1988–89 Leeds United A.F.C. season

Leeds United
1988–1989 season
Chairman	Leslie Silver
Manager	Billy Bremner; (until 28 September); Peter Gunby; (caretaker, until 10 Oct); Howard Wilkinson; (from 12 October)
Stadium	Elland Road
Second Division	10th
FA Cup	Fourth round
League Cup	Third round
Full Members' Cup	Second round
Top goalscorer	League: ; Bobby Davison (14); All: ; Bobby Davison (17)
Highest home attendance	33,325 vs Bradford City; (1 March 1989, Second Division)
Lowest home attendance	3,220 vs Shrewsbury Town; (9 November 1989, Full Members' Cup)
Average home league attendance	21,811
	← 1987–88 1989–90 →

The 1988–89 season saw Leeds United competing in the Football League Second Division.

Season summary

Following two seasons in and just outside of the promotion play-off places, Leeds made a poor start to the season, taking six points from the first six games. A League Cup victory against Peterborough United was not enough to prevent manager and former team captain Billy Bremner from being sacked. Howard Wilkinson was appointed as the new manager on 10 October after a brief caretaker stint by Peter Gunby.

Leeds rose to mid-table by December and sat in 6th by mid-February, losing only two league matches in that time. The turnaround stalled in late February and early March as a winless streak saw the team fall back to 12th in the league table. Wilkinson brought Gordon Strachan, Chris Fairclough, and Carl Shutt into the lineup, and Leeds climbed the table back to 6th by 1 April. Although these new players would be involved in the successes of subsequent years, this season's resurgence did not last, and Leeds took just 11 points from the last eight games to finish the campaign in 10th.

Competitions

Football League Second Division

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
8	Ipswich Town	46	22	7	17	71	61	+10	73
9	West Bromwich Albion	46	18	18	10	65	41	+24	72
10	Leeds United	46	17	16	13	59	50	+9	67
11	Sunderland	46	16	15	15	60	60	0	63
12	Bournemouth	46	18	8	20	53	62	−9	62

Source: thestatcat.co.uk
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored

Results

Win	Draw	Loss

Second Division match details^[1]^[2]^[3]
Date	Opponent	Venue	Result F–A	Scorers	Attendance	Position
27 August 1988	Oxford United	Home	1–1	Snodin	22,038	11
3 September 1988	Portsmouth	Away	0–4	—	15,263	21
10 September 1988	Manchester City	Home	1–1	Blake	23,677	21
17 September 1988	Bournemouth	Away	0–0	—	7,922	19
21 September 1988	Barnsley	Home	2–0	Davison, Hilaire	17,370	17
24 September 1988	Chelsea	Home	0–2	—	26,080	18
1 October 1988	Brighton & Hove Albion	Away	1–2	Baird	7,109	21
4 October 1988	Sunderland	Away	1–2	Davison	12,671	21
8 October 1988	Watford	Home	0–1	—	15,657	21
16 October 1988	Swindon Town	Away	0–0	—	9,234	21
22 October 1988	Leicester City	Home	1–1	Hilaire	17,263	21
26 October 1988	Bradford City	Away	1–1	Davison	13,048	21
29 October 1988	Hull City	Home	2–1	Baird, Sheridan	17,536	21
5 November 1988	Ipswich Town	Away	