1997–98 Wimbledon F.C. season

Wimbledon

1997–98 season
Chairman	Sam Hammam
Manager	Joe Kinnear
Stadium	Selhurst Park
Premiership	15th
FA Cup	Fifth round
League Cup	Third round
Top goalscorer	League: Cort/Ekoku/Euell/ M Hughes/Leaburn (4) All: Euell (8)
Average home league attendance	16,156
← 1996–97 1998–99 →

During the 1997–98 English football season, Wimbledon F.C. competed in the FA Premier League (known as the FA Carling Premiership for sponsorship reasons). They finished 15th in the final table to secure a 13th successive top flight campaign, although their final position was disappointing given their performance earlier in the season.

Season summary

Despite the early season sale of Dean Holdsworth to Bolton Wanderers, Wimbledon showed the "Crazy Gang" spirit once more as they were still standing fourth at the beginning of December. Manager Joe Kinnear was hopeful that this could finally be the season when Wimbledon achieved a UEFA Cup place, but the team's form steadily deteriorated during the second half of the season. Their 15th-place finish was their worst since reaching the top flight in 1986, though they had never looked to be in any real danger of relegation.

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	10	14	14	34	46	−12	44	5	6	8	18	25	−7	5	8	6	16	21	−5

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	H	H	H	A	A	H	H	A	H	A	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	A	A	H	A
Result	D	D	L	L	W	L	W	D	L	W	D	W	L	W	L	L	W	D	D	L	L	D	D	W	W	L	L	W	L	D	D	W	D	L	D	D	L	D
Position	11	14	17	20	15	18	13	15	15	12	11	9	10	9	10	11	10	11	12	12	14	14	16	15	13	15	15	14	14	14	14	13	13	13	14	14	16	15

Source: Soccerbase: 1997-98 Wimbledon results
Ground: A = Away; H = Home. Result: D = Draw; L = Loss; W = Win; P = Postponed.

Results

Wimbledon's score comes first^[1]

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

FA Premier League

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
9 August 1997	Liverpool	H	1–1	26,106	Gayle
23 August 1997	Sheffield Wednesday	H	1–1	11,503	Euell
27 August 1997	Chelsea	H	0–2	22,237
30 August 1997	West Ham United	A	1–3	24,516	Ekoku
13 September 1997	Newcastle United	A	3–1	36,526	Cort, Perry, Ekoku
20 September 1997	Crystal Palace	H	0–1	16,747
23 September 1997	Barnsley	H	4–1	7,668	Cort, Earle, C Hughes, Ekoku
27 September 1997	Tottenham Hotspur	A	0–0	26,261
4 October 1997	Blackburn Rovers	H	0–1	15,600
18 October 1997	Aston Villa	A	2–1	32,087	Earle, Cort
22 October 1997	Derby County	A	1–1	28,595	Rowett (own goal)
25 October 1997	Leeds United	H	1–0	15,718	Ardley (pen)
1 November 1997	Coventry City	H	1–2	11,201	Cort
10 November 1997	Leicester City	A	1–0	18,553	Gayle
22 November 1997	Manchester United	H	2–5	26,309	Ardley, M Hughes
29 November 1997	Bolton Wanderers	A	0–1	22,703
7 December 1997	Southampton	H	1–0	12,009	Earle
13 December 1997	Everton	A	0–0	28,533
26 December 1997	Chelsea	A	1–1	34,100	M Hughes
28 December 1997	West Ham United	H	1–2	22,087	Solbakken
10 January 1998	Liverpool	A	0–2	38,011
17 January 1998	Derby County	H	0–0	13,031
31 January 1998	Sheffield Wednesday	A	1–1	22,655	M Hughes
9 February 1998	Crystal Palace	A	3–0	14,410	Leaburn (2), Euell
21 February 1998	Aston Villa	H	2–1	13,131	Euell, Leaburn
28 February 1998	Barnsley	A	1–2	17,102	Euell
11 March 1998	Arsenal	H	0–1	22,291
14 March 1998	Leicester City	H	2–1	13,229	Roberts, M Hughes
28 March 1998	Manchester United	A	0–2	55,306
31 March 1998	Newcastle United	H	0–0	15,478
4 April 1998	Bolton Wanderers	H	0–0	11,356
11 April 1998	Southampton	A	1–0	14,815	Leaburn
13 April 1998	Everton	H	0–0	15,131
18 April 1998	Arsenal	A	0–5	38,024
25 April 1998	Blackburn Rovers	A	0–0	24,848
29 April 1998	Coventry City	A	0–0	17,968
2 May 1998	Tottenham Hotspur	H	2–6	25,820	Fear (2)
10 May 1998	Leeds United	A	1–1	38,172	Ekoku

