1998–99 Sheffield United F.C. season

Sheffield United
1998–99 season
Chairman	Mike McDonald
Manager	Steve Bruce
Stadium	Bramall Lane
First Division	8th
FA Cup	Fifth round
League Cup	Second round
Top goalscorer	League: ; Marcelo (16); All: ; Marcelo (20)
Average home league attendance	16,243
	← 1997–98 1999–2000 →

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

Season summary

The 1998–99 season saw more managerial change, with Steve Bruce taking over first team affairs. The Blades challenged once again for a play-off place but eventually finished eighth. However, there was drama in the FA Cup where the Blades were controversially beaten by Arsenal when Bruce attempted to take his team off the pitch, claiming that Arsenal had broken an unwritten rule of sportsmanship by failing to return the ball to the Blades, who had intentionally kicked it out of play to allow an injured player to be attended to. Although the game eventually continued to a finish, it was later declared void and replayed; United lost.^[1]^[2] In May, Bruce resigned after just one season in charge, citing turmoil in the club's boardroom and a shortage of funds for transfers.^[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

Sheffield United's score comes first^[4]

Legend

Win	Draw	Loss

Football League First Division

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
8 August 1998	Swindon Town	H	2-1	15,977	Stuart, Borbokis
15 August 1998	West Bromwich Albion	A	1-4	16,901	Saunders
22 August 1998	Birmingham City	H	0-2	17,528
29 August 1998	Bolton Wanderers	A	2-2	18,263	Saunders, Taylor
31 August 1998	Crewe Alexandra	H	3-1	15,922	Hunt, I Hamilton, Woodhouse
5 September 1998	Huddersfield Town	A	0-1	12,192
8 September 1998	Grimsby Town	H	3-2	12,293	Marker (2), McDermott (own goal)
12 September 1998	Bradford City	A	2-2	13,169	Saunders, Stuart
19 September 1998	Norwich City	H	2-1	16,155	Marcelo (2)
27 September 1998	Crystal Palace	A	0-1	20,370
29 September 1998	Watford	A	1-1	9,090	Marker
3 October 1998	Portsmouth	H	2-1	15,386	Saunders, Dellas
17 October 1998	Barnsley	H	1-1	23,180	Quinn
20 October 1998	Stockport County	H	1-1	12,657	Marcelo
24 October 1998	Oxford United	A	2-0	6,586	Saunders, Kachura
31 October 1998	Port Vale	A	3-2	6,737	Stuart, Kachura, Saunders
7 November 1998	Tranmere Rovers	H	2-2	15,844	Saunders, Borbokis
10 November 1998	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	1-2	20,804	Stuart
14 November 1998	Bury	H	3-1	14,164	Kachura (3)
21 November 1998	Queens Park Rangers	A	2-1	12,558	Stuart, Kachura
28 November 1998	Sunderland	H	0-4	25,612
5 December 1998	Bristol City	A	0-2	11,134
11 December 1998	Bury	A	3-3	5,002	Woodhouse, Marcelo (2)
20 December 1998	Ipswich Town	H	1-2	12,944	Devlin
26 December 1998	Birmingham City	A	0-1	22,005
28 December 1998	Huddersfield Town	H	2-1	17,359	Gray (own goal), Twiss
9 January 1999	Swindon Town	A	2-2	7,583	Stuart, Holdsworth
16 January 1999	Bolton Wanderers	H	1-2	15,787	Campbell
30 January 1999	Crewe Alexandra	A	2-1	5,243	Marcelo, Devlin
6 February 1999	West Bromwich Albion	H	3-0	16,566	Morris, Marcelo (2)
19 February 1999	Bradford City	H	2-2	14,675	Woodhouse, Marcelo
27 February 1999	Norwich City	A	1-1	14,224	Devlin
2 March 1999	Crystal Palace	H	1-1	12,896	Morris
6 March 1999	Watford	H	3-0	15,943	Devlin, Morris, I Hamilton
9 March 1999	Portsmouth	A	0-1	10,287
13 March 1999	Tranmere Rovers	A	3-2	6,588	Morris, Dellas (2)
20 March 1999	Port Vale	H	3-0	15,515	Devlin, Marcelo, Hunt
26 March 1999	Oxford United	H	1-2	14,115	Marcelo
3 April 1999	Barnsley	A	1-2	17,566	Marcelo
5 April 1999	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	1-1	21,761	Marcelo
10 April 1999	Stockport County	A	0-1	7,551
17 April 1999	Queens Park Rangers	H	2-0	14,341	Marcelo (2, 1 pen)
20 April 1999	Grimsby Town	A	2-1	5,109	Campbell (2)
24 April 1999	Sunderland	A	0-0	41,179
1 May 1999	Bristol City	H	3-1	17,310	Marcelo, Morris (2)
9 May 1999	Ipswich Town	A	1-4	21,689	Donis

