1997–98 Birmingham City F.C. season

The 1997–98 season was Birmingham City Football Club's 95th in the Football League. They finished in seventh position in the 24-team Division One, the second tier of the English football league system, missing out on the playoff places on goals scored. Needing to win their last game, at home to Charlton Athletic, and hope that Sheffield United failed to win theirs, Birmingham "were repeatedly foiled in this emotionally-charged game by a brilliant display from Charlton's goalkeeper" Saša Ilić; the game finished goalless.[2] They entered the 1997–98 FA Cup at the third round, losing to Leeds United in the fifth, and entered the League Cup in the first round and lost to Arsenal in the third.

Birmingham City F.C.

1997–98 season
Chairman	David Gold
Manager	Trevor Francis
Ground	St Andrew's
Division One	7th
FA Cup	Fifth round (eliminated by Leeds United)
League Cup	Third round (eliminated by Arsenal)
Top goalscorer	League: Paul Furlong (15) All: Paul Furlong (19)
Highest home attendance	24,663 vs Nottingham Forest, 21 March 1998
Lowest home attendance	4,900 vs Stockport County, League Cup 2nd round 1st leg, 17 September 1997
Average home league attendance	18,751[1]
Home colours

In August 1997, co-owner David Gold took up the post of chairman after Jack Wiseman's retirement.[3]

Football League First Division

Main article: 1997–98 Football League

Match details

Date	League position	Opponents	Venue	Result	Score F–A	Scorers	Attendance	Report
9 August 1997	1st	Stoke City	H	W	2–0	Devlin 33', Ndlovu 87'	20,608	[4]
23 August 1997	5th	Reading	H	W	3–0	Devlin 38', Bruce 81', Ndlovu 88'	16,495	[4]
29 August 1997	3rd	Stockport County	A	D	2–2	Devlin 68', Francis 72'	6,260	[4]
2 September 1997	3rd	Tranmere Rovers	A	W	3–0	Hughes 11', Ndlovu 44', Furlong 65'	6,620	[4]
9 September 1997	2nd	Huddersfield Town	A	W	1–0	Furlong 70'	9,477	[4]
14 September 1997	4th	Sunderland	H	L	0–1		17,478	[4]
20 September 1997	7th	Middlesbrough	A	L	1–3	Furlong 51'	30,125	[4]
27 September 1997	7th	Sheffield United	A	D	0–0		20,553	[4]
4 October 1997	9th	Crewe Alexandra	H	L	0–1		16,548	[4]
12 October 1997	6th	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	W	1–0	Marsden 8'	17,822	[4]
18 October 1997	8th	Bury	A	L	1–2	Grainger 90'	5,700	[4]
22 October 1997	12th	Charlton Athletic	A	D	1–1	Devlin 83'	10,070	[4]
25 October 1997	12th	Oxford United	H	D	0–0		16,352	[4]
28 October 1997	11th	Ipswich Town	H	D	1–1	Bruce 81'	16,778	[4]
1 November 1997	11th	Queens Park Rangers	A	D	1–1	Furlong 42'	12,715	[4]
4 November 1997	13th	Bradford City	H	D	0–0		14,554	[4]
8 November 1997	14th	Norwich City	H	L	1–2	Devlin 27' pen.	16,464	[4]
15 November 1997	14th	Nottingham Forest	A	L	0–1		19,610	[4]
23 November 1997	14th	West Bromwich Albion	A	L	0–1		18,444	[4]
29 November 1997	14th	Portsmouth	H	W	2–1	Furlong (2) 36', 73'	17,738	[4]
13 December 1997	11th	Port Vale	A	W	1–0	Cottee 18'	7,509	[4]
6 December 1997	11th	Manchester City	H	W	2–1	Forster 90', O'Connor 90'	21,014	[4]
20 December 1997	11th	Swindon Town	A	D	1–1	Forster 22'	10,900	[5]
26 December 1997	10th	Ipswich Town	A	W	1–0	McCarthy 83'	17,459	[4]
28 December 1997	10th	Tranmere Rovers	H	D	0–0		19,533	[4]
10 January 1998	8th	Stoke City	A	W	7–0	Hughes (2) 4', 9', Forster 26, Furlong (3) 50', 69', 87', McCarthy 56'	14,940	[4]
17 January 1998	8th	Huddersfield Town	H	D	0–0		17,850	[4]
27 January 1998	7th	Stockport County	H	W	4–1	Furlong (3) 7', 31', 90', McCarthy 16'	17,118	[4]
31 January 1998	9th	Reading	A	L	0–2		10,315	[4]
7 February 1998	9th	Middlesbrough	H	D	1–1	McCarthy 3'	20,639	[4]
17 February 1998	9th	Crewe Alexandra	A	W	2–0	Adebola 42', Hughes 45'	5,559	[4]
22 February 1998	8th	Sheffield United	H	W	2–0	Grainger 31', Johnson 66'	17,965	[4]
25 February 1998	9th	Bury	H	L	1–3	Johnson 90'	20,021	[4]
28 February 1998	6th	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	W	3–1	Ndlovu (2) 35', 77' pen., Adebola 71'	25,591	[4]
4 March 1998	8th	Norwich City	A	D	3–3	Ndlovu (2) 13', 88', Adebola 44'	9,819	[4]
7 March 1998	7th	Queens Park Rangers	H	W	1–0	Adebola 68'	18,298	[4]
10 March 1998	6th	Sunderland	A	D	1–1	Adebola 50'	37,602[4]	[4]
14 March 1998	7th	Bradford City	A	D	0–0		16,392	[4]
21 March 1998	7th	Nottingham Forest	H	L	1–2	Ndlovu 61' pen.	24,663	[4]
28 March 1998	7th	West Bromwich Albion	H	W	1–0	Johnson 90'	23,260	[4]
4 April 1998	7th	Portsmouth	A	D	1–1	Adebola 84'	14,591	[6]
11 April 1998	7th	Port Vale	H	D	1–1	Ndlovu 87'	17,193	[4]
13 April 1998	7th	Manchester City	A	W	1–0	Adebola 90'	29,569	[4]
18 April 1998	7th	Swindon Town	H	W	3–0	Furlong (2) 9', 34' pen., Hughes 82'	17,016	[4]
25 April 1998	7th	Oxford United	A	W	2–0	Ford 73' o.g., Furlong 85'	8,818	[4]
3 May 1998	7th	Charlton Athletic	H	D	0–0		25,877	[2]

