Dundee United F.C. season 1996-97

Infobox Football club season
club = Dundee United

season = 1996-97
manager = Billy Kirkwood (until 1996-09-10)
Tommy McLean (from 1996-09-10)
chairman = Jim McLean
league = Scottish Premier Division
league result = 3rd (UEFA Cup)
W17 D9 L10 F46 A33 P60
cup1 = Tennent's Scottish Cup| cup1 result = Semi-finals
cup2 = Coca-Cola Cup | cup2 result = Third round
league topscorer = Kjell Olofsson (12)
season topscorer = Kjell Olofsson (13)
highest attendance = 12,600 (vs Celtic, 1997-02-01)
lowest attendance = 6,387 (vs Raith Rovers, 1997-03-22)
prevseason = 1995-96
nextseason = 1997-98The 1996-97 season was the 85th year of football played by Dundee United, and covered the period from 1996-07-01 to 1997-06-30. United finished in third place in the league following their promotion from the First Division and qualified for the UEFA Cup in the process. The club lost in the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup after a replay and were knocked out of the League Cup in a third round penalty shootout by rivals Dundee.

eason review

United finished the Scottish Premier Division 1996-97 season in 3rd place with 60 points, in the first season back in the top flight after the single season in the First Division. Despite taking just one point from the first six games, United finished third, with the appointment of Tommy McLean starting an immediate six-game unbeaten run, bettered later by a thirteen-game unbeaten succession, which included eight straight league wins.

The cup campaigns saw a 3rd round League Cup penalty shootout defeat to rivals Dundee and a semi-final Scottish Cup defeat (after a replay) to eventual winners Kilmarnock.

Off the pitch, United started a four-year successive run of 'Premier League Programme of the Year'.cite web|url=http://www.pmfc.co.uk/awards_page.php|title=Programme of the Year Awards|publisher=Programme Monthly & Football Collectible|dateaccessed=2007-09-26]

Match results

Dundee United played a total of 45 competitive matches during the 1996-97 season.cite web|url=http://www.soccerbase.com/results2.sd?teamid=740&seasonid=126|title=Dundee Utd 1996/1997 results and fixtures|work=Soccerbase|accessdate=2007-12-12|format=HTML] The team finished third in the Premier Division.

In the cup competitions, United lost in the fourth round of the Tennent's Scottish Cup to Aberdeen and lost narrowly in the Coca-Cola Cup quarter-finals to Rangers.

Legend

Coca-Cola Cup

Note: disciplinary statistics are missing for Coca-Cola match vs Dundee and Scottish Cup matches vs Kilmarnock

Transfers

In

The club signed twelve players during the season with approximately £650k spent on transfer fees. In addition, three players were promoted from youth contracts: Paul Black, Craig Easton, Steven Thompson, with all three featuring at least once during the season.The jerseys were sponsored for the first time by Telewest Communications.

References

ee also

* 1996-97 in Scottish football
* Scottish Cup 1996-97

External links

* [http://www.dirtyarab.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/History/1990s/1996-97/96-97page.htm Glenrothes Arabs season review]