1995–96 Wimbledon F.C. season

Wimbledon

1995–96 season

Chairman

Sam Hammam

Manager

Stadium

Top goalscorer

League: Earle (11)
All: Ekoku/Holdsworth (16)

Highest home attendance

25,380 vs Manchester United
(3 Feb 1996, Premier League)

Lowest home attendance

3,717 vs Charlton Athletic
(19 Sep 1995, League Cup)

Average home league attendance

13,246

Home colours

Away colours

← 1994–95

1996–97 →

During the 1995–96 English football season, Wimbledon F.C. competed in the FA Premier League (known as the FA Carling Premiership for sponsorship reasons). It was their tenth successive season in the top flight of English football and although they finished 14th, lower than on any of the previous nine occasions, they finished high enough to maintain their top flight membership.

Season summary

With the Premiership's lowest crowds and transfer budget, Wimbledon had begun most of their top division seasons since promotion in 1986 as pre-season relegation favourites, but the "Crazy Gang" spirit kept Wimbledon going once again, although their 14th-place finish was their lowest since joining the top flight 10 seasons earlier.

Dean Holdsworth and Efan Ekoku were once again a formidable strikerforce, while Vinnie Jones was as combative as ever and Oyvind Leonhardsen's performances attracted attention from several bigger clubs. Manager Joe Kinnear managed to hold on to all his key assets, as well as adding a few more, over the close season as he grew ever more determined to defy the odds once again.

It was the last season at Wimbledon for long-serving goalkeeper Hans Segers, who lost his place early in the season to Paul Heald and was transferred to Wolves soon afterwards. Within a few months however, Kinnear had decided on Neil Sullivan as his regular goalkeeper.

The season saw Wimbledon play in European competition for the first (and the only) time in their history, in the Intertoto Cup. However, as Selhurst Park was unavailable the club were forced to play the matches at Brighton & Hove Albion's Goldstone Ground. The lack of home support affected Wimbledon's performances, and they finished fourth in their group of five after a 4-0 "home" defeat to Turkish club Bursaspor, a 1-1 draw at Slovakian side Košice, a 0-0 draw with Israelis Beitar Jerusalem at "home" and a 3-0 away defeat at Belgian team Charleroi.

Kit

Core became Wimbledon's kit manufacturers for the season. Birmingham-based electronics company Elonex remained the kit sponsors.^[1]

Final league table

Main article: 1995–96 FA Premier League


Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Manchester United (C)	38	25	7	6	73	35	+38	82	1996–97 UEFA Champions League Group stage
2	Newcastle United	38	24	6	8	66	37	+29	78	1996–97 UEFA Cup First round
3	Liverpool	38	20	11	7	70	34	+36	71	1996–97 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup First round ¹
4	Aston Villa	38	18	9	11	52	35	+17	63	1996–97 UEFA Cup First round
5	Arsenal	38	17	12	9	49	32	+17	63	1996–97 UEFA Cup First round
6	Everton	38	17	10	11	64	44	+20	61
7	Blackburn Rovers	38	18	7	13	61	47	+14	61
8	Tottenham Hotspur	38	16	13	9	50	38	+12	61
9	Nottingham Forest	38	15	13	10	50	54	−4	58
10	West Ham United	38	14	9	15	43	52	−9	51
11	Chelsea	38	12	14	12	46	44	+2	50
12	Middlesbrough	38	11	10	17	35	50	−15	43
13	Leeds United	38	12	7	19	40	57	−17	43
14	Wimbledon	38	10	11	17	55	70	−15	41
15	Sheffield Wednesday	38	10	10	18	48	61	−13	40
16	Coventry City	38	8	14	16	42	60	−18	38
17	Southampton	38	9	11	18	34	52	−18	38
18	Manchester City (R)	38	9	11	18	33	58	−25	38	Relegation to 1996–97 Football League First Division
19	Queens Park Rangers (R)	38	9	6	23	38	57	−19	33
20	Bolton Wanderers (R)	38	8	5	25	39	71	−32	29

Updated to games played on 5 May 1996.
Source: Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored
¹ Liverpool qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup as FA Cup runners-up, as winners Manchester United already qualified for the Champions League.
(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	11	17	55	70	−15	41	5	6	8	27	33	−6	5	5	9	28	37	−9

Source: Statto

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	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	H	A	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	A
Result	W	W	L	D	W	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	D	L	D	D	D	L	D	W	W	L	L	W	L	L	D	D	D	L	W	W	D	W	W	L	L	D
Position	4	2	3	6	3	6	9	11	12	14	15	17	16	17	16	17	17	18	18	16	15	15	15	14	16	16	16	15	15	17	15	15	15	15	14	14	14	14

