1998–99 Huddersfield Town A.F.C. season

Huddersfield Town

1998-99 season
Chairman	Barry Rubery
Manager	Peter Jackson
Division One	10th
FA Cup	Fifth Round
Worthington Cup	Second Round
Top goalscorer	League: Marcus Stewart (22) All: Marcus Stewart (26)
Highest home attendance	21,629 vs Derby County (13 February 1999)
Lowest home attendance	3,988 vs Mansfield Town (11 August 1998)
Home colours Away colours
← 1997–98 1999–2000 →

Huddersfield Town's 1998–99 campaign was Town's full season with Peter Jackson at the helm. At the end of the season in which Town finished a respectable 10th place. But within a day of the end of the season, owner Barry Rubery sacked Peter Jackson to the shock of just about every Huddersfield Town fan.

Squad at the start of the season

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

No. Position Player -- GK Steve Francis -- GK Nico Vaesen -- DF Sam Collins -- DF Tom Cowan -- DF Jon Dyson -- DF Darren Edmondson -- DF Rob Edwards -- DF Kevin Gray -- DF Thomas Heary -- DF Sean Hessey -- DF Steve Jenkins -- DF Andy Morrison -- MF Simon Baldry

No. Position Player -- MF David Beresford -- MF Marcus Browning -- MF Paul Dalton -- MF Barry Horne -- MF Grant Johnson -- MF David Phillips -- MF Lee Richardson -- MF Ben Thornley -- FW Wayne Allison -- FW Paul Barnes -- FW Delroy Facey -- FW Ian Lawson -- FW Marcus Stewart

Review

Among the summer transfers brought in by manager Peter Jackson was Belgian goalkeeper Nico Vaesen, who was sent off on his debut after just 9 minutes against Bury, but after that made some exceptional performances in the Town net, which helped Town reach top spot in September and October. During that time, Town played Sunderland, which at the time saw a record 20,241 at a match at the McAlpine Stadium. (That would be eclipsed by the 21,629 that saw Town play Derby County in the FA Cup 5th round in February.)

Jackson recruited winger Ben Thornley (a popular loan signing under Horton) from Manchester United and in September, they beat Tranmere Rovers to top the early Division 1 table, thanks chiefly to the goalscoring prowess of Stewart and Allison.

Even though Town were top of the table, their away form was very mediocre at best. This was probably proven by their 7-1 loss to Barnsley in November (They were 6-0 down at half-time and to make matters worse the game was shown on Sky Sports!) Town did however have a good run in the FA Cup which culminated in a 5th round match against Premier League side Derby County. They eventually lost 3-1 in the replay at Pride Park.

The team attracted the attention of local businessman Barry Rubery and, after protracted takeover talks, he took over the running of the club promising significant investment as the club sought Premiership status. The takeover rumours had a negative effect on the side and they fell away from the promotion race despite Jackson investing in the likes of Craig Armstrong and Jamie Vincent. A play-off place eventually faded following a horrible end to the season, which saw them win only one of their last 11 matches, although that was a 3-2 win against local rivals Bradford City at Valley Parade.

Jackson was hoping to mount a promotion challenge the following season, but he was suddenly sacked after the end of the season and replaced by former Manchester United captain Steve Bruce, whose first season in management with Sheffield United had brought little success. Jackson declined the role of academy director.

Squad at the end of the season

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

No. Position Player -- GK Phil Senior -- GK Nico Vaesen -- DF Sam Collins -- DF Jon Dyson -- DF Darren Edmondson -- DF Rob Edwards -- DF Kevin Gray -- DF Thomas Heary -- DF Steve Jenkins -- DF Jamie Vincent -- MF Craig Armstrong -- MF Simon Baldry -- MF Chris Beech

No. Position Player -- MF David Beresford -- MF Paul Dalton -- MF Barry Horne -- MF Grant Johnson -- MF Dwayne Mattis -- MF Lee Richardson -- MF Ben Thornley -- FW Wayne Allison -- FW Delroy Facey -- FW Ian Lawson -- FW Danny Schofield -- FW Marcus Stewart

