2003–04 Football League Cup

2003–04 Football League Cup

Carling Cup, League Cup
Tournament details
Country	England  Wales
Teams	92
Defending champions	Liverpool
Final positions
Champions	Middlesbrough (1st title)
Runner-up	Bolton Wanderers
Tournament statistics
Matches played	93
Top goal scorer(s)	Juan Pablo Ángel (7 goals)
← 2002–03 2004–05 →

The 2003–04 Football League Cup (known as the Carling Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 44th staging of the Football League Cup, a knockout competition for England's top 92 football clubs. The competition name reflects a sponsorship deal with lager brand Carling.

The competition began in August 2003 and ended with the final on 29 February 2004. The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff hosted the final match, as it had done since 2001 as the reconstruction was still taking place on Wembley Stadium in London.

The winners were Middlesbrough who beat Bolton Wanderers in the final 2-1 and collected their first major piece of silverware in their history and as a result of their victory qualified for European football for the first time. Joseph Desire-Job gave Middlesbrough the lead with just 2 minutes gone and a Bolo Zenden penalty five minutes later doubled their advantage. Kevin Davies pulled a goal back in the 21st minute but Middlesbrough held on. It was to be until 2008 when another English manager won a domestic tournament when Harry Redknapp (then at Portsmouth) lifted the FA Cup.

First round

Second round

The 36 winners from the First Round joined 12 of the 20 Premier League clubs not participating in the UEFA Champions League in Round Two.

• The draw was made on 16 August 2003.
• Matches occurred during the week commencing 22 August.
• Extra time played when the scores were level after 90 minutes.

Tie no	Home team	Score1	Away team	Attendance
1	Blackpool	1 – 0	Birmingham City	7,370
2	Bristol City	0 – 0	Watford	5,213
Bristol City win 1 – 0 after extra time
3	Cardiff City	2 – 3	West Ham	10,724
4	Charlton Athletic	3 – 3	Luton Town	10,905
4 – 4 after extra time - Charlton Athletic win 8 - 7 on penalties
5	Crystal Palace	2 – 1	Doncaster Rovers	4,904
6	Hartlepool United	1 – 2	West Bromwich Albion	5,265
7	Leicester City	1 – 0	Crewe Alexandra	27,675
8	Notts County	2 – 1	Ipswich Town	4,059
9	Portsmouth	5 – 2	Northampton Town	11,130
10	Rotherham United	1 – 0	Colchester United	2,474
11	Scunthorpe United	2 – 3	Burnley	2,915
12	Sheffield United	0 – 2	QPR	9,578
13	Stoke City	0 – 2	Gillingham	4,607
14	Sunderland	2 – 4	Huddersfield Town	13,516
15	Tranmere Rovers	0 – 0	Nottingham Forest	4,477
0 – 0 after extra time - Nottingham Forest win 4 - 1 on penalties
16	Wigan Athletic	1 – 0	Fulham	4,874
17	Wolverhampton Wanderers	2 – 0	Darlington	10,232
18	Wycombe Wanderers	0 – 5	Aston Villa	6,072
19	Bolton Wanderers	3 – 1	Walsall	5,229
20	Coventry City	0 – 3	Tottenham Hotspur	15,474
21	Everton	3 – 0	Stockport County	19,807
22	Leeds United	2 – 2	Swindon Town	29,211
2 – 2 after extra time - Leeds United win 4 - 3 on penalties
23	Middlesbrough	0 – 0	Brighton & Hove Albion	10,435
Middlesbrough win 1 – 0 after extra time
24	Oxford United	1 – 3	Reading	9,870

¹ Score after 90 minutes

Third round

Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle United, Liverpool, Southampton, Blackburn Rovers and Manchester City joined the 24 winners from the Second Round. Matches were played on the week commencing 27 October 2003

Tie no	Home team	Score1	Away team	Attendance
1	Aston Villa	1 – 0	Leicester City	26,729
2	Blackburn Rovers	3 – 4	Liverpool	16,918
3	Chelsea	4 – 2	Notts County	35,997
4	Everton	1 – 0	Charlton Athletic	24,863
5	Newcastle United	1 – 1	West Bromwich Albion	46,932
West Bromwich Albion win 2 – 1 after extra time
6	Nottingham Forest	2 – 4	Portsmouth	20,078
7	Tottenham Hotspur	0 – 0	West Ham
Tottenham Hotspur win 1 – 0 after extra time
8	Wigan Athletic	1 – 2	Middlesbrough	8,046
9	Arsenal	1 – 1	Rotherham United	27,451
1 – 1 after extra time - Arsenal win 9 - 8 on penalties
10	Blackpool	1 – 3	Crystal Palace	6,010
11	Bolton Wanderers	2 – 1	Gillingham	5,258
12	Bristol City	1 – 3	Southampton	17,408
13	Leeds United	1 – 1	Manchester United	37,546
Manchester United win 3 – 2 after extra time
14	QPR	0 – 3	Manchester City	16,773
15	Reading	1 – 0	Huddersfield Town	11,892
16	Wolverhampton Wanderers	2 – 0	Burnley	18,548

¹ Score after 90 minutes

Fourth round

• The draw was made on 30 November 2003.
• Matches were played in the week commencing 1 December.
• Extra time played when scores level at 90 minutes.

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Quarter-finals

The draw for the quarter-finals was made on 6 December 2003. Matches were played in the week beginning 15 December 2003. The only team from outside the Premier League competing in this round was West Bromwich Albion, who lost 2–0 to Arsenal.

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Semi-finals

The semi-final draw was made on 20 December 2003 Unlike the other rounds, the semi-final ties were played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The ties were played in the weeks beginning 19 January and 26 January 2004, however the second leg of Middlesbrough v Arsenal was not played until 3 February 2004.

First leg

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Second leg

Bolton Wanderers won 5–4 on aggregate.

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Middlesbrough won 3–1 on aggregate.

Final

The 2004 Carling Cup Final was played on 29 February 2004 at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. It was contested by Bolton Wanderers and Middlesbrough. Middlesbrough won the match 2-1 and in doing so collected their first major piece of silverware in their history and qualified for the European football in the UEFA Cup for the first time.

See also

• Football League Cup

External links

SeasonsFinals