League table (part)

Final Division One table (part)

Pos	Club	Pld	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
5th	Ipswich Town	46	23	14	9	77	43	+32	83
6th	Sheffield United	46	19	17	10	69	54	+15	74
7th	Birmingham City	46	19	17	10	60	35	+25	74
8th	Stockport County	46	19	8	19	71	69	+2	65
9th	Wolverhampton Wanderers	46	18	11	17	57	53	+4	65
Key	Pos = League position; Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points
Source	[7]

Note that goals scored took precedence over goal difference as a tiebreaker in the Football League.[7]

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
46	19	17	10	60	35	+25	74	10	8	5	27	15	+12	9	9	5	33	20	+13

Source: [7]

FA Cup

Main article: 1997–98 FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponents	Venue	Result	Score F–A	Scorers	Attendance	Report
Third round	4 January 1998	Crewe Alexandra	A	W	2–1	Furlong 22' pen., 55'	4,607	[4]
Fourth round	24 January 1998	Stockport County	H	W	2–1	Hughes 32', 84'	15,882	[4]
Fifth round	14 February 1998	Leeds United	A	L	2–3	Ablett 63', Ndlovu 81'	35,463	[4]

League Cup

Main article: 1997–98 Football League Cup

Round	Date	Opponents	Venue	Result	Score F–A	Scorers	Attendance	Report
First round 1st leg	12 August 1997	Gillingham	A	W	1–0	Francis 85'	5,246	[8]
First round 2nd leg	26 August 1997	Gillingham	H	W	3–0 4–0 agg.	Devlin 68', Ndlovu 75', Furlong 78'	7,921
Second round 1st leg	17 September 1997	Stockport County	H	W	4–1	Hughes 41', Robinson 51', Devlin 77' pen., 87'	4,900	[4]
Second round 2nd leg	23 September 1997	Stockport County	A	L	1–2 5–3 agg.	Furlong 70' pen.	2,074	[4]
Third round	14 October 1997	Arsenal	A	L	1–4	Hey 20'	27,097	[4]

