Baggies do the double over Wolves but both wind up in mid-table
Wolves defender Curle had a game to forget as his own goal gifted victory to rivals
Season 1997-98 Part One
Albion were at one point lying in third, but then things began to go wrong big-time
IT was a moderate season all round for our three clubs. Wolves and Albion finished 9th and 10th respectively in Division One while Walsall ended up 21st in Division Two.
Wolves won only three of their first 11 League games, losing another four. They did reasonably well between October and early January but managed to record just three victories in their last 15 matches and slipped three places down the table.
Their full record was played 46, won 18 drew 11 and lost 17, goals for 57, against 53, for a points tally of 65 – 29 fewer than champions Nottingham Forest and 25 less than third-placed Sunderland.
Wolves’ best win was that of 5-0 at home to Norwich City, while their heaviest defeat, in terms of goals conceded, was a 4-3 reverse at the hands of Stockport County in their final home game of the campaign.
Finnish striker Mixu Paatelainen top scored with 11 League goals followed by another new signing, Dougie Freedman with 10. Meanwhile, Steve Bull netted his 300th goal for the club against Bradford City in February.
No player came close to being an ever-present … the nearest was defender Keith Curle with 40 appearances, 11 more than goalkeeper Mike Stowell.
Neighbours Albion – who swapped managers halfway through the season when Denis Smith took over from Ray Harford – had a pretty good first half to the campaign. After 21 games they were lying third in the Division, behind leaders Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest, but then things started to go wrong – big time!
In fact, the Baggies won only four of their last 25 League fixtures, losing ten, although they did manage to complete the double over Wolves, winning both games 1-0, the first at The Hawthorns thanks to an own-goal by Keith Curle, who was subsequenely voted Albion’s ‘Player of the Season’ by a band of certain die-hard supporters!
Albion’s full record for the season was played 46, won 16, drew 13, lost 17, goal-count 50-56 with a points tally of 61. Their best (biggest) win was 4-2 at home to Sheffield United while their heaviest defeat was a 5-0 walloping at Charlton in early March. Ex-kidderminster Harriers striker Lee Hughes with 14 goals and Andy Hunt with 13 were the leading scorers. Walsall’s dismal season saw them finish just four points above the relegation zone after winning 14 and drawing 12 of their 46 matches. They found scorring hard at times, managing only 43 in total while conceding 52. The Saddlers’ biggest win was 3-0 at home to Wrexhm, while their heaviest defeat came at Wycombe where they lost 4-2. Roger Boli top-scored with 12 League goals, followed by John Hodge with 8 (including three penalties). And ever-present goalkeeper Jimmy Walker kept 16 clean-sheets.