
4	Charlton Athletic (P)	46	26	10	10	80	49	+31	88
5	Ipswich Town	46	23	14	9	77	43	+34	83
6	Sheffield United	46	19	17	10	69	54	+15	74
7	Birmingham City	46	19	17	10	60	35	+25	74
8	Stockport County	46	19	8	19	71	69	+2	65
9	Wolverhampton Wanderers	46	18	11	17	57	53	+4	65
10	West Bromwich Albion	46	16	13	17	50	56	−6	61
11	Crewe Alexandra	46	18	5	23	58	65	−7	59
12	Oxford United	46	16	10	20	60	64	−4	58
13	Bradford City	46	14	15	17	46	59	−13	57
14	Tranmere Rovers	46	14	14	18	54	57	−3	56
15	Norwich City	46	14	13	19	52	69	−17	55
16	Huddersfield Town	46	14	11	21	50	72	−22	53
17	Bury	46	11	19	16	42	58	−16	52
18	Swindon Town	46	14	10	22	42	73	−31	52
19	Port Vale	46	13	10	23	56	66	−10	49
20	Portsmouth	46	13	10	23	51	63	−12	49
21	Queens Park Rangers	46	10	19	17	51	63	−12	49
22	Manchester City (R)	46	12	12	22	56	57	−1	48	Relegation to 1998–99 Second Division
23	Stoke City (R)	46	11	13	22	44	74	−30	46
24	Reading (R)	46	11	9	26	39	78	−39	42

Updated to games played on 3 May 1998.
Source: Statto.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
(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

Sheffield United's score comes first^[1]

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

Football League First Division

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
10 August 1997	Sunderland	H	2–0	17,324	Fjørtoft, Borbokis
16 August 1997	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	0–0	23,102
23 August 1997	Portsmouth	H	2–1	15,895	Fjørtoft (2)
30 August 1997	Huddersfield Town	A	0–0	14,268
13 September 1997	Nottingham Forest	H	1–0	24,536	Taylor
20 September 1997	Oxford United	A	4–2	7,514	Deane, Fjørtoft (pen), Holdsworth, Whitehouse
27 September 1997	Birmingham City	H	0–0	20,553
5 October 1997	Middlesbrough	A	2–1	30,000	Deane, Whitehouse
18 October 1997	Queens Park Rangers	H	2–2	18,006	Borbokis, Marcelo
21 October 1997	Stockport County	H	5–1	16,241	Whitehouse, Fjørtoft (3), Deane
25 October 1997	West Bromwich Albion	A	0–2	17,311
1 November 1997	Tranmere Rovers	H	2–1	16,578	Tiler, Taylor
4 November 1997	Reading	A	1–0	8,132	Patterson
9 November 1997	Ipswich Town	A	2–2	9,695	Taylor, Ward
15 November 1997	Manchester City	H	1–1	23,850	Deane
18 November 1997	Bradford City	A	1–1	16,127	Deane
22 November 1997	Port Vale	A	0–0	8,017
29 November 1997	Crewe Alexandra	H	1–0	16,973	Fjørtoft
2 December 1997	Stoke City	H	3–2	14,347	Taylor, Fjørtoft, Deane
6 December 1997	Norwich City	A	1–2	11,745	Deane
9 December 1997	Charlton Athletic	A	1–2	9,868	Marker
13 December 1997	Swindon Town	H	2–1	18,115	Holdsworth, Saunders
20 December 1997	Bury	A	1–1	6,012	Deane
26 December 1997	Stoke City	A	2–2	19,723	Taylor, Deane
28 December 1997	Charlton Athletic	H	4–1	18,677	Taylor, Saunders, Deane, Marker
10 January 1998	Sunderland	A	2–4	36,391	Saunders, Taylor
17 January 1998	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	1–0	22,144	Marcelo
27 January 1998	Huddersfield Town	H	1–1	16,535	Saunders
31 January 1998	Portsmouth	A	1–1	12,003	Knight (own goal)
7 February 1998	Oxford United	H	1–0	16,881	Ford
22 February 1998	Birmingham City	A	0–2	17,965
25 February 1998	Queens Park Rangers	A	2–2	9,560	Saunders, Stuart
28 February 1998	Bradford City	H	2–1	17,848	Taylor (2)
3 March 1998	Ipswich Town	H	0–1	14,120
14 March 1998	Reading	H	4–0	15,473	Stuart, Marcelo, Taylor, Quinn
21 March 1998	Manchester City	A	0–0	28,496
28 March 1998	Port Vale	H	2–1	15,860	Marcelo, Saunders
1 April 1998	Nottingham Forest	A	0–3	21,512
7 April 1998	Middlesbrough	H	1–0	18,421	Saunders
11 April 1998	Norwich City	H	2–2	16,915	Stuart, Borbokis
13 April 1998	Swindon Town	A	1–1	5,956	Marcelo
18 April 1998	Bury	H	3–0	16,056	Stuart (pen), Saunders (2)
25 April 1998	West Bromwich Albion	H	2–4	21,248	Stuart (pen), Marcelo
28 April 1998	Tranmere Rovers	A	3–3	7,526	Quinn, Saunders, Devlin
30 April 1998	Crewe Alexandra	A	1–2	5,759	Hamilton
3 May 1998	Stockport County	A	0–1	9,683