Transfers

In

Date	Player	Club	Fee	Ref
July 1997	Peter Ndlovu	Coventry City	£1.6m	[9]
August 1997	Jerry Gill	Yeovil Town	£30,000	[10]
August 1997	Howard Forinton	Yeovil Town	£70,000	[10]
August 1997	Tony Hey	SC Fortuna Köln	£300,000	[11]
September 1997	Jon McCarthy	Port Vale	£1.5m
October 1997	Chris Marsden	Stockport County	£500,000
January 1998	Simon Charlton	Southampton	£200,000
February 1998	Dele Adebola	Crewe Alexandra	£1m
February 1998	Darren Purse	Oxford United	£700,000^a	[12]

a. Purse joined from Oxford United in exchange for £600,000 and Kevin Francis, with Francis valued at £100,000.[12]

Out

Date	Player	Fee	Joined	Ref
July 1997	Dave Barnett	Free	(Dunfermline Athletic)	[13]
July 1997	Mike Newell	£160,000	Aberdeen	[14]
August 1997	Kenny Brown	£40,000	Millwall
October 1997	Barry Horne	Free	Huddersfield Town
December 1997	Jason Bowen	£200,000	Reading
February 1998	Kevin Francis	£100,000^a	Oxford United	[12]
February 1998	Andy Legg	£75,000	Reading
March 1998	Paul Devlin	£200,000	Sheffield United	[15]

Brackets round a club denote the player joined that club after his Birmingham City contract expired.

a. Valued at £100,000 in the deal in which Darren Purse joined Birmingham from Oxford United in exchange for £600,000 plus Francis.[12]

Loan in

Date	Player	Club	Return	Ref
November 1997	Tony Cottee	Leicester City	One month	[16]
December 1997	Simon Charlton	Southampton	One month	[17]

Loan out

Date	Player	Club	Return	Ref
September 1997	Ricky Otto	Notts County	One month	[18]
December 1997	Paul Tait	Northampton Town	One month	[19]

Appearances and goals

Numbers in parentheses denote appearances as substitute.

Players with name struck through and marked left the club during the playing season.

Players with names in italics and marked * were on loan from another club for the whole of their season with Birmingham.

Players included in matchday squads

Pos.	Nat.	Name	League		FA Cup		League Cup		Total		Discipline
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
GK	ENG	Ian Bennett	45	0	3	0	5	0	53	0	0	0
GK	ENG	Kevin Poole	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
DF	ENG	Gary Ablett	34 (2)	0	3	1	5	0	42 (2)	1	4	0
DF	ENG	Jon Bass	30	0	3	0	3 (1)	0	36 (1)	0	1	0
DF	ENG	Steve Bruce	40	2	3	0	2	0	45	2	8	0
DF	ENG	Simon Charlton	23 (1)	0	1	0	0	0	24 (1)	0	4	0
DF	ENG	Jerry Gill	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0
DF	ENG	Martin Grainger	27 (6)	2	3	0	4 (1)	0	34 (7)	2	7	0
DF	JAM	Michael Johnson	22 (16)	3	0 (2)	0	1 (4)	0	23 (22)	3	3	1
DF	ENG	Darren Purse	2 (6)	0	0	0	0	0	2 (6)	0	1	0
DF	ENG	Simon Rea	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
DF	ENG	Darren Wassall	14	0	0	0	5	0	19	0	4	2
MF	SCO	Paul Devlin	13 (9)	5	0 (1)	0	5	3	18 (10)	8	2	0
MF	GER	Tony Hey	8 (1)	0	0	0	2	1	10 (1)	1	0	0
MF	ENG	Chris Holland	2 (8)	0	0	0	3	0	5 (8)	0	1	0
MF	ENG	Bryan Hughes	34 (6)	5	3	2	4	1	41 (6)	8	1	0
MF	ENG	Chris Marsden	31 (1)	1	2	0	0	0	33 (1)	1	6	1
MF	NIR	Jon McCarthy	41	4	3	0	0	0	44	4	4	0
MF	ENG	Martyn O'Connor	32 (1)	1	3	0	3	0	38 (1)	1	3	0
MF	ENG	Steve Robinson	17 (8)	0	0 (1)	0	4	1	21 (9)	1	2	0
FW	NGA	Dele Adebola	16 (1)	7	0	0	0	0	16 (1)	7	1	0
FW	ENG	Tony Cottee*	4 (1)	1	0	0	0	0	4 (1)	1	0	0
FW	ENG	Howard Forinton	0 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	0	0
FW	ENG	Nicky Forster	12 (16)	3	3	0	0	0	15 (16)	3	1	0
FW	SKN	Kevin Francis	2 (18)	1	0 (2)	0	0 (5)	1	2 (25)	2	3	0
FW	ENG	Paul Furlong	24 (1)	15	2	2	4	2	30 (1)	19	8	1
FW	ZIM	Peter Ndlovu	29 (10)	9	1 (1)	1	5	1	35 (11)	11	5	0