Results

Division One

Date	Opponents	Home/ Away	Result F - A	Scorers	Attendance	Position
8 August 1998	Bury	A	0 - 1		7,659	21st
15 August 1998	Port Vale	H	2 - 1	Dalton [40], Stewart [60]	9,930	11th
22 August 1998	Grimsby Town	A	0 - 1		6,974	14th
29 August 1998	Portsmouth	H	3 - 3	Stewart [45, 84], Allison [89]	10,085	13th
31 August 1998	Bristol City	A	2 - 1	Horne [48], Stewart [52]	11,801	10th
5 September 1998	Sheffield United	H	1 - 0	Allison [88]	12,192	6th
8 September 1998	Watford	H	2 - 0	Stewart [21], Allison [41]	9,811	5th
11 September 1998	Tranmere Rovers	A	3 - 2	Stewart [21], Allison [45, 69]	5,770	1st
19 September 1998	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	2 - 1	Dalton [19], Thornley [90]	13,854	1st
26 September 1998	Bolton Wanderers	A	0 - 3		20,971	2nd
29 September 1998	Stockport County	A	1 - 1	Allison [40]	8,023	2nd
3 October 1998	Oxford United	H	2 - 0	Dalton [24], Stewart [33]	10,968	1st
9 October 1998	Swindon Town	A	0 - 3		8,316	1st
17 October 1998	Queens Park Rangers	H	2 - 0	Edwards [12], Thornley [48]	11,276	1st
21 October 1998	Sunderland	H	1 - 1	Stewart [28]	20,241	1st
24 October 1998	Norwich City	A	1 - 4	Beresford [59]	15,403	2nd
31 October 1998	Birmingham City	A	1 - 1	Stewart [61]	14,468	3rd
7 November 1998	Ipswich Town	H	2 - 2	Edwards [65], Allison [74]	14,240	5th
14 November 1998	West Bromwich Albion	A	1 - 3	Beresford [6]	13,626	9th
21 November 1998	Bradford City	H	2 - 1	Barnes [70], Johnson [72]	18,173	6th
27 November 1998	Barnsley	A	1 - 7	Facey [74]	16,648	7th
5 December 1998	Crystal Palace	H	4 - 0	Stewart [15, 24, 81], Facey [90]	10,453	6th
12 December 1998	West Bromwich Albion	H	0 - 3		11,947	8th
19 December 1998	Crewe Alexandra	A	2 - 1	Stewart [13, 48]	5,102	8th
26 December 1998	Grimsby Town	H	2 - 0	Stewart [53], Beech [65]	16,186	6th
28 December 1998	Sheffield United	A	1 - 2	Stewart [67 (pen)]	17,359	7th
9 January 1999	Bury	H	2 - 2	Allison [32], Johnson [83]	10,788	8th
16 January 1999	Portsmouth	A	0 - 1		10,334	10th
30 January 1999	Bristol City	H	2 - 2	Phillips [3], Johnson [59]	13,934	10th
6 February 1999	Port Vale	A	0 - 2		6,499	11th
16 February 1999	Watford	A	1 - 1	Beech [71]	10,303	11th
20 February 1999	Tranmere Rovers	H	0 - 0		11,411	12th
27 February 1999	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	2 - 2	Gray [59], Hamilton [90]	21,778	12th
2 March 1999	Bolton Wanderers	H	3 - 2	Stewart [36], Johnson [41], Armstrong [46]	13,867	8th
6 March 1999	Stockport County	H	3 - 0	Stewart [64 (pen), 68], Jenkins [72]	11,914	8th
9 March 1999	Oxford United	A	2 - 2	Thornley [29], Stewart [86 (pen)]	6,034	7th
13 March 1999	Ipswich Town	A	0 - 3		17,170	10th
20 March 1999	Birmingham City	H	1 - 1	Facey [55]	14,667	9th
24 March 1999	Norwich City	H	1 - 1	Hughes [83 (og)]	9,717	8th
3 April 1999	Queens Park Rangers	A	1 - 1	Lawson [79]	11,113	9th
5 April 1999	Swindon Town	H	1 - 2	Lawson [80]	11,719	9th
10 April 1999	Sunderland	A	0 - 2		41,074	10th
17 April 1999	Bradford City	A	3 - 2	Stewart [22], Allison [24], Thornley [36]	15,124	9th
24 April 1999	Barnsley	H	0 - 1		15,353	10th
1 May 1999	Crystal Palace	A	2 - 2	Dyson [33], Stewart [40 (pen)]	17,282	10th
9 May 1999	Crewe Alexandra	H	0 - 0		15,105	10th

