1997–98 Football League

Football League, Second Division
Season	1997–98
Champions	Watford (2nd third tier title)
Direct promotion	Watford,; Bristol City
Promoted through play-offs	Grimsby Town
Relegated	Brentford,; Carlisle United,; Plymouth Argyle,; Southend United
Matches played	552
Goals scored	1,337 (2.42 per match)
Top goalscorer	Barry Hayles (Bristol Rovers), 23 [1]
	← 1996–97 1998–99 →

Football League, First Division
Season	1997–98
Champions	Nottingham Forest (3rd second tier title)
Direct promotion to FA Premier League	Nottingham Forest,; Middlesbrough
Promoted through play-offs	Charlton Athletic
Relegated	Manchester City,; Reading,; Stoke City
Matches played	552
Goals scored	1,410 (2.55 per match)
Top goalscorer	Pierre van Hooijdonk (Nottingham Forest), 29; Kevin Phillips (Sunderland), 29 [1]
	← 1996–97 1998–99 →

The Football League
Season	1997–98
Champions	Nottingham Forest
Promoted	Nottingham Forest; Middlesbrough; Charlton Athletic
Relegated	Doncaster Rovers
New Team in League	Macclesfield Town
	← 1996–97 1998–99 →

The 1997–98 Football League (known as the Nationwide Football League for sponsorship reasons) was the 99th completed season of The Football League.

Champions Nottingham Forest and runners-up Middlesbrough won promotion back to the Premiership at the first time of asking. Charlton Athletic won the play-offs to end an eight-year absence from the top flight.

Reading were relegated in bottom place. They were joined on the last day of the season by Manchester City and Stoke City. The blue half of Manchester endured relegation to the third tier of the English league for the first time in its history, despite beating also doomed Stoke 5–2 away on the last day of the season, but neither fans took lightly to relegation, as mass football violence outside outshone the match. Bury, Portsmouth and Port Vale all won their games to avoid the drop.

Graham Taylor’s second spell as manager brought instant success as Watford won the Division Two championship. They were joined by runners-up Bristol City and playoff winners Grimsby Town.

Going down to Division Three were Brentford, Plymouth Argyle, Carlisle United and Southend United. Brentford had been losing playoff finalists just 12 months earlier, Plymouth had been promoted to Division Two just two seasons earlier, Carlisle were newly promoted and Southend had endured their second successive relegation.

Macclesfield Town finished runners-up in Division Three to gain their second successive promotion, a year after winning the Conference. They were joined by champions Notts County, who won the title by 17 points and became the first team since World War II to secure promotion in March, third-placed Lincoln City and playoff winners Colchester United.

Doncaster Rovers suffered an English league record of 34 defeats and won just four games to lose their league status. They were replaced by Conference champions Halifax Town, who regained their league status five years after losing it.

First Division

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion 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	Promotion to 1998–99 FA Premier League
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 match(es) played on 3 May 1998. Source: Statto.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) number of goal scored; 3) goal difference.
(C) Champion; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated.

Play-offs

Semifinals 1st leg – 10 May; 2nd leg – 13 May 1998					Final at Wembley 25 May 1998

3rd	Sunderland	1	2	3
6th	Sheffield United	2	0	2
					3rd	Sunderland	4 (6)
					4th	Charlton Athletic (pen.)	4 (7)
4th	Charlton Athletic	1	1	2
5th	Ipswich Town	0	0	0

[2]

