1996–97 Aston Villa F.C. season

Aston Villa

1996–97 season
Chairman	Doug Ellis
Manager	Brian Little
Stadium	Villa Park
Premiership	5th
FA Cup	Fourth round
League Cup	Fourth round
UEFA Cup	First round
Top goalscorer	League: Yorke (17) All: Yorke (20)
Average home league attendance	36,027
← 1995–96 1997–98 →

During the 1996–97 English football season, Aston Villa F.C. competed in the FA Premier League.

Season summary

There was no silverware this season for last season's League Cup winners, but Brian Little's competent Villa side achieved UEFA Cup qualification for the second season running by finishing fifth in the league.

The autumn of the season saw the departure of veteran defender Paul McGrath to Derby County, while the injured Gary Charles was replaced at right-back by the Portuguese Fernando Nelson. The end of the season saw the arrival of Liverpool striker Stan Collymore for a club record fee of £7 million.

Final league table

Pos	Team	Pl	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1.	Manchester United	38	21	12	5	76	44	+32	75
2.	Newcastle United	38	19	11	8	73	40	+33	68
3.	Arsenal	38	19	11	8	62	32	+30	68
4.	Liverpool	38	19	11	8	62	37	+25	68
5.	Aston Villa	38	17	10	11	47	34	+13	61
6.	Chelsea	38	16	11	11	58	55	+3	59
7.	Sheffield Wednesday	38	14	15	9	50	51	–1	57
8.	Wimbledon	38	15	11	12	49	46	+3	56
9.	Leicester City	38	12	11	15	46	54	–8	47
10.	Tottenham Hotspur	38	13	7	18	44	51	–7	46
11.	Leeds United	38	11	13	14	28	38	–10	46
12.	Derby County	38	11	13	14	45	58	–13	46
13.	Blackburn Rovers	38	9	15	14	42	43	–1	42
14.	West Ham United	38	10	12	16	39	48	–9	42
15.	Everton	38	10	12	16	44	57	–13	42
16.	Southampton	38	10	11	17	50	56	–6	41
17.	Coventry City	38	9	14	15	38	54	–16	41
18.	Sunderland	38	10	10	18	35	53	–18	40
19.	Middlesbrough ***	38	10	12	16	51	60	–9	39
20.	Nottingham Forest	38	6	16	16	31	59	–28	34

Note: Middlesbrough deducted 3 points for failing to fulfil a fixture.

Key
Qualified for the Champions League
Qualified for the UEFA Cup
Qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup
Relegated to Division One

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	17	10	11	47	34	+13	61	11	5	3	27	13	+14	6	5	8	20	21	−1

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
Result	L	W	W	W	D	D	D	L	L	W	L	W	L	W	W	W	W	W	L	D	D	D	L	L	W	W	D	W	L	D	W	W	W	L	D	D	L	W
Position	15	10	3	2	4	7	6	8	8	7	7	7	9	8	7	5	4	4	5	6	6	6	7	7	7	5	5	5	5	6	5	5	4	4	5	5	5	5

Source: Statto.com
Ground: A = Away; H = Home. Result: D = Draw; L = Loss; W = Win; P = Postponed.

Results

Aston Villa's score comes first^[1]

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

FA Premier League

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
17 August 1996	Sheffield Wednesday	A	1–2	26,861	Johnson
21 August 1996	Blackburn Rovers	H	1–0	32,457	Southgate
24 August 1996	Derby County	H	2–0	34,646	Joachim, Johnson
4 September 1996	Everton	A	1–0	39,115	Ehiogu
7 September 1996	Arsenal	H	2–2	37,944	Milošević (2)
15 September 1996	Chelsea	A	1–1	27,729	Townsend
21 September 1996	Manchester United	H	0–0	39,339
30 September 1996	Newcastle United	A	3–4	36,400	Yorke (3)
12 October 1996	Tottenham Hotspur	H	0–1	32,847
19 October 1996	Leeds United	H	2–0	39,051	Yorke, Johnson
26 October 1996	Sunderland	A	0–1	21,059
2 November 1996	Nottingham Forest	H	2–0	35,310	Tiler, Yorke
16 November 1996	Leicester City	H	1–3	36,193	Yorke
23 November 1996	Coventry City	A	2–1	21,340	Joachim, Staunton
30 November 1996	Middlesbrough	H	1–0	39,053	Yorke (pen)
4 December 1996	West Ham United	A	2–0	19,105	Ehiogu, Yorke
7 December 1996	Southampton	A	1–0	15,232	Townsend
22 December 1996	Wimbledon	H	5–0	28,875	Yorke (2), Milošević (2), Taylor
26 December 1996	Chelsea	H	0–2	39,339
28 December 1996	Arsenal	A	2–2	38,130	Milošević, Yorke
1 January 1997	Manchester United	A	0–0	55,133
11 January 1997	Newcastle United	H	2–2	39,339	Yorke, Milošević
18 January 1997	Liverpool	A	0–3	40,489
29 January 1997	Sheffield Wednesday	H	0–1	26,726
1 February 1997	Sunderland	H	1–0	32,491	Milošević
19 February 1997	Coventry City	H	2–1	30,409	Yorke (2)
22 February 1997	Nottingham Forest	A	0–0	25,239
2 March 1997	Liverpool	H	1–0	39,339	Taylor
5 March 1997	Leicester City	A	0–1	20,626
15 March 1997	West Ham United	H	0–0	35,992
22 March 1997	Blackburn Rovers	A	2–0	24,274	Johnson, Yorke
5 April 1997	Everton	H	3–1	39,339	Milošević, Staunton, Yorke
9 April 1997	Wimbledon	A	2–0	9,015	Milošević, Wright
12 April 1997	Derby County	A	1–2	18,071	Joachim
19 April 1997	Tottenham Hotspur	H	1–1	39,339	Yorke
22 April 1997	Leeds United	A	0–0	26,897
3 May 1997	Middlesbrough	A	2–3	30,074	Ehiogu, Milošević
11 May 1997	Southampton	H	1–0	39,339	Dryden (own goal)

