1997–98 Football League Trophy

1997–98 Football League Trophy

Auto Windscreens Shield
Tournament details
Country	England  Wales
Teams	48
Final positions
Champions	Grimsby Town
Runner-up	AFC Bournemouth
Tournament statistics
Matches played	49
← 1996–97 1998–99 →

The Football League Trophy 1997–98, known as the Auto Windscreens Shield 1997–98 for sponsorship reasons, was the 15th staging of the Football League Trophy, a knock-out competition for English football clubs in Second and Third Division. The winners were Grimsby Town and the runners-up were AFC Bournemouth.

The competition began on 6 December 1997 and ended with the final on 19 April 1998 at the Wembley Stadium.

In the first round, there were two sections: North and South. In the following rounds each section gradually eliminates teams in knock-out fashion until each has a winning finalist. At this point, the two winning finalists face each other in the combined final for the honour of the trophy.

First round

Blackpool, Burnley, Macclesfield Town, Mansfield Town, Notts County, Rotherham United, Wrexham and York City from the North section all received byes.

Brentford, AFC Bournemouth, Brighton & Hove Albion, Bristol City, Exeter City, Luton Town, Swansea City and Torquay United from the South section all received byes.

Second round

Quarter-finals

Area semi-finals

Area finals

Northern Area final

10 March 1998

19:45

Grimsby Town	1–1	Burnley
Groves 78'		Payton 23'

Blundell Park, Cleethorpes

Attendance: 6,064

17 March 1998

19:45

Burnley	0–2	Grimsby Town
		Nogan 10' Donovan 57'

Turf Moor, Burnley

Attendance: 10,257

Grimsby Town beat Burnley 3–1 on aggregate.

Southern Area final

10 March 1998

19:45

Walsall	0–2	AFC Bournemouth
		Rolling 13' Beardsmore 30'

Bescot Stadium, Walsall

Attendance: 6,017

17 March 1998

19:45

AFC Bournemouth	2–3	Walsall
Evans 55' (o.g.) Rolling 82'		Thomas 47' Boli 53' Tholot 80'

Dean Court, Bournemouth

Attendance: 8,972

AFC Bournemouth beat Walsall 4–3 on aggregate.

Final

19 April 1998

15:00 BST

AFC Bournemouth	1–2	Grimsby Town
Bailey 31'		Glass 75' (o.g.) Burnett 112'

Wembley Stadium, London

Attendance: 62,432

Referee: M.E. Pierce

AFC Bournemouth

Grimsby Town

GK 1 Jimmy Glass DF 2 Neil Young DF 3 Jamie Vincent DF 4 Eddie Howe DF 5 Ian Cox MF 6 John Bailey MF 7 Russell Beardsmore  105' MF 8 Steve Robinson FW 9 Mark Stein FW 10 Steve Fletcher MF 11 Christer Warren  90' Substitutes: DF Franck Rolling MF Jason Brissett  90' MF John O'Neil  105' Manager: Mel Machin

GK 1 Aidan Davison DF 2 John McDermott DF 3 Tony Gallimore  55' DF 4 Peter Handyside DF 5 Mark Lever MF 6 Wayne Burnett MF 7 Kevin Donovan MF 8 David Smith FW 9 Daryl Clare  55' FW 10 Lee Nogan  93' MF 11 Paul Groves (c) Substitute: FW 12 Steve Livingstone  55' MF 13 Kingsley Black  55' MF 14 Kevin Jobling  93' Manager: Alan Buckley

Notes

External links

• Official website