1998–99 Bradford City A.F.C. season

Bradford City

1998–99 season
Chairman	Geoffrey Richmond
Manager	Paul Jewell
Stadium	Valley Parade
First Division	2nd (promoted)
FA Cup	Fourth round
League Cup	Third round
Top goalscorer	League: Lee Mills (24) All: Lee Mills (25)
Average home league attendance	14,298
← 1997–98 1999–2000 →

During the 1998–99 English football season, Bradford City competed in the Football League First Division.

Season summary

In the summer, Jewell signed strikers Lee Mills from Port Vale and Isaiah Rankin from Arsenal, for £1 million and £1.3 million respectively,^[1] and signed former captain Stuart McCall from Rangers on a free transfer to lead the side.^[2] Despite a poor start, Bradford secured promotion to the top division for the first time in 77 years with a 3–2 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers in the final game of the 1998-99 season. Bradford's success meant that Dean Windass, who had signed from Oxford United in March, became the club's third £1 million signing of the season: Windass had originally been signed for £950,000, but an additional fee of £50,000 was paid to Oxford because of Bradford's promotion.^[3]

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pl	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
1.	Sunderland	46	31	12	3	91	28	105
2.	Bradford City	46	26	9	11	82	47	87
3.	Ipswich Town	46	26	8	12	69	32	86
4.	Birmingham City	46	23	12	11	66	37	81
5.	Watford	46	21	14	11	65	56	77
6.	Bolton Wanderers	46	20	16	10	78	59	76
7.	Wolverhampton Wanderers	46	19	16	11	64	43	73
8.	Sheffield United	46	18	13	15	71	66	67
9.	Norwich City	46	15	17	14	62	61	62
10.	Huddersfield Town	46	15	16	15	62	71	61
11.	Grimsby Town	46	17	10	19	40	52	61
12.	West Bromwich Albion	46	16	11	19	69	76	59
13.	Barnsley	46	14	17	15	59	56	59
14.	Crystal Palace	46	14	16	16	58	71	58
15.	Tranmere Rovers	46	12	20	14	63	61	56
16.	Stockport County	46	12	17	17	49	60	53
17.	Swindon Town	46	13	11	22	59	81	50
18.	Crewe Alexandra	46	12	12	22	54	78	48
19.	Portsmouth	46	11	14	21	57	73	47
20.	Queens Park Rangers	46	12	11	23	52	61	47
21.	Port Vale	46	13	8	25	45	75	47
22.	Bury	46	10	17	19	35	60	47
23.	Oxford United	46	10	14	22	48	71	44
24.	Bristol City	46	9	15	22	57	80	42

Key
Promoted to the Premier League
Qualified for the promotion playoff
Relegated to Division 2

NB In the Football League goals scored (F) takes precedence over goal difference

Results

Bradford City's score comes first^[4]