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	14 January 1997	Notts County	A	0–0	13,315
R3R	22 January 1997	Notts County	H	3–0	25,006	Yorke (2), Ehiogu
R4	25 January 1997	Derby County	A	1–3	17,977	Ćurčić

League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	23 October 1996	Leeds United	A	2–1	15,803	Taylor, Yorke
R4	26 November 1996	Wimbledon	A	0–1	7,573

UEFA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1 1st Leg	10 September 1996	Helsingborgs IF	H	1–1	25,818	Johnson
R1 2nd Leg	24 September 1996	Helsingborgs IF	A	0–0 (lost on away goals)	10,000

Squad

^[2][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 Mark Bosnich 2 DF Gary Charles 3 DF Steve Staunton 4 DF Gareth Southgate 6 MF Andy Townsend[4] (captain) 7 MF Ian Taylor 8 MF Mark Draper 9 FW Savo Milošević[5] 10 FW Dwight Yorke 12 FW Julian Joachim 13 GK Michael Oakes 14 DF Alan Wright

No. Position Player 15 DF Fernando Nélson 16 DF Ugo Ehiogu 17 MF Lee Hendrie 19 MF Gareth Farrelly 20 DF Riccardo Scimeca 23 FW Neil Davis 24 MF Scott Murray 26 MF Saša Ćurčić 27 FW David Hughes 30 GK Adam Rachel 31 GK Stuart Brock

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 5 DF Paul McGrath[6] (to Derby County) 11 FW Tommy Johnson (to Celtic) 18 DF Carl Tiler (to Sheffield United)

No. Position Player 21 MF Franz Carr (to Reggiana) 22 DF Phil King (to Swindon Town)

Reserve squad

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

No. Position Player - DF Lee Collins - DF Tommy Jaszczun - DF Aaron Lescott - DF Ben Petty - FW Richard Burgess

No. Position Player - FW Darren Byfield - FW Alan Lee - FW Darren Middleton - FW Richard Walker

Transfers

In

Date	Pos.	Name	From	Fee
2 August 1996	DF	Fernando Nélson	Sporting Lisbon	£1,700,000
23 August 1996	MF	Saša Ćurčić	Bolton Wanderers	£4,000,000
13 May 1997	FW	Stan Collymore	Liverpool	£7,000,000

Out

Date	Pos.	Name	To	Fee
3 July 1996	DF	Paul Browne	Raith Rovers	Signed
16 September 1996	DF	Andy Mitchell	Chesterfield	Free transfer
1 October 1996	DF	Paul McGrath	Derby County	£100,000
1 October 1996	MF	Franz Carr	Reggiana	Free transfer
26 March 1997	DF	Phil King	Swindon Town	Free transfer
26 March 1997	DF	Carl Tiler	Sheffield United	£650,000
27 March 1997	FW	Tommy Johnson	Celtic	£2,300,000

Transfers in: £12,700,000

Transfers out: £3,050,000

Total spending: £9,650,000

References

Aston Villa Football Club Overview Aston Villa Managers Players Second City derby Rivalry with West Bromwich Albion Under-21s and Academy Ladies All articles History 1874–1961 1961–present Records and Statistics Seasons Grounds Wellington Road Bodymoor Heath Villa Park

Aston Villa F.C. seasons 1888–89 1889–90 1890–91 1891–92 1892–93 1893–94 1894–95 1895–96 1896–97 1897–98 1898–99 1899–1900 1900–01 1901–02 1902–03 1903–04 1904–05 1905–06 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 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 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15

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