1996–97 Middlesbrough F.C. season

Middlesbrough

1996–97 season
Manager	Bryan Robson (player-manager)
Stadium	Riverside Stadium
FA Premier League	19th (relegated)
FA Cup	Runners-up
League Cup	Runners-up
Top goalscorer	League: Ravanelli (16) All: Ravanelli (31)
Average home attendance	29,848
← 1995–96 1997–98 →

During the 1996–97 English football season, Middlesbrough F.C. competed in the FA Premier League (known as the FA Carling Premiership for sponsorship reasons). Despite reaching the finals of both domestic cup competitions, Middlesbrough were relegated from the Premier League in 19th place (although this came after a points deduction for postponing a fixture against Blackburn Rovers).

Season summary

The multi-million pound signings of Brazilian midfielder Emerson and Italian striker Fabrizio Ravanelli suggested that Middlesbrough could compete with the very best after finishing 12th the previous season, but ahead lay quite a unique season which ultimately ended in disappointment.

By Christmas, Middlesbrough were deep in relegation trouble, despite Ravanelli proving himself as one of the league's top goalscorers. Added to this, Middlesbrough were faced with the wrath of the Football Association for postponing a fixture against Blackburn Rovers at short notice. The club's officials insisted that manager Bryan Robson had been unable to field a team due to a severe injury and illness crisis among his players, but this did not prevent the Football Association from docking the club 3 points.

Middlesbrough managed to put together a good run of results and look like decent bets for survival, but the Football Association's refusal to restore Middlesbrough's 3 points counted against them and a 1-1 draw at Leeds on the final day of the season, when they needed a win, resulted in relegation that would have been avoided (at the expense of Coventry City) if the points had not been deducted.

Middlesbrough also hit the headlines with two brilliant cup runs. As a club who had never won a major trophy or even reached a domestic cup final before, history was made in February when Middlesbrough reached the League Cup final. They drew 1-1 with Leicester City at Wembley in the first match, but lost the replay 1-0 at Hillsborough. Two months later, they took on Chelsea in the FA Cup final, but lost 2-0. Therefore, they became the first team to finish in the last two of all three major tournaments - eliminating Crystal Palace's distinction (attained in 1995) of finishing in the last four of all three major tournaments.

Final league table

Main article: 1996-97 FA Premier League

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

Squad

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

No. Position Player 2 DF Neil Cox 3 DF Derek Whyte 4 DF Steve Vickers 5 DF Nigel Pearson 6 MF Emerson 7 DF Vladimír Kinder 8 MF Robbie Mustoe 9 FW Mikkel Beck 10 MF Juninho 11 FW Fabrizio Ravanelli 12 MF Alan Moore 13 GK Gary Walsh 14 DF Curtis Fleming 15 DF Phil Whelan 16 MF Bryan Robson (player-manager) 17 DF Clayton Blackmore

No. Position Player 18 DF Gianluca Festa 19 GK Mark Schwarzer 20 MF Phil Stamp 21 MF Craig Hignett 22 DF Craig Liddle 24 FW Chris Freestone 25 GK Ben Roberts 26 DF Chris Morris 27 DF Michael Barron 28 DF Viv Anderson 30 DF Branco 31 DF Alan White 32 FW Andy Campbell 33 MF Mark Summerbell 34 MF Keith O'Halloran 35 MF Anthony Ormerod

Left club during season

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

No. Position Player 1 GK Alan Miller (to West Bromwich Albion) 7 MF Nick Barmby (to Everton) 18 MF Graham Kavanagh (to Stoke City)

No. Position Player 19 FW John Hendrie (to Barnsley) 23 FW Jan-Åge Fjørtoft (to Sheffield United) 29 MF Jamie Pollock (to Bolton Wanderers)

Premier League

Matches

• Middlesbrough-Liverpool 3-3
• 0-1 Stig Inge Bjørnebye  4'
• 1-1 Fabrizio Ravanelli  26' (pen.)
• 1-2 John Barnes  29'
• 2-2 Fabrizio Ravanelli  36'
• 2-3 Robbie Fowler  65'
• 3-3 Fabrizio Ravanelli  81'

• Chelsea-Middlesbrough 1-0
• 1-0 Roberto Di Matteo  86'

• Nottingham-Middlesbrough 1-1
• 0-1 Juninho  49'
• 1-1 Stuart Pearce  68'

• Middlesbrough-West Ham 4-1
• 1-0 Emerson  12'
• 2-0 Robbie Mustoe  28'
• 3-0 Fabrizio Ravanelli  52'
• 3-1 Michael Hughes  57'
• 4-1 Phil Stamp  81'

• Middlesbrough-Coventry 4-0
• 1-0 Fabrizio Ravanelli  3'
• 2-0 Juninho  28'
• 3-0 Fabrizio Ravanelli  73'
• 4-0 Juninho  80'

• Everton-Middlesbrough 1-2
• 1-0 Craig Short  8'
• 1-1 Nick Barmby  61'
• 1-2 Juninho  81'

• Middlesbrough-Arsenal 0-2
• 0-1 John Hartson  3'
• 0-2 Ian Wright  27'

• Southampton-Middlesbrough 4-0
• 1-0 Matthew Oakley  11'
• 2-0 Matthew Le Tissier  29'
• 3-0 Matthew Le Tissier  48'
• 4-0 Gordon Watson  82'