First Division play-offs

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
SF First Leg	10 May 1998	Sunderland	H	2–1	23,800	Marcelo, Borbokis
SF Second Leg	13 May 1998	Sunderland	A	0–2 (lost 2-3 on agg)	40,092

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	3 January 1998	Bury	H	1–1	14,009	Fjørtoft
R3R	13 January 1998	Bury	A	2–1	4,920	Saunders, Fjørtoft
R4	24 January 1998	Ipswich Town	A	1–1	14,654	Saunders
R4R	3 February 1998	Ipswich Town	H	1–0	14,144	Hutchison (pen)
R5	13 February 1998	Reading	H	1–0	17,845	Sandford
QF	7 March 1998	Coventry City	A	1–1	23,084	Marcelo
QFR	17 March 1998	Coventry City	H	1–1 (won 3-1 on pens)	29,034	Holdsworth
SF	5 April 1998	Newcastle United	N	0–1	53,452

League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1 First Leg	12 August 1997	Wrexham	A	1–1	3,644	Borbokis
R1 Second Leg	26 August 1997	Wrexham	H	3–1 (won 4-2 on agg)	7,181	Deane, Whitehouse, Fjørtoft
R2 First Leg	16 September 1997	Watford	A	1–1	7,154	Scott
R2 Second Leg	23 September 1997	Watford	H	4–0 (won 5-1 on agg)	7,511	Day (own goal), Whitehouse (2), Deane
R3	14 October 1997	Walsall	A	1–2	8,239	Borbokis

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 Simon Tracey GK Alan Kelly GK Andy Dibble DF Vassilis Borbokis DF Nicky Marker DF David Holdsworth DF Wayne Quinn MF Graham Stuart MF Bobby Ford MF Dane Whitehouse FW Brian Deane FW Dean Saunders FW Gareth Taylor FW Mark Patterson FW Jan Åge Fjørtoft DF Roger Nilsen DF Carl Tiler DF Lee Sandford MF Don Hutchison FW Marcelo DF Paul McGrath MF Shaun Derry DF Ian Hamilton DF Chris Wilder

No. Position Player FW Pyotr Kachura DF Traianos Dellas DF Earl Barrett DF Chris Short MF Paul Devlin DF David Lee (on loan from Chelsea) MF Curtis Woodhouse FW Ian Rush (on loan from Newcastle United) DF Michel Vonk MF Mitch Ward MF Nick Henry FW Lee Morris DF Jon O'Connor (on loan from Everton) MF Jon Cullen MF Mark Beard FW Andy Scott MF David White FW Andy Walker FW Ville Lehtinen MF Kevin Davies MF Ryan Ludlam MF Steve Hawes MF Adam Burley GK Matthew George

References

1. http://www.statto.com/football/teams/sheffield-united/1997-1998/results