1998–99 Wimbledon F.C. season

Wimbledon

1998–99 season
Chairman	Sam Hammam
Manager	Joe Kinnear
Stadium	Selhurst Park
Premiership	16th
FA Cup	Fourth round
League Cup	Semi-finals
Top goalscorer	League: Euell/Gayle (10) All: Gayle (11)
Highest home attendance	26,121 (vs. Manchester United, 3 April)
Lowest home attendance	3,756 (vs. Portsmouth, 22 September)
Average home league attendance	18,207
← 1997–98 1999–2000 →

During the 1998–99 English football season, Wimbledon F.C. competed in the FA Premier League.

Season summary

Wimbledon started the season well, reaching the semi-finals of the League Cup for the second time in their history, and as March arrived Wimbledon were sixth in the table with 11 matches to go. The signing of striker John Hartson from top-five rivals West Ham United for a club record £7.5 million in January looked to be the crucial signing the South London club needed for European qualification, but after his arrival the club suffered a slump in form, winning only one more game all season and taking only 2 points from their last 11 games to fall to 16th in the final table, their lowest finish in 13 seasons of top flight football.

Manager Joe Kinnear resigned at the end of the season on health grounds after seven years in charge, having suffered heart problems before a match at Sheffield Wednesday in March. He was succeeded by former Norwegian national coach Egil Olsen, who had frequently spoke of his admiration of Wimbledon and had transformed Norway into a leading international side with long-ball tactics similar to those employed by Kinnear.^[1]

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Manchester United (C)	38	22	13	3	80	37	+43	79	1999–2000 UEFA Champions League Group stage
2	Arsenal	38	22	12	4	59	17	+42	78
3	Chelsea	38	20	15	3	57	30	+27	75	1999–2000 UEFA Champions League Third qualifying round
4	Leeds United	38	18	13	7	62	34	+28	67	1999–2000 UEFA Cup First round
5	West Ham United	38	16	9	13	46	53	−7	57	1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup Third round
6	Aston Villa	38	15	10	13	51	46	+5	55
7	Liverpool	38	15	9	14	68	49	+19	54
8	Derby County	38	13	13	12	40	45	−5	52
9	Middlesbrough	38	12	15	11	48	54	−6	51
10	Leicester City	38	12	13	13	40	46	−6	49
11	Tottenham Hotspur	38	11	14	13	47	50	−3	47	1999–2000 UEFA Cup First round ^1
12	Sheffield Wednesday	38	13	7	18	41	42	−1	46
13	Newcastle United	38	11	13	14	48	54	−6	46	1999–2000 UEFA Cup First round ^2
14	Everton	38	11	10	17	42	47	−5	43
15	Coventry City	38	11	9	18	39	51	−12	42
16	Wimbledon	38	10	12	16	40	63	−23	42
17	Southampton	38	11	8	19	37	64	−27	41
18	Charlton Athletic (R)	38	8	12	18	41	56	−15	36	Relegation to 1999–2000 Football League First Division
19	Blackburn Rovers (R)	38	7	14	17	38	52	−14	35
20	Nottingham Forest (R)	38	7	9	22	35	69	−34	30

Updated to games played on 16 May 1999.
Source: Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
¹ Tottenham Hotspur qualified for the UEFA Cup as League Cup winners.
² As Manchester United qualified for the Champions League, their UEFA Cup place as FA Cup winners defaulted to Newcastle United, the losing finalists.
(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	12	16	40	63	−23	42	7	7	5	22	21	+1	3	5	11	18	42	−24

Source: 1998-99 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	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A
Result	W	D	D	W	L	W	D	L	L	D	D	W	L	W	L	W	W	L	W	D	W	D	D	L	D	D	W	L	L	L	D	L	L	L	D	L	L	L
Position	1	3	4	4	6	4	3	5	11	12	12	7	10	8	9	8	8	8	8	9	6	7	7	8	9	9	6	6	8	8	10	11	11	12	13	13	15	16

Source: Soccerbase: 1998-99 Wimbledon results
Ground: A = Away; H = Home. Result: D = Draw; L = Loss; W = Win; P = Postponed.

Results

Wimbledon's score comes first^[2]

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

FA Premier League

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
15 August 1998	Tottenham Hotspur	H	3–1	23,031	Earle, Ekoku (2)
22 August 1998	Derby County	A	0–0	25,747
29 August 1998	Leeds United	H	1–1	16,437	Hughes
9 September 1998	West Ham United	A	4–3	25,311	Gayle (2), Euell, Ekoku
12 September 1998	Aston Villa	A	0–2	32,959
19 September 1998	Sheffield Wednesday	H	2–1	13,163	Euell (2)
27 September 1998	Leicester City	A	1–1	17,725	Earle
3 October 1998	Everton	H	1–2	16,054	Roberts
17 October 1998	Manchester United	A	1–5	55,265	Euell
24 October 1998	Middlesbrough	H	2–2	14,114	Gayle (2)
31 October 1998	Blackburn Rovers	H	1–1	12,526	Earle
7 November 1998	Nottingham Forest	A	1–0	21,362	Gayle
14 November 1998	Chelsea	A	0–3	34,757
21 November 1998	Arsenal	H	1–0	26,003	Ekoku
28 November 1998	Newcastle United	A	1–3	36,623	Gayle
5 December 1998	Coventry City	H	2–1	11,717	Euell (2)
13 December 1998	Liverpool	H	1–0	26,080	Earle
19 December 1998	Southampton	A	1–3	14,354	Gayle
26 December 1998	Charlton Athletic	H	2–1	19,106	Euell, Hughes
29 December 1998	Leeds United	A	2–2	39,816	Earle, Cort
9 January 1999	Derby County	H	2–1	12,732	Euell, Roberts
16 January 1999	Tottenham Hotspur	A	0–0	32,422
30 January 1999	West Ham United	H	0–0	23,035
8 February 1999	Charlton Athletic	A	0–2	20,002
21 February 1999	Aston Villa	H	0–0	15,582
27 February 1999	Everton	A	1–1	32,574	Ekoku
3 March 1999	Sheffield Wednesday	A	2–1	24,116	Ekoku, Gayle
6 March 1999	Leicester City	H	0–1	11,801
13 March 1999	Nottingham Forest	H	1–3	12,149	Gayle
20 March 1999	Blackburn Rovers	A	1–3	21,754	Euell
3 April 1999	Manchester United	H	1–1	26,121	Euell
5 April 1999	Middlesbrough	A	1–3	33,999	Cort
11 April 1999	Chelsea	H	1–2	21,577	Gayle
19 April 1999	Arsenal	A	1–5	37,982	Cort
24 April 1999	Newcastle United	H	1–1	21,172	Hartson
1 May 1999	Coventry City	A	1–2	21,200	Hartson
8 May 1999	Southampton	H	0–2	24,068
16 May 1999	Liverpool	A	0–3	41,902

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	2 January 1999	Manchester City	H	1–0	11,226	Cort
R4	23 January 1999	Tottenham Hotspur	H	1–1	22,229	Earle
R4R	2 February 1999	Tottenham Hotspur	A	0–3	24,049

League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R2 1st Leg	15 September 1998	Portsmouth	A	1–2	7,010	Ekoku
R2 2nd Leg	22 September 1998	Portsmouth	H	4–1 (won 5-3 on agg)	3,756	Ardley, Ekoku (2), Leaburn
R3	28 October 1998	Birmingham City	A	2–1	11,845	Ardley (2)
R4	10 November 1998	Bolton Wanderers	A	2–1	7,868	Gayle, Kennedy
QF	1 December 1998	Chelsea	H	2–1	19,286	Earle, Hughes (pen)
SF 1st Leg	27 January 1999	Tottenham Hotspur	A	0–0	35,997
SF 2nd Leg	16 February 1999	Tottenham Hotspur	H	0–1 (lost 0-1 on agg)	25,204

First-team squad

Squad at end of season^[3]

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 2 DF Kenny Cunningham 3 DF Alan Kimble 4 DF Chris Perry 5 DF Dean Blackwell 6 DF Ben Thatcher 7 MF Ceri Hughes 8 MF Robbie Earle 9 FW Efan Ekoku 10 MF Andy Roberts 11 FW Marcus Gayle 12 MF Neal Ardley 13 GK Paul Heald 14 FW Jon Goodman 15 FW Carl Leaburn 16 MF Michael Hughes 17 DF Brian McAllister

No. Position Player 18 MF Mark Kennedy 19 MF Stewart Castledine 20 MF Jason Euell 21 DF Duncan Jupp 22 FW Andy Clarke 23 FW Carl Cort 24 MF Peter Fear 25 DF Andy Pearce 26 MF Gareth Ainsworth 27 MF Damien Francis 28 FW Richard O'Connor 29 FW John Hartson 30 DF Peter Hawkins 31 DF Danny Hodges 33 GK Brendan Murphy 35 FW Patrick Agyemang

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 32 GK Morten Bakke (on loan from Molde)

No. Position Player 34 GK Brian Parkin (to Brighton & Hove Albion)

Transfers

In

Date	Pos.	Name	From	Fee
29 October 1998	MF	Gareth Ainsworth	Port Vale	£2,000,000
14 January 1999	FW	John Hartson	West Ham United	£7,500,000

Out

Date	Pos.	Name	To	Fee
15 June 1998	DF	Alan Reeves	Swindon Town	Free transfer
1 August 1998	MF	Ståle Solbakken	Aalborg BK	Signed

Transfers in: £9,500,000

Transfers out: £0

Total spending: £9,500,000

References

1. Brodkin, Jon (3 June 1999). "Wimbledon set for Scandinavian invasion". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 27 October 2008.
2. http://www.statto.com/football/teams/wimbledon/1998-1999
3. http://www.footballsquads.co.uk/eng/1998-1999/faprem/wimbled.htm