Source: Statto.com
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
19 August 1995	Bolton Wanderers	H	3-2	9,317	Ekoku, Earle, Holdsworth
23 August 1995	Queens Park Rangers	A	3-0	11,837	Leonhardsen, Holdsworth, Goodman
26 August 1995	Manchester United	A	1-3	32,226	Earle
30 August 1995	Sheffield Wednesday	H	2-2	6,352	Goodman, Holdsworth (pen)
9 September 1995	Liverpool	H	1-0	19,530	Harford
16 September 1995	Aston Villa	A	0-2	26,928
23 September 1995	Leeds United	H	2-4	13,307	Holdsworth, Reeves
30 September 1995	Tottenham Hotspur	A	1-3	25,321	Earle
16 October 1995	West Ham United	H	0-1	9,411
21 October 1995	Newcastle United	A	1-6	36,434	Gayle
28 October 1995	Southampton	H	1-2	7,982	Euell
6 November 1995	Nottingham Forest	A	1-4	20,810	Jones
18 November 1995	Middlesbrough	H	0-0	13,780
22 November 1995	Manchester City	A	0-1	23,617
25 November 1995	Coventry City	A	3-3	12,523	Jones (pen), Goodman, Leonhardsen
3 December 1995	Newcastle United	H	3-3	18,002	Holdsworth (2), Ekoku
9 December 1995	Leeds United	A	1-1	27,984	Leonhardsen
16 December 1995	Tottenham Hotspur	H	0-1	16,193
23 December 1995	Blackburn Rovers	H	1-1	7,105	Earle
26 December 1995	Chelsea	A	2-1	21,906	Earle, Ekoku
30 December 1995	Arsenal	A	3-1	37,640	Earle (2), Holdsworth
1 January 1996	Everton	H	2-3	11,121	Holdsworth, Ekoku
13 January 1996	Bolton Wanderers	A	0-1	16,216
20 January 1996	Queens Park Rangers	H	2-1	9,123	Leonhardsen, Clarke
3 February 1996	Manchester United	H	2-4	25,380	Gayle, Euell
10 February 1996	Sheffield Wednesday	A	1-2	19,085	Gayle
24 February 1996	Aston Villa	H	3-3	12,193	Goodman (2), Harford
2 March 1996	Chelsea	H	1-1	17,048	S. Clarke (own goal)
13 March 1996	Liverpool	A	2-2	34,063	Ekoku, Holdsworth
16 March 1996	Arsenal	H	0-3	18,335
23 March 1996	Everton	A	4-2	31,382	Gayle, Castledine, Clarke, Goodman
30 March 1996	Nottingham Forest	H	1-0	9,807	Holdsworth
6 April 1996	West Ham United	A	1-1	20,402	Jones
8 April 1996	Manchester City	H	3-0	11,844	Earle (2), Ekoku
13 April 1996	Middlesbrough	A	2-1	29,192	Earle, Ekoku
17 April 1996	Blackburn Rovers	A	2-3	24,174	Earle, Gayle
27 April 1996	Coventry City	H	0-2	15,540
5 May 1996	Southampton	A	0-0	15,172

FA Cup

Main article: 1995–96 FA Cup


Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	6 January 1996	Watford	A	1-1	11,187	Leonhardsen
R3R	17 January 1996	Watford	H	1-0	5,142	Clarke
R4	7 February 1996	Middlesbrough	A	0-0	28,915
R4R	13 February 1996	Middlesbrough	H	1-0	5,520	Holdsworth
R5	17 February 1996	Huddersfield Town	A	2-2	17,307	Ekoku (2)
R5R	28 February 1996	Huddersfield Town	H	3-1	7,015	Ekoku, Goodman (2)
QF	9 March 1996	Chelsea	A	2-2	30,805	Holdsworth, Earle
QFR	20 March 1996	Chelsea	H	1-3	21,380	Goodman

League Cup

Main article: 1995–96 Football League Cup


Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R2 1st Leg	19 September 1995	Charlton Athletic	H	4-5	3,717	Holdsworth (2), Earle, Clarke
R2 2nd Leg	3 October 1995	Charlton Athletic	A	3-3 (lost 7-8 on agg)	9,823	Earle, Holdsworth (2, 1 pen)

Squad

^[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	Hans Segers
2	DF	Kenny Cunningham
3	DF	Alan Kimble
4	MF	Vinnie Jones^[4]
5	DF	Dean Blackwell
6	DF	Scott Fitzgerald^[5]
7	MF	Øyvind Leonhardsen
8	MF	Robbie Earle^[6]
9	FW	Efan Ekoku^[7]
10	FW	Dean Holdsworth
11	FW	Marcus Gayle^[8]
12	DF	Gary Elkins
13	GK	Paul Heald
14	FW	Jon Goodman^[9]
15	DF	Alan Reeves
16	DF	Andy Thorn
17	DF	Brian McAllister
18	DF	Neal Ardley