• Sunderland-Middlesbrough 2-2
• 0-1 Emerson  18'
• 1-1 Alex Rae  21' (pen.)
• 1-2 Fabrizio Ravanelli  53'
• 2-2 Craig Russell  61'

• Middlesbrough-Tottenham 0-3
• 0-1 Teddy Sheringham  21'
• 0-2 Ruel Fox  23'
• 0-3 Teddy Sheringham  90'

• Middlesbrough-Wimbledon 0-0

• Newcastle-Middlesbrough 3-1
• 1-0 Peter Beardsley  40' (pen.)
• 2-0 Peter Beardsley  69'
• 3-0 Rob Lee  74'
• 3-1 Mikkel Beck  88'

• Derby-Middlesbrough 2-1
• 1-0 Aljoša Asanović  15'
• 2-0 Steve Vickers  47' (o.g.)
• 2-1 Fabrizio Ravanelli  73'

• Middlesbrough-Manchester United 2-2
• 0-1 Roy Keane  17'
• 1-1 Fabrizio Ravanelli  27'
• 1-2 David May  72'
• 2-2 Craig Hignett  83' (pen.)

• Aston Villa-Middlesbrough 1-0
• 1-0 Dwight Yorke  39' (pen.)

• Middlesbrough-Leicester 0-2
• 0-1 Steve Claridge  45'
• 0-2 Muzzy Izzet  46'

• Middlesbrough-Leeds 0-0

• Liverpool-Middlesbrough 5-1
• 1-0 Robbie Fowler  1'
• 2-0 Robbie Fowler  28'
• 3-0 Stig Inge Bjørnebye  45'
• 3-1 Jan Åge Fjørtoft  75'
• 4-1 Robbie Fowler  77'
• 5-1 Robbie Fowler  85'

• Middlesbrough-Everton 4-2
• 1-0 Craig Hignett  22'
• 1-1 David Unsworth  31' (pen.)
• 2-1 Clayton Blackmore  37'
• 2-2 Duncan Ferguson  45'
• 3-2 Juninho  58'
• 4-2 Juninho  74'

• Coventry-Middlesbrough 3-0
• 1-0 Darren Huckerby  29'
• 2-0 Gary McAllister  64'
• 3-0 Craig Liddle  85' (o.g.)

• Arsenal-Middlesbrough 2-0
• 1-0 Dennis Bergkamp  15'
• 2-0 Ian Wright  44'

• Middlesbrough-Southampton} 0-1
• 0-1 Jim Magilton  59' (pen.)

• Middlesbrough-Sheffield Wednesday 4-2
• 1-0 Fabrizio Ravanelli  14' (pen.)
• 2-0 Gianluca Festa  23'
• 2-1 Mark Pembridge  29'
• 3-1 Emerson  72' (pen.)
• 3-2 Mark Pembridge  80'
• 4-2 Juninho  90'

• Wimbledon-Middlesbrough 1-1
• 1-0 Neil Cox  22' (o.g.)
• 1-1 Robbie Mustoe  75'

• Middlesbrough-Newcastle 0-1
• 0-1 Les Ferdinand  8'

• Sheffield Wednesday-Middlesbrough 3-1
• 1-0 Andy Booth  21'
• 2-0 Graham Hyde  43'
• 2-1 Robbie Mustoe  72'
• 3-1 Mark Pembridge  90' (pen.)

• Middlesbrough-Derby 6-1
• 1-0 Vladimír Kinder  24'
• 2-0 Fabrizio Ravanelli  54'
• 3-0 Craig Hignett  70'
• 4-0 Mikkel Beck  81'
• 5-0 Fabrizio Ravanelli  82'
• 6-0 Fabrizio Ravanelli  85'
• 6-1 Paul Simpson  90'

• Leicester-Middlesbrough 1-3
• 0-1 Clayton Blackmore  9'
• 0-2 Juninho  27'
• 0-3 Mikkel Beck  36'
• 1-3 Ian Marshall  47'

• Middlesbrough-Blackburn 2-1
• 1-0 Juninho  44'
• 2-0 Fabrizio Ravanelli  61'
• 2-1 Chris Sutton  68'

• Middlesbrough-Chelsea 1-0
• 1-0 Juninho  53'

• Middlesbrough-Nottingham 1-1
• 0-1 Alf-Inge Haaland  4'
• 1-1 Mikkel Beck  56'

• West Ham-Middlesbrough 0-0

• Middlesbrough-Sunderland 0-1
• 0-1 Darren Williams  45'

• Tottenham-Middlesbrough 1-0
• 1-0 Andy Sinton  71'

• Middlesbrough-Aston Villa 3-2
• 1-0 Fabrizio Ravanelli  20'
• 2-0 Mikkel Beck  34'
• 2-1 Ugo Ehiogu  58'
• 2-2 Savo Milošević  77'
• 3-2 Fabrizio Ravanelli  90' (pen.)

• Manchester United-Middlesbrough 3-3
• 0-1 Juninho  15'
• 1-1 Roy Keane  34'
• 1-2 Emerson  17'
• 1-3 Craig Hignett  40'
• 2-3 Gary Neville  42'
• 3-3 Ole Gunnar Solskjær  67'

• Blackburn-Middlesbrough 0-0

• Leeds-Middlesbrough 1-1
• 1-0 Brian Deane  77'
• 1-1 Juninho  79'

Topscorers

• Fabrizio Ravanelli 16
• Juninho 12
• Craig Hignett 4
• Mikkel Beck 3
• Emerson 3