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	4 January 1998	Wrexham	H	0–0	6,349
R3R	13 January 1998	Wrexham	A	3–2	9,539	Hughes (2), Gayle
R4	24 January 1998	Huddersfield Town	A	1–0	14,533	Ardley
R5	14 February 1998	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	1–1	15,322	Euell
R5R	25 February 1998	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	1–2	25,112	Jones

League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R2 1st Leg	16 September 1997	Millwall	H	5–1	6,949	Cort (2, 1 pen), Clarke, Euell, Castledine
R2 2nd Leg	1 October 1997	Millwall	A	4–1 (won 9-2 on agg)	3,591	Euell (2), Castledine, Gayle
R3	14 October 1997	Bolton Wanderers	A	0–2	9,875

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 Neil Sullivan[3] 2 DF Kenny Cunningham 3 DF Alan Kimble 5 DF Dean Blackwell 6 DF Ben Thatcher[4] 7 MF Ceri Hughes 8 MF Robbie Earle[5] 9 FW Efan Ekoku[6] 10 MF Andy Roberts 11 FW Marcus Gayle[7] 12 DF Chris Perry 13 GK Paul Heald 14 FW Jon Goodman[8] 15 DF Alan Reeves

No. Position Player 16 MF Michael Hughes 17 DF Brian McAllister 18 DF Neal Ardley 19 MF Stewart Castledine 20 FW Mick Harford 21 DF Duncan Jupp[9] 22 FW Andy Clarke 23 MF Jason Euell[10] 24 MF Peter Fear 26 FW Carl Cort[11] 27 MF Damien Francis 29 FW Carl Leaburn 30 DF Peter Hawkins 32 DF Mark Kennedy

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 4 MF Vinnie Jones (to Queens Park Rangers[12]) 10 FW Dean Holdsworth (to Bolton Wanderers)

No. Position Player 10 MF Ståle Solbakken (to Aalborg)

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 25 DF Andy Pearce 28 FW Richard O'Connor[13]

No. Position Player 31 DF Danny Hodges 33 GK Brendan Murphy

Transfers

In

Date	Pos	Name	From	Fee
2 July 1997	MF	Ceri Hughes	Luton Town	£400,000
25 September 1997	MF	Michael Hughes	West Ham United	£1,600,000
13 October 1997	MF	Ståle Solbakken	Lillestrøm	£250,000
8 January 1998	FW	Carl Leaburn	Charlton Athletic	£300,000
9 March 1998	MF	Andy Roberts	Crystal Palace	£2,000,000
26 March 1998	DF	Mark Kennedy	Liverpool	£1,750,000

Out

Date	Pos	Name	To	Fee
2 June 1997	MF	Øyvind Leonhardsen	Liverpool	£3,500,000
1 August 1997	DF	Scott Fitzgerald	Millwall	£50,000
2 October 1997	FW	Dean Holdsworth	Bolton Wanderers	£3,500,000
26 March 1998	MF	Vinnie Jones	Queens Park Rangers	£750,000

Transfers in: £6,300,000

Transfers out: £7,800,000

Total spending: £1,500,000

References

1. http://www.statto.com/football/teams/wimbledon/1997-1998/results
2. http://www.footballsquads.co.uk/eng/1997-1998/faprem/wimbled.htm
3. Sullivan was born in Sutton, England, but also qualified to represent Scotland internationally and made his debut for Scotland in 1997.
4. Thatcher was born in Swindon, England, and played for the England U21 side during the season, but also qualified to represent Wales through his grandmother and made his international debut for Wales in March 2004.
5. Earle was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England, but qualified to represent Jamaica internationally. He made his international debut for Jamaica in 1997, having previously being called up for England once without playing.
6. Ekoku was born in Manchester, England, but also qualified to represent Nigeria internationally and made his international debut for Nigeria in 1994.
7. Gayle was born in Hammersmith, London, but also qualified to represent Jamaica internationally and would make his international debut for Jamaica in 1998.
8. Goodman was born in Walthamstow, England, but also qualified to represent the Republic of Ireland internationally and would make his debut for Ireland in 1997.
9. Jupp was born in Haslemere, England, but also qualified to represent Scotland internationally and made his debut for the Scotland U21 side in 1996.
10. Euell was born in Lambeth, England, but also qualified to represent Jamaica internationally and would make his international debut for Jamaica in 2004.
11. Cort was born in Southwark, England, but qualified to represent Guyana and would make his international debut for Guyana in 2011.
12. Jones was born in Watford, England, but qualified to represent Wales through his maternal grandfather, and made his international debut for Wales in 1994.
13. O'Connor was born in Wandsworth, England, but also qualified to represent Anguilla internationally and would make his debut for Anguilla in 2000.