No.	Position	Player
19	MF	Stewart Castledine
20	FW	Mick Harford
21	DF	Chris Perry
22	FW	Andy Clarke
23	GK	Neil Sullivan^[10]
24	MF	Peter Fear
25	FW	Gary Blissett
26	MF	Aidan Newhouse
27	FW	Grant Payne
28	MF	Steve Talboys
29	DF	Gerald Dobbs
30	DF	Roger Joseph
31	MF	Mark Thomas
32	DF	Justin Skinner
33	GK	Brendan Murphy
34	MF	Jason Euell^[11]
35	DF	Andy Pearce

Left club during the season

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

No.		Position	Player
35		GK	Simon Tracey (on loan from Sheffield United)

Transfers

In

Date	Pos	Name	From	Fee
25 July 1995	GK	Paul Heald	Leyton Orient	£125,000

Out

Date	Pos	Name	From	Fee
5 June 1995	DF	Warren Barton	Newcastle United	£4,000,000
8 August 1995	FW	Steve Anthrobus	Shrewsbury Town	£25,000

Transfers in:

£125,000

Transfers out:

£4,025,000

Total spending:

£3,900,000

References

↑ http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/Wimbledon/Wimbledon.htm
↑ http://www.statto.com/football/teams/wimbledon/1995-1996/results
↑ http://www.footballsquads.co.uk/eng/1995-1996/faprem/wimbled.htm
↑ Jones was born in Watford, England, but qualified to represent Wales through his maternal grandfather; he made his international debut for Wales in 1994.
↑ Fitzgerald was born in Westminster, England, but qualified to represent the Republic of Ireland internationally; he made his debut for the "B" side during 1992.
↑ Earle was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, England, but qualified to represent Jamaica internationally. He made his international debut for Jamaica in 1997, having previously being called up for England once without playing.
↑ Ekoku was born in Manchester, England, but qualified to represent Nigeria internationally and made his international debut for Nigeria in 1994.
↑ Gayle was born in Hammersmith, London, but qualified to represent Jamaica internationally; he made his international debut for Jamaica in 1998.
↑ Goodman was born in Walthamstow, England, but qualified to represent the Republic of Ireland internationally and would make his debut for Ireland in 1997.
↑ Sullivan was born in Sutton, England, but qualified to represent Scotland internationally and would make his debut for Scotland in 1997.
↑ Euell was born in Lambeth, England, debuted for the England U21 side during the season, but also qualified to represent Jamaica internationally and would make his international debut for Jamaica in 2004.

Wimbledon Football Club

The Club	History Seasons Relocation to Milton Keynes

Grounds	Wimbledon Common Plough Lane Selhurst Park National Hockey Stadium

Rivalries	South London derby

See also	AFC Wimbledon Milton Keynes Dons F.C.

Wimbledon F.C. seasons

1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04

1995–96 in English football

« 1994–95

1996–97 »

FA competitions

Premier League and
Football League

Football Conference

Football Conference
Conference League Cup

Lower leagues

European competitions

Related to national team

Club seasons

Premier League	Arsenal Aston Villa Blackburn Rovers Bolton Wanderers Chelsea Coventry City Everton Leeds United Liverpool Manchester City Manchester United Middlesbrough Newcastle United Nottingham Forest Queens Park Rangers Sheffield Wednesday Southampton Tottenham Hotspur West Ham United Wimbledon

First Division	Barnsley Birmingham City Charlton Athletic Crystal Palace Derby County Grimsby Town Huddersfield Town Ipswich Town Leicester City Luton Town Millwall Norwich City Oldham Athletic Portsmouth Port Vale Reading Sheffield United Southend United Stoke City Sunderland Tranmere Rovers Watford West Bromwich Albion Wolverhampton Wanderers

Second Division	Blackpool Bournemouth Bradford City Brentford Brighton & Hove Albion Bristol City Bristol Rovers Burnley Carlisle United Chesterfield Crewe Alexandra Hull City Notts County Oxford United Peterborough United Shrewsbury Town Stockport County Swansea City Swindon Town Walsall Wrexham Wycombe Wanderers York City

Third Division	Barnet Bury Cambridge United Cardiff City Chester City Colchester United Darlington Doncaster Rovers Exeter City Fulham Gillingham Hartlepool United Hereford United Leyton Orient Lincoln City Mansfield Town Northampton Town Plymouth Argyle Preston North End Rochdale Scarborough Scunthorpe United Torquay United Wigan Athletic

Others	Newport

List of transfers

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