1997–98 Colchester United F.C. season
Colchester United 1997–98 football season / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about 1997–98 Colchester United F.C. season?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The 1997–98 season was Colchester United's 56th season in their history and their sixth consecutive season in the fourth tier of English football, the Third Division. Alongside competing in the Third Division, the club also participated in the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Football League Trophy.
1997–98 season | ||
---|---|---|
Chairman | Gordon Parker[1] | |
Manager | Steve Wignall | |
Stadium | Layer Road | |
Third Division | 4th (promoted) | |
Play-offs | Winners | |
FA Cup | 2nd round (eliminated by Hereford United) | |
League Cup | 1st round (eliminated by Luton Town) | |
Football League Trophy | 1st round (southern section) (eliminated by Leyton Orient) | |
Top goalscorer | League: Paul Abrahams Neil Gregory Mark Sale Aaron Skelton (7) All: David Gregory (10) | |
Highest home attendance | 6,220 v Leyton Orient, 25 April 1998[2] | |
Lowest home attendance | 1,867 v Chester City, 19 December 1997[3] | |
Average home league attendance | 3,267[4] | |
Biggest win | 5–1 v Macclesfield Town, 14 March 1998 | |
Biggest defeat | 1–4 v Cambridge United, 2 September 1997 | |
| ||
Colchester ended the season with a strong finish, one point shy of automatic promotion in fourth place. This meant another attempt at promotion via the play-offs. Colchester faced Barnet in the semi-final first leg, and they lost 1–0 at Underhill Stadium. In the return leg at Layer Road, Colchester won 3–1 to defeat Barnet 3–2 on aggregate thus achieving a place in the final and a second trip to Wembley in a year. In the final, the U's faced Torquay United. A David Gregory penalty was enough to separate the sides and promote Colchester to the third tier of English football for the first time in 17 years.
Despite reaching the final of the Football League Trophy the season prior, Colchester were knocked out at the first round stage by Leyton Orient this term. They suffered a same fate at the hands of Luton Town in the League Cup and saw a second round exit in the FA Cup to Hereford United.