FA Cup

Date	Round	Opponents	Home/ Away	Result F - A	Scorers	Attendance
2 January 1999	Round 3	Queens Park Rangers	A	1 - 0	Allison [42]	11,685
23 January 1999	Round 4	Wrexham	A	1 - 1	Allison [22]	8,714
3 February 1999	Round 4 Replay	Wrexham	H	2 - 1	Stewart [20], Thornley [28]	15,427
13 February 1999	Round 5	Derby County	H	2 - 2	Beech [42], Stewart [71]	21,629
24 February 1999	Round 5 Replay	Derby County	A	1 - 3	Beech [15]	28,704

Worthington Cup

Date	Round	Opponents	Home/ Away	Result F - A	Scorers	Attendance
11 August 1998	Round 1 1st Leg	Mansfield Town	H	3 - 2	Johnson [18], Allison [74], Dalton [81 (pen)]	3,988
18 August 1998	Round 1 2nd Leg	Mansfield Town	A	1 - 1	Stewart [28]	2,936 Huddersfield won 4-3 on aggregate
15 September 1998	Round 2 1st Leg	Everton	H	1 - 1	Allison [45]	15,395
23 September 1998	Round 2 2nd Leg	Everton	A	1 - 2	Stewart [1]	18,718 Huddersfield lost 3-2 on aggregate

Appearances and goals

Name	Nation	Position	League Apps	League Goals	FA Cup Apps	FA Cup Goals	League Cup Apps	League Cup Goals	Total Apps	Total Goals
Wayne Allison	England	FW	44	9	4	2	3	2	51	13
Craig Armstrong	England	MF	13	1	0	0	0	0	13	1
Simon Baldry	England	MF	8 (5)	0	1 (1)	0	0	0	9 (6)	0
Paul Barnes	England	FW	2 (13)	1	1 (1)	0	0 (3)	0	3 (17)	1
Chris Beech	England	MF	13 (4)	2	2	2	0	0	15 (4)	4
David Beresford	England	MF	13 (6)	2	1 (1)	0	0 (2)	0	14 (9)	2
Marcus Browning	Wales	MF	2 (4)	0	0	0	1 (2)	0	3 (6)	0
Sam Collins	England	DF	22 (1)	0	3	0	4	0	29 (1)	0
Tom Cowan	Scotland	DF	5	0	2	0	0	0	7	0
Paul Dalton	England	MF	7 (2)	3	0	0	3 (1)	1	10 (3)	4
Jon Dyson	England	DF	10 (4)	1	2	0	0	0	12 (4)	1
Darren Edmondson	England	DF	1 (2)	0	2 (1)	0	0	0	3 (3)	0
Rob Edwards	England	MF	45	2	5	0	4	0	54	2
Delroy Facey	Grenada	FW	5 (15)	3	0 (2)	0	0	0	5 (17)	3
Steve Francis	England	GK	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
Kevin Gray	England	DF	28 (6)	1	5	0	2 (1)	0	35 (7)	1
Des Hamilton	England	MF	10	1	0	0	0	0	10	1
Thomas Heary	Republic of Ireland	DF	3	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
Sean Hessey	England	DF	7 (3)	0	1	0	0	0	8 (3)	0
Barry Horne	Wales	MF	20	1	0	0	4	0	24	1
Mark Jackson	England	DF	5	0	0	0	0	0	5	0
Steve Jenkins	Wales	DF	36	1	3	0	4	0	43	1
Grant Johnson	Scotland	MF	36	4	5	0	4	1	45	5
Ian Lawson	England	FW	2 (4)	2	0	0	0	0	2 (4)	2
Dwayne Mattis	Republic of Ireland	MF	0 (2)	0	0	0	0	0	0 (2)	0
Andy Morrison	Scotland	DF	12	0	0	0	3	0	15	0
David Phillips	Wales	MF	15 (8)	1	5	0	0	0	20 (8)	1
Lee Richardson	England	MF	13 (2)	0	0	0	0	0	13 (2)	0
Danny Schofield	England	MF	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Marcus Stewart	England	FW	43	22	5	2	4	2	52	26
Ben Thornley	England	MF	32 (3)	4	3	1	4	0	39 (3)	5
Nico Vaesen	Belgium	GK	43	0	5	0	4	0	52	0
Jamie Vincent	England	DF	7	0	0	0	0	0	7	0