NUFC Season Summaries

NUFC Season 1997/98

Manager	Kenny Dalglish
Lge Pos	PR - 13th
FA Cup	Fin
Lge Cup	5th
Euro	CL ist
Attendance	36,680
Top Scorer	Barnes 7

A typical season of contrast at St James' Park.

On the plus side: a first venture into the Champions League including a fantastic victory over Barcelona and a controversial and exciting FA Cup run that led to Wembley

But this was matched by the sale of the vast majority of United's attack and a long-term injury to Shearer, a disastrous performance at Wembley, a poor League season in which a paltry 35 goals were scored and a number of PR disasters.

During the summer Ginola made his long expected departure but the Toon Army were left stunned and angry by the sale of Sir Les to Spurs which appeared to confirm that the financial needs of the PLC were overshadowing the football needs of the club.

When Shearer suffered a cruciate injury on the day the sale went through United tried unsuccessfully to pull the plug on the deal.

Arrivals during the summer included Shay Given, Temuri Ketsbaia, Jon Dahl Tommason, and Stuart Pearce and with the season barely underway John Barnes and Ian Rush also rolled up. Peter Beardsley was allowed to leave.

Despite a decent start in the League (5 wins in the first 7) it was to be a desperately disappointing Premiership season as we won only 6 more games all season. The main problem - not surprisingly - was a lack of goals. Shearer didn't return until mid January. Asprilla missed loads of game due to international duty then seemed to lose interest and was sold back to Parma. Tomasson and new signing Andersson failed to make an impact.

A late goal by supersub Ketsbaia in Zagreb enabled United to enter the Champions League "proper" and the first game brought a fantastic victory over Barcelona which is was one of the greatest matches in the club's history.

John Beresford was the hero in Kiev as his two goals earned United a draw but PSV won home and away before United lost 1-0 at the Nou Camp. Their interest in the competition was over they finished on a high with an - albeit meaningless - vitory over group winners Kiev.

The FA Cup run started with a scrappy win over Everton before United needed a replay to knock-out Conference side Stevenage in a fixture that was overshadowed by petty bickering between the two clubs which the media used to give the club a good bashing.

The level of entertainment and intensity rose as more lower league opposition were dispatched in the name of Tranmere, Barnsley and Sheffield United. The Wembley final against Arsenal was a disaster with United showing precious little adventure and being deservedly beaten.

Hull and Derby were vanquished in the League Cup before Liverpool saw us off in extra-time in the 5th Round.

Freddie Shepherd replaced John Hall as Chairman in December and vowed that the club would strive to repair relationships with the supporters. A couple of months later a NoW "sting" had Freddie and Hall's son Douglas commiting a Ratner's scale PR suicide. They were forced to resign and Sir John returned.