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

Football League First Division

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
8 August 1998	Stockport County	H	1-2	14,360	Beagrie (pen)
15 August 1998	Watford	A	0-1	10,731
23 August 1998	Bolton Wanderers	H	2-2	13,163	Rankin, Mills
28 August 1998	Crewe Alexandra	A	1-2	5,759	McCall
31 August 1998	Birmingham City	H	2-1	13,910	Mills, Moore
8 September 1998	Ipswich Town	A	0-3	11,596
12 September 1998	Sheffield United	H	2-2	13,169	Mills, Blake
20 September 1998	West Bromwich Albion	A	2-0	12,426	Mills (2)
26 September 1998	Barnsley	H	2-1	15,887	Watson (2)
29 September 1998	Port Vale	H	4-0	13,245	Blake, Moore, Mills (2)
3 October 1998	Sunderland	A	0-0	37,828
9 October 1998	Bury	H	3-0	15,697	Blake, McCall, Beagrie
17 October 1998	Grimsby Town	A	0-2	20,741
20 October 1998	Portsmouth	A	4-2	10,062	Whalley, Rankin, Mills, Beagrie
31 October 1998	Bristol City	H	5-0	14,468	Mills, Carey (own goal), Rankin, Beagrie, Blake
7 November 1998	Norwich City	A	2-2	14,722	Rankin, Mills
10 November 1998	Tranmere Rovers	A	1-0	6,002	Beagrie (pen)
14 November 1998	Swindon Town	H	3-0	14,897	Beagrie (pen), Pepper, Jacobs
21 November 1998	Huddersfield Town	A	1-2	18,173	Blake
28 November 1998	Queens Park Rangers	H	0-3	15,037
5 December 1998	Oxford United	A	1-0	5,969	Mills
12 December 1998	Swindon Town	A	4-1	7,447	Blake (2), Mills (2)
19 December 1998	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	2-1	13,846	Blake, Mills
26 December 1998	Bolton Wanderers	A	0-0	24,625
28 December 1998	Tranmere Rovers	H	2-0	14,076	Blake, Mills
9 January 1999	Stockport County	A	2-1	8,975	Blake, Beagrie
16 January 1999	Crewe Alexandra	H	4-1	12,595	Mills (3), Blake
19 January 1999	Crystal Palace	H	2-1	14,368	Westwood, Beagrie (pen)
31 January 1999	Birmingham City	A	1-2	19,291	Lawrence
6 February 1999	Watford	H	2-0	14,142	McCall, Mills
13 February 1999	Ipswich Town	H	0-0	15,024
19 February 1999	Sheffield United	A	2-2	14,675	Blake (2)
27 February 1999	West Bromwich Albion	H	1-0	14,278	Jacobs
3 March 1999	Barnsley	A	1-0	16,866	Watson
9 March 1999	Sunderland	H	0-1	15,124
13 March 1999	Norwich City	H	4-1	13,331	Moore, Beagrie (pen), Mills, Lawrence
20 March 1999	Bristol City	A	3-2	10,870	Mills, Jacobs, Whalley
28 March 1999	Crystal Palace	A	0-1	15,626
3 April 1999	Grimsby Town	H	3-0	14,522	Blake, Sharpe, Beagrie
5 April 1999	Bury	A	2-0	8,000	Bullock (own goal), Windass
10 April 1999	Portsmouth	H	2-1	13,552	Mills, Sharpe
13 April 1999	Port Vale	A	1-1	6,998	Mills
17 April 1999	Huddersfield Town	H	2-3	15,124	Blake, Windass
24 April 1999	Queens Park Rangers	A	3-1	11,641	Beagrie, Westwood, Watson
1 May 1999	Oxford United	H	0-0	15,064
9 May 1999	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	3-2	27,589	Beagrie, Mills, Blake

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	2 January 1999	Grimsby Town	H	2-1	13,870	Mills, Lawrence
R4	23 January 1999	Newcastle United	A	0-3	36,698

League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1 1st Leg	11 August 1998	Lincoln City	H	1-1	4,481	Beagrie
R1 2nd Leg	18 August 1998	Lincoln City	A	1-0 (won 2-1 on agg)	22,695	Rankin
R2 1st Leg	15 September 1998	Halifax Town	A	2-1	5,714	Moore, Beagrie
R2 2nd Leg	22 September 1998	Halifax Town	H	3-1 (won 5-2 on agg)	6,237	Blake, Beagrie (pen), Pepper
R3	28 October 1998	Leeds United	A	0-1 (a.e.t.)	27,561

First-team squad

Squad at end of season^[5]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player GK Mark Prudhoe GK Gary Walsh DF Mark Bower DF John Dreyer DF Wayne Jacobs DF Darren Moore[6] DF Lee Todd DF Daniel Verity DF Ashley Westwood DF Stephen Wright DF Andy O'Brien[7] MF Peter Beagrie MF Robbie Blake MF Paul Bolland

No. Position Player MF Jamie Lawrence[8] MF Nigel Pepper MF Craig Ramage MF Lee Sharpe (on loan from Leeds United) MF Stuart McCall (captain) MF Gareth Whalley[9] FW Gareth Grant FW Lee Mills FW Isaiah Rankin FW Gordon Watson FW Dean Windass FW Robert Steiner FW Edinho

References

1. "£1.3m! City smash transfer record". Telegraph & Argus. 1998-08-14. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
2. "City was perfect chance: McCall". Telegraph & Argus. 1998-06-03. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
3. "Windass for City". Telegraph & Argus. 1999-04-03. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
4. http://www.statto.com/football/teams/bradford-city/1998-1999
5. http://www.soccerbase.com/teams/team.sd?team_id=234&teamTabs=stats&season_id=128
6. Moore was born in Birmingham, England, but also qualified to represent Jamaica internationally through his parents and would make his international debut for Jamaica in 2006.
7. O'Brien was born in Harrogate, England, but also qualified to represent the Republic of Ireland internationally and would make his international debut for the Republic of Ireland in 2001.
8. Lawrence was born in Wandsworth, England, but also qualified to represent Jamaica internationally and would make his international debut for Jamaica in February 2001.
9. Whalley was born in Manchester, England, but also qualified to represent the Republic of Ireland internationally and has represented them at B level.