1997–98 Tranmere Rovers F.C. season

Tranmere Rovers
	1997–98 season
Chairman	Frank Corfe
Manager	John Aldridge (player-manager)
Stadium	Prenton Park
First Division	14th
FA Cup	Fifth round
League Cup	Third round
Top goalscorer	League: Kelly (11); All: Kelly (14)
Average home league attendance	7,999
	colours
	colours
← 1996–97	1998–99 →

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

Season summary

In the 1997–98 season, Tranmere had a poor start to the campaign with just three wins from their opening 14 league games which increased the pressure on player-manager Aldridge and by February were in the relegation zone, two points adrift from safety but then a brilliant run of 6 wins from 10 league games helped Tranmere on their way to escaping the drop.

Final league table

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	Promotion to 1998–99 FA Premier League
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

Tranmere Rovers' score comes first^[1]

Legend

Win	Draw	Loss

Football League First Division

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
9 August 1997	West Bromwich Albion	A	1–2	16,727	Kelly
15 August 1997	Queens Park Rangers	H	2–1	7,467	Kelly, L Jones
22 August 1997	Manchester City	A	1–1	26,336	L Jones
30 August 1997	Middlesbrough	H	0–2	12,095
2 September 1997	Birmingham City	H	0–3	6,620
7 September 1997	Bury	A	0–1	5,073
13 September 1997	Swindon Town	A	1–2	6,811	L Jones
20 September 1997	Reading	H	6–0	5,565	Morrissey, Kelly (2), L Jones, G Jones, Thompson
27 September 1997	Crewe Alexandra	A	1–2	4,845	Stevens
4 October 1997	Norwich City	H	2–0	6,674	Kelly, L Jones
18 October 1997	Nottingham Forest	A	2–2	17,009	L Jones, Thompson
22 October 1997	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	1–2	20,841	G Jones
25 October 1997	Charlton Athletic	H	2–2	5,911	Branch, L Jones
1 November 1997	Sheffield United	A	1–2	16,578	Kelly
4 November 1997	Huddersfield Town	H	1–0	5,127	Irons
8 November 1997	Port Vale	H	1–2	7,063	Irons
15 November 1997	Bradford City	A	1–0	16,494	Aldridge
22 November 1997	Stoke City	H	3–1	8,009	L Jones, Aldridge, O'Brien
29 November 1997	Sunderland	A	0–3	26,674
6 December 1997	Ipswich Town	H	1–1	5,720	L Jones
13 December 1997	Stockport County	A	1–3	7,903	Aldridge
20 December 1997	Oxford United	H	0–2	5,181
26 December 1997	Bury	H	0–0	9,146
28 December 1997	Birmingham City	A	0–0	19,533
9 January 1998	West Bromwich Albion	H	0–0	8,058
17 January 1998	Queens Park Rangers	A	0–0	12,033
31 January 1998	Manchester City	H	0–0	12,830
4 February 1998	Middlesbrough	A	0–3	29,540
7 February 1998	Reading	A	3–1	7,069	Irons, Kelly, Branch
10 February 1998	Swindon Town	H	3–0	5,288	Thompson, Branch, Morrissey
18 February 1998	Norwich City	A	2–0	12,105	O'Brien, Kelly
21 February 1998	Crewe Alexandra	H	0–3	7,534
24 February 1998	Nottingham Forest	H	0–0	7,377
28 February 1998	Portsmouth	A	0–1	12,250
4 March 1998	Port Vale	A	1–0	5,465	Kelly
14 March 1998	Huddersfield Town	A	0–3	10,844
21 March 1998	Bradford City	H	3–1	9,463	Irons, G Jones, Kelly
28 March 1998	Stoke City	A	3–0	16,692	G Jones, Mellon, Kelly
3 April 1998	Sunderland	H	0–2	14,116
7 April 1998	Portsmouth	H	2–2	8,020	G Jones, Challinor
11 April 1998	Ipswich Town	A	0–0	18,039
13 April 1998	Stockport County	H	3–0	8,070	G Jones (2), Mellon
18 April 1998	Oxford United	A	1–1	6,489	Mahon
25 April 1998	Charlton Athletic	A	0–2	15,393
28 April 1998	Sheffield United	H	3–3	7,526	O'Brien, G Jones, Parkinson
3 May 1998	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	2–1	11,144	Aldridge (2, 1 pen)

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	13 January 1998	Hereford United	A	3–0	7,473	G Jones (2), Hill
R4	24 January 1998	Sunderland	H	1–0	14,055	Parkinson
R5	14 February 1998	Newcastle United	A	0–1	36,675

League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1 First Leg	12 August 1997	Hartlepool United	H	3–1	3,878	L Jones, Morrissey, Kelly
R1 Second Leg	26 August 1997	Hartlepool United	A	1–2 (won 4-3 on agg)	1,626	O'Brien
R2 First Leg	16 September 1997	Notts County	A	2–0	1,779	G Jones, Kelly
R2 Second Leg	23 September 1997	Notts County	H	0–1 (won 2-1 on agg)	3,287
R3	14 October 1997	Oxford United	H	1–1 (lost 5-6 on pens)	3,878	Kelly

Squad

^[2] 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	Steve Simonsen
2	DF	Andy Thompson
3	DF	John McGreal
4	DF	Dave Challinor
5	DF	Gary Stevens
6	MF	Gary Jones
7	MF	Liam O'Brien
8	MF	Kenny Irons
9	MF	Micky Mellon
10	FW	Lee Jones
11	FW	David Kelly
12	MF	John Morrissey
13	GK	Danny Coyne
14	DF	Andy Thorn
15	MF	Graham Branch

No.	Position	Player
16	MF	Alan Morgan
17	DF	Clint Hill
18	DF	Dariusz Kubicki
19	MF	Paul Cook
20	FW	Andy Parkinson
21	FW	John Aldridge (player-manager)
22	DF	Stephen Frail
23	MF	Alan Mahon
24	MF	Kevin McIntyre
25	MF	Jason Koumas
26	MF	Dirk Hebel
27	MF	Ryan Williams
28	DF	Michael Howard
29	MF	Neil Gibson
30	DF	Gareth Powell

References

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[1] ttp://www.statto.com/football/teams/tranmere-rovers/1997-1998/results

[2] ttp://www.11v11.com/teams/tranmere-rovers/tab/players/season/1998

[1]

[2]

v t e Tranmere Rovers Football Club
Overview	Tranmere Rovers F.C. Tranmere Rovers L.F.C. Players Managers Seasons Notable matches
Grounds	Prenton Park

v t e Tranmere Rovers F.C. seasons
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2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20
2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24

1997–98 Tranmere Rovers F.C. season

Contents

Season summary

Final league table

Results

Legend

Football League First Division

FA Cup

League Cup

Squad

References

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