Results

Home \ Away	BIR	BRA	Bury	CHA	CRE	HUD	IPS	MCI	MID	NWC	NOT	OXF	PTV	POR	QPR	REA	SHU	STP	STK	SUN	SWI	TRA	WBA	WOL
Birmingham City		0–0	1–3	0–0	0–1	0–0	1–1	2–1	1–1	1–2	1–2	0–0	1–1	2–1	1–0	3–0	2–0	4–1	2–0	0–1	3–0	0–0	1–0	1–0
Bradford City	0–0		1–0	1–0	1–0	1–1	2–1	2–1	2–2	2–1	0–3	0–0	2–1	1–3	1–1	4–1	1–1	2–1	0–0	0–4	1–1	0–1	0–0	2–0
BRY	2–1	2–0		0–0	1–1	2–2	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	2–2	0–2	1–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	0–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	1–3	1–3
Charlton Athletic	1–1	4–1	0–0		3–2	1–0	3–0	2–1	3–0	2–1	4–2	3–2	1–0	1–0	1–1	3–0	2–1	1–3	1–1	1–1	3–0	2–0	5–0	1–0
Crewe Alexandra	0–2	5–0	1–2	0–3		2–5	0–0	1–0	1–1	1–0	1–4	2–1	0–1	3–1	2–3	1–0	2–1	0–1	2–0	0–3	2–0	2–1	2–3	0–2
Huddersfield Town	0–1	1–2	2–0	0–3	2–0		2–2	1–3	0–1	1–3	0–2	5–1	0–4	1–1	1–1	1–0	0–0	1–0	3–1	2–3	0–0	3–0	1–0	1–0
Ipswich Town	0–1	2–1	2–0	3–1	3–2	5–1		1–0	1–1	5–0	0–1	5–2	5–1	2–0	0–0	1–0	2–2	0–2	2–3	2–0	2–1	0–0	1–1	3–0
Manchester City	0–1	1–0	0–1	2–2	1–0	0–1	1–2		2–0	1–2	2–3	0–2	2–3	2–2	2–2	0–0	0–0	4–1	0–1	0–1	6–0	1–1	1–0	0–1
Middlesbrough	3–1	1–0	4–0	2–1	1–0	3–0	1–1	1–0		3–0	0–0	4–1	2–1	1–1	3–0	4–0	1–2	3–1	0–1	3–1	6–0	3–0	1–0	1–1
Norwich City	3–3	2–3	2–2	0–4	0–2	5–0	2–1	0–0	1–3		1–0	2–1	1–0	2–0	0–0	0–0	2–1	1–1	0–0	2–1	5–0	0–2	1–1	0–2
Nottingham Forest	1–0	2–2	3–0	5–2	3–1	3–0	2–1	1–3	4–0	2–3		1–3	2–1	1–0	4–0	1–0	3–0	2–1	1–0	0–3	3–0	2–2	1–0	3–0
Oxford United	0–2	0–0	1–1	1–2	0–0	2–0	1–0	0–0	1–4	2–0	0–1		2–0	1–0	3–1	3–0	2–4	3–0	5–1	1–1	2–1	1–1	2–1	3–0
Port Vale	0–1	0–0	1–1	0–1	2–3	4–1	1–3	2–1	0–1	2–2	0–1	3–0		2–1	2–0	0–0	0–0	2–1	0–0	3–1	0–1	0–1	1–2	0–2
Portsmouth	1–1	1–1	1–1	0–2	2–3	3–0	0–1	0–3	0–0	1–1	0–1	2–1	3–1		3–1	0–2	1–1	1–0	2–0	1–4	0–1	1–0	2–3	3–2
Queens Park Rangers	1–1	1–0	0–1	2–4	3–2	2–1	0–0	2–0	5–0	1–1	0–1	1–1	0–1	1–0		1–1	2–2	2–1	1–1	0–1	1–2	0–0	2–0	0–0
Reading	2–0	0–3	1–1	2–0	3–3	0–2	0–4	3–0	0–1	0–1	3–3	2–1	0–3	0–1	1–2		0–1	1–0	2–0	4–0	0–1	1–3	2–1	0–0
Sheffield United	0–0	2–1	3–0	4–1	1–0	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–0	2–2	1–0	1–0	2–1	2–1	2–2	4–0		5–1	3–2	2–0	2–1	2–1	2–4	1–0
Stockport County	2–2	1–2	0–0	3–0	0–1	3–0	0–1	3–1	1–1	2–2	2–2	3–2	3–0	3–1	2–0	5–1	1–0		1–0	1–1	4–2	3–1	2–1	1–0
Stoke City	0–7	2–1	3–2	1–2	0–2	1–2	1–1	2–5	1–2	2–0	1–1	0–0	2–1	2–1	2–1	1–2	2–2	2–1		1–2	1–2	0–3	0–0	3–0
Sunderland	1–1	2–0	2–1	0–0	2–1	3–1	2–2	3–1	1–2	0–1	1–1	3–1	4–2	2–1	2–2	4–1	4–2	4–1	3–0		0–0	3–0	2–0	1–1
Swindon Town	1–1	1–0	3–1	0–1	2–0	1–1	0–2	1–3	1–2	1–0	0–0	4–1	4–2	0–1	3–1	0–2	1–1	1–1	1–0	1–2		2–1	0–2	0–0
Tranmere Rovers	0–3	3–1	0–0	2–2	0–3	1–0	1–1	0–0	0–2	2–0	0–0	0–2	1–2	2–2	2–1	6–0	3–3	3–0	3–1	0–2	3–0		0–0	2–1
West Bromwich Albion	1–0	1–1	1–1	1–0	0–1	0–2	2–3	0–1	2–1	1–0	1–1	1–2	2–2	0–3	1–1	1–0	2–0	3–2	1–1	3–3	0–0	2–1		1–0
Wolverhampton Wanderers	1–3	2–1	4–2	3–1	1–0	1–1	1–1	2–2	1–0	5–0	2–1	1–0	1–1	2–0	3–2	3–1	0–0	3–4	1–1	0–1	3–1	2–1	0–1

Source:
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Kevin Phillips	Sunderland	29
=	Pierre Van Hooijdonk	Nottingham Forest	29
3	Kevin Campbell	Nottingham Forest	23
=	Clive Mendonca	Charlton Athletic	23
5	David Johnson	Ipswich Town	20
6	Brett Angell	Stockport County	18
7	Paul Furlong	Birmingham City	15
=	Marcus Stewart	Huddersfield Town	15

Maps

Charlton Athletic

Queens Park Rangers

Locations of the Football League First Division London teams 1997–1998

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Locations of the Football League First Division 1997–1998 teams