FA Cup


Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	2 January 1999	Notts County	H	1-1	12,264	Marcelo
R3R	23 January 1999	Notts County	A	4-3	7,489	Borbokis, Holdsworth, Marcelo (2)
R4	27 January 1999	Cardiff City	H	4-1	13,296	Devlin, Holdsworth, Morris, Stuart
R5	23 February 1999	Arsenal	A	1-2^[2]	37,161	Morris

League Cup


Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1 1st Leg	11 August 1998	Darlington	H	3-1	5,035	Borbokis, Saunders, Taylor
R1 2nd Leg	18 August 1998	Darlington	A	2-2 (won 5-3 on agg)	3,756	Saunders (2)
R2 1st Leg	15 September 1998	Grimsby Town	H	2-1	4,689	I Hamilton, Ford
R2 2nd Leg	22 September 1998	Grimsby Town	A	0-2 (lost 2-3 on agg)	4,287

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.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	GK	ENG	Simon Tracey
—	GK	ENG	Leigh Walker
—	GK	SCO	Andy Goram
—	GK	IRL	Alan Kelly
—	DF	ENG	Steve Bruce (player-manager)
—	DF	ENG	David Holdsworth
—	DF	ENG	Rob Kozluk
—	DF	ENG	Nicky Marker
—	DF	ENG	Jon O'Connor
—	DF	ENG	Wayne Quinn
—	DF	ENG	Lee Sandford
—	DF	ENG	Chris Wilder
—	DF	GRE	Vassilis Borbokis
—	DF	GRE	Traianos Dellas
—	DF	NOR	Anders Jacobsen
—	DF	NOR	Roger Nilsen
—	DF	CIV	Olivier Tébily
—	MF	ENG	Jon Cullen
—	MF	ENG	Kevin Davies


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	MF	ENG	Shaun Derry
—	MF	ENG	Des Hamilton (on loan from Newcastle United)
—	MF	ENG	Ian Hamilton
—	MF	ENG	Nick Henry
—	MF	ENG	Bobby Ford
—	MF	ENG	Ryan Ludham
—	MF	ENG	Graham Stuart
—	MF	ENG	Michael Twiss (on loan from Manchester United)
—	MF	ENG	Curtis Woodhouse
—	MF	SCO	Paul Devlin
—	MF	GRE	Giorgos Donis
—	FW	ENG	Andy Campbell (on loan from Middlesbrough)
—	FW	ENG	Jonathan Hunt (on loan from Derby County)
—	FW	ENG	Lee Morris
—	FW	WAL	Dean Saunders
—	FW	WAL	Gareth Taylor
—	FW	BLR	Pyotr Kachura
—	FW	BRA	Cipriano
—	FW	BRA	Marcelo

References

^ Russell Kempson (15 February 1999). "'The goal was an accident. I am sorry' – Football". The Times. Retrieved 6 September 2008.
^ ^a ^b Matt Barlow (23 February 1999). "Fifa Green Light Clears Blades For Rematch". Birmingham Post. Retrieved 11 September 2008.
^ "Football: Bruce out of Blades". The Free Library. The Mirror. Retrieved 30 March 2012.
^ http://www.statto.com/football/teams/sheffield-united/1998-1999
^ http://www.soccerbase.com/teams/team.sd?team_id=2328&teamTabs=stats&season_id=128

[1] Russell Kempson (15 February 1999). "'The goal was an accident. I am sorry' – Football". The Times. Retrieved 6 September 2008.

[Birmingham_Post-2] Matt Barlow (23 February 1999). "Fifa Green Light Clears Blades For Rematch". Birmingham Post. Retrieved 11 September 2008.

[3] "Football: Bruce out of Blades". The Free Library. The Mirror. Retrieved 30 March 2012.

[4] ttp://www.statto.com/football/teams/sheffield-united/1998-1999

[5] ttp://www.soccerbase.com/teams/team.sd?team_id=2328&teamTabs=stats&season_id=128

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