Wimbledon 1998/99

Wimbledon's 1998/99 season was one of the worst seasons of professional football. The loss of Joe Kinnear to the Irish national team in the previous season and subsuqent replacement by Mick McCarthy proved to be a disaster as Wimbledon crashed out of the Premier League with only 7 points.

## Background

During the halfway point of the 1997/98 season ROI manager Mick McCarthy had failed to qualify for the 1998 World Cup and was promptly sacked. Wimbledon manager Joe Kinnear had previously finished 15th in 1996/97 and midtable in 1997/98, which lead to a call-up by the ROI FA. Kinnear accepted, and by sheer coincidence McCarthy became Wimbledon manager. Wimbledon's performance tumbled and finished 17th come the end of the season, albeit 5 points ahead of Queens Park Rangers who were relegated instead.

## Season

McCarthy played what were in Kinnear's system backup players and only made one signing in the summer: a 19 year old schoolboy named Ged Kamara who was promoted to captaincy. Players like Efan Ekoku and Dean Holdsworth became shafted but McCarthy's experiment would fail badly. Neil Sullivan was sold to D2 Norwich City, to be replaced with Seamus Given. Given would recieve Wimbledon's only Man of the Match of the entire season.

Wimbledon were knocked out by two Division 3 teams in the cup competitions: Darlington in the Second Round of the League Cup in August and Southport in the Third Round of the FA Cup in January. This was one of the worst performances ever by any Premier League team in cup competitions.

In the league Wimbledon started the season with 15 losses in a row with an 8-43 goal difference after 11 games. This included hammerings such as a 7-1 loss to Liverpool, 6-0 loss to Leeds and a 9-1 loss to Aston Villa. In response attendances plummeted and were below Crystal Palace, who competed a division below at the time. During a game versus Everton roughly 6,000 people showed up, meanwhile Crystal Palace's average attendance was around 14,500 spectators. Wimbledon also had a remarkable shortage of players (at one point only 21 players registered) due to the need for cutting costs.

Wimbledon's first point came at the 16th attempt with a 2-2 draw versus Newcastle, with Marcus Gayle scoring the equalizer in the 81st minute. Another point followed with a draw at Blackburn Rovers but the damage was done. A 5-0 loss to West Bromwich Albion soon followed with Jon Goodman starting to fall out of favour with the first team, he would be replaced by Dean Holdsworth from then on. Wimbledon achieved their 3rd point with a 1-1 draw versus Liverpool. In February 1999 Wimbledon would buy their second player that season, a 16 year old Efan Babayaro. Babayaro would become Wimbledon's first choice goalkeeper the next season and would later perform for Manchester United and Arsenal.

By the 17th of March Wimbledon were relegated, a record in Premier League history. Around this time it was announced that Wimbledon cut wages by 2 million pounds, but ended up with over 2 million pounds of debt as well. Not a single game was shown on live television, which led to a rule in the later seasons of a minimum of 5 games broadcast, as Wimbledon's collapse was attributed to little TV funds.

All other problems were set aside when Wimbledon lost 11-1 versus Everton, the largest defeat and the largest scoreline in Premier League history. Nicky Butt of Everton scored 4 goals alone. Another point was achieved versus Portsmouth, who were in the League Cup final that season. Attendances continued to dwindle as Wimbledon facing Leeds was watched by less than 6,000 people. Wimbledon finally won themselves a game after facing Queens Park Rangers and winning 3-0. Dean Holdsworth scored twice to seal Wimbledon their only win of the season. Wimbledon were sent crashing down to Earth however with a 5-0 demoliton against Blackburn Rovers. On the final day of the season Wimbledon's attendance dropped to it's lowest attendance that season: 5,285 as they went out with a 2-1 loss.