Players not included in matchday squads

Pos.	Nat.	Name
MF	WAL	Jason Bowen
MF	WAL	Barry Horne
MF	WAL	Andy Legg
MF	ENG	Ricky Otto
MF	ENG	Paul Tait

See also

• List of Birmingham City F.C. seasons

References

General

• Matthews, Tony (1995). Birmingham City: A Complete Record. Derby: Breedon Books. ISBN 978-1-85983-010-9.
• Matthews, Tony (2010). Birmingham City: The Complete Record. Derby: DB Publishing. ISBN 978-1-85983-853-2.
• Source for match dates, league positions and results: "Birmingham City 1997–1998: Results". Statto Organisation. Archived from the original on 27 June 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
• Source for lineups, appearances, goalscorers and attendances: Matthews (2010), Complete Record, pp. 430–31.
• Source for goal times: "Birmingham Results 1997/98". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
• Source for transfers: "Birmingham Transfers 1997/98". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
• Source for discipline: individual player pages linked from "Birmingham Squad details 1997/98". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 12 June 2013. Soccerbase omits details of the visit to Nottingham Forest, so cards received in that game are sourced from Rodgers, Ian (15 November 1997). "Nottingham Forest 1 Birmingham 0". sportinglife.com. British Sky Broadcasting. PA Sport. Retrieved 13 June 2013.

Specific

1. "English historical attendance and performance: Birmingham City". European Football Statistics. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
2. "Birmingham 0 Charlton 0". sportinglife.com. British Sky Broadcasting. 3 May 1998. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
3. Willcock, John (5 August 1997). "People & Business: Tennis anyone? City clears out for the summer holidays". The Independent. London. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
4. "Birmingham City Reports – 1997–1998". sportinglife.com. 365 Media Group. Archived from the original on 22 May 2012. Individual match reports are linked from this page.
5. Steggles, Jack (21 December 1997). "Ref in red card fury". Sunday Mirror. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
6. Steen, Rob (5 April 1998). "Thomson's touch livens up party". Sunday Times. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
7. "Birmingham City 1997–1998 : English Division One Table". Statto Organisation. Archived from the original on 26 October 2015. Retrieved 6 October 2011.
8. "Thank Kevin!". Daily Mirror. 13 August 1997. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
9. Tattum, Colin (6 July 2009). "Medical concerns delay Benitez's £9m move to Blues". Birmingham Mail. Archived from the original on 2 November 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
10. "Yeovil's £10,000 windfall". Western Daily Press. 20 August 1999. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
11. Curtis, John (26 July 1997). "Birmingham City 1 Derby 0". sportinglife.com. British Sky Broadcasting. PA Sport. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
12. "Sporting Digest: Football". The Independent. London. 17 February 1998. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
13. "Rougier heads for Hibs in swop deal". The Herald. Scotland. 10 July 1997. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
14. McGregor, Derek (15 October 1997). "We can't talk our way out of this slump". Daily Record. Glasgow. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
15. Murray, Adrian (27 December 1999). "Devlin in full support of a happy return". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
16. "Tony Cottee". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
17. "Simon Charlton". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
18. "Ricky Otto: Career". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
19. "Paul Tait: Career". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 7 October 2011.