1997–98 Swindon Town F.C. season

Swindon Town

1997–98 season
Chairman	Rikki Hunt
Manager	Steve McMahon
Stadium	County Ground
First Division	18th
FA Cup	Third round
League Cup	First round
Top goalscorer	Hay (14)
Average home league attendance	10,298
← 1996–97 1998–99 →

During the 1997–98 English football season, Swindon Town F.C. competed in the Football League First Division.

Season summary

Swindon started the season brilliantly and at the end of October they were top of the table but it all started to go downhill after hammering Oxford 4-1 in December, when Swindon managed just three more wins from the remaining 26 league games which also included an embarrassing FA Cup home defeat to non-league Stevenage. They finished the season in a lowly 18th position, and the pressure on McMahon to resign was immense, but chairman Rikki Hunt refused to sack him.

Final league table

Main article: 1997-98 Football League

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 to 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

Swindon Town's score comes first

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

Football League First Division

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
9 August 1997	Crewe Alexandra	H	2–0	8,334	Allison, Finney (pen)
16 August 1997	Reading	A	1–0	9,338	Hay
23 August 1997	Huddersfield Town	H	1–1	7,683	Hay
30 August 1997	Stoke City	A	2–1	23,000	Allison, Hay
2 September 1997	Ipswich Town	A	1–2	11,246	Allison
7 September 1997	Nottingham Forest	H	0–0	13,051
13 September 1997	Tranmere Rovers	H	2–1	6,811	Walters, Casper
20 September 1997	West Bromwich Albion	A	0–0	16,237
27 September 1997	Manchester City	A	0–6	26,646
4 October 1997	Port Vale	H	4–2	8,048	Hay (3), Taylor
11 October 1997	Bury	H	3–1	7,640	Hay (2), Gooden
18 October 1997	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	1–3	21,794	Hay (pen)
21 October 1997	Sunderland	A	0–0	27,553
25 October 1997	Norwich City	H	1–0	9,256	Hay
31 October 1997	Portsmouth	A	1–0	8,707	Hay
5 November 1997	Queens Park Rangers	H	3–1	10,132	Walters, Taylor, Hay
8 November 1997	Bradford City	H	1–0	10,029	Cowe
15 November 1997	Stockport County	A	2–4	7,694	Hay, Leitch
22 November 1997	Middlesbrough	H	1–2	15,228	Ndah
28 November 1997	Charlton Athletic	A	0–3	13,769
6 December 1997	Oxford United	H	4–1	10,902	Wilsterman (own goal), Walters (pen), Finney, Gooden
13 December 1997	Sheffield United	A	1–2	18,115	Finney
20 December 1997	Birmingham City	H	1–1	10,334	Finney
26 December 1997	Nottingham Forest	A	0–3	26,500
28 December 1997	Ipswich Town	H	0–2	10,609
11 January 1998	Crewe Alexandra	A	0–2	4,176
17 January 1998	Reading	H	0–2	9,500
24 January 1998	Bradford City	A	1–1	15,130	Hay
28 January 1998	Stoke City	H	1–0	6,683	Robinson
31 January 1998	Huddersfield Town	A	0–0	10,028
7 February 1998	West Bromwich Albion	H	0–2	9,861
10 February 1998	Tranmere Rovers	A	0–3	5,288
17 February 1998	Port Vale	A	1–0	5,925	Collins
21 February 1998	Manchester City	H	1–3	12,280	Cowe
28 February 1998	Bury	A	0–1	5,002
7 March 1998	Portsmouth	H	0–1	9,100
11 March 1998	Middlesbrough	A	0–6	29,581
14 March 1998	Queens Park Rangers	A	2–1	13,486	Walters (pen), Onoura
18 March 1998	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	0–0	7,770
21 March 1998	Stockport County	H	1–1	6,684	McDonald
4 April 1998	Charlton Athletic	H	0–1	7,845
11 April 1998	Oxford United	A	3–0	8,005	Ndah (pen)
13 April 1998	Sheffield United	H	1–1	5,956	Walters
18 April 1998	Birmingham City	A	0–3	17,016
25 April 1998	Norwich City	A	0–5	18,443
3 May 1998	Sunderland	H	1–2	14,868	Walters

FA Cup

Main article: 1997–98 FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	3 January 1998	Stevenage Borough	H	1–2	9,422	Walters

League Cup

Main article: 1997–98 Football League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1 First Leg	13 August 1997	Watford	H	0–2	6,271
R1 Second Leg	26 August 1997	Watford	A	1–1 (lost 1-3 on agg)	7,712	Leitch

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 Fraser Digby DF Brian Borrows DF Alan McDonald DF Craig Taylor DF Mark Robinson MF Ty Gooden MF Darren Bullock MF Mark Walters MF Scott Leitch FW Chris Hay FW Steve Finney FW Wayne Allison MF Lee Collins MF Philippe Cuervo FW George Ndah GK Steve Mildenhall MF Kevin Watson DF Frédéric Darras DF Jason Drysdale DF David Kerslake MF David Thompson (on loan from Liverpool)

No. Position Player DF Ian Culverhouse MF Bobby Howe FW Steve Cowe DF Chris Casper (on loan from Manchester United) FW Iffy Onuora DF Mark Seagraves DF Sol Davis MF Alex Smith GK Frank Talia GK Tony Warner (on loan from Liverpool) MF Stuart Elliott (on loan from Newcastle United) MF Steve McMahon MF Robin Hulbert FW Alex Meechan MF Paul McAreavey MF Michael Pattimore DF Phil King DF Adam Willis