1997–98 Crewe Alexandra F.C. season

Crewe Alexandra

1997–98 season
Chairman	John Bowler
Manager	Dario Gradi
Stadium	Gresty Road
First Division	11th
FA Cup	Third round
League Cup	First round
Top goalscorer	Little (13)
Average home league attendance	5,243
← 1996–97 1998–99 →

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

Season summary

In the 1997–98 season, Crewe were favourites to go straight back down to the Second Division and before Christmas, they were in the relegation zone and looked as though it would be a possibility but a fantastic run of 7 wins from 10 league games from January to the end of February, dramatically rose Crewe from a possible relegation to 12th and 7 points from the play-offs but it proved too much to ask for and Crewe finished a satisfying season in 11th place.

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

Crewe Alexandra's score comes first

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

Football League First Division

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
9 August 1997	Swindon Town	A	0–2	8,334
16 August 1997	West Bromwich Albion	H	2–3	5,234	Adebola, Rivers
23 August 1997	Norwich City	A	2–0	11,821	Rivers, S Smith
2 September 1997	Bury	H	1–2	4,447	S Smith (pen)
13 September 1997	Portsmouth	A	3–2	9,505	Rivers, Anthrobus, Adebola
16 September 1997	Port Vale	H	0–1	5,519
20 September 1997	Queens Park Rangers	H	2–3	5,348	Lunt, Adebola
27 September 1997	Tranmere Rovers	H	2–1	4,845	Anthrobus, Street
4 October 1997	Birmingham City	A	1–0	16,548	Rivers
11 October 1997	Reading	A	3–3	6,685	Westwood, Little, Adebola
18 October 1997	Middlesbrough	H	1–1	5,759	Adebola
21 October 1997	Ipswich Town	H	0–0	4,730
25 October 1997	Bradford City	A	0–1	15,333
29 October 1997	Manchester City	A	0–1	27,384
1 November 1997	Nottingham Forest	A	1–3	18,268	Little
4 November 1997	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	0–2	5,743
8 November 1997	Oxford United	H	2–1	4,524	Westwood, Anthrobus
15 November 1997	Charlton Athletic	A	2–3	14,091	Street, S Smith
22 November 1997	Stockport County	H	0–1	5,231
29 November 1997	Sheffield United	A	0–1	16,973
6 December 1997	Huddersfield Town	H	2–5	4,861	Charnock, Adebola
13 December 1997	Stoke City	A	2–0	14,623	S Smith, Little
20 December 1997	Sunderland	H	0–3	5,404
26 December 1997	Manchester City	H	1–0	5,759	Holsgrove
28 December 1997	Bury	A	1–1	5,661	Adebola
11 January 1998	Swindon Town	H	2–0	4,176	Little, Street
17 January 1998	West Bromwich Albion	A	1–0	15,257	Little
24 January 1998	Port Vale	A	3–2	10,571	S Smith (pen), Whalley, Foran
31 January 1998	Norwich City	H	1–0	5,559	Fuglestad (own goal)
7 February 1998	Queens Park Rangers	A	2–3	13,429	Anthrobus, Johnson
14 February 1998	Portsmouth	H	3–1	5,114	Little, Garvey, Lunt
17 February 1998	Birmingham City	H	0–2	5,559
21 February 1998	Tranmere Rovers	A	3–0	7,534	Rivers, Little (2)
25 February 1998	Middlesbrough	A	0–1	29,936
28 February 1998	Reading	H	1–0	5,202	Rivers
3 March 1998	Oxford United	A	0–0	6,069
7 March 1998	Nottingham Forest	H	1–4	5,759	Little
14 March 1998	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	0–1	24,272
21 March 1998	Charlton Athletic	H	0–3	5,252
28 March 1998	Stockport County	A	1–0	8,370	S Smith
11 April 1998	Huddersfield Town	A	0–2	11,263
13 April 1998	Stoke City	H	2–0	5,759	Westwood, Lightfoot
18 April 1998	Sunderland	A	1–2	40,441	Charnock
25 April 1998	Bradford City	H	5–0	5,054	Anthrobus, Street, Little (3)
30 April 1998	Sheffield United	H	2–1	5,759	Anthrobus, Little
3 May 1998	Ipswich Town	A	2–3	19,105	Charnock, Garvey

FA Cup

Main article: 1997–98 FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	3 January 1998	Birmingham City	H	1–2	4,607	Rivers

League Cup

Main article: 1997–98 Football League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1 First Leg	12 August 1997	Bury	H	2–3	2,618	Lunt, S Smith
R1 Second Leg	26 August 1997	Bury	A	3–3 (lost 5-6 on agg)	3,296	Rivers, S Smith, Butler (own goal)

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 Jason Kearton DF Shaun Smith DF Marcus Bignot DF Lee Unsworth DF Dave Walton MF Seth Johnson MF Phil Charnock MF Mark Rivers MF Kenny Lunt FW Colin Little FW Steve Anthrobus FW Dele Adebola DF Ashley Westwood MF Gareth Whalley MF Kevin Street GK Ademola Bankole DF Mark Foran MF Steve Garvey

No. Position Player DF Chris Lightfoot MF Paul Holsgrove DF Julian Watts FW Jamie Moralee FW Steve Guinan (on loan from Nottingham Forest) DF Steve Pope MF Jermaine Wright FW Peter Smith MF Francis Tierney DF David Wright DF John Pemberton DF Jamie Collins DF Stephen Foster GK Neil Cutler DF Steve Macauley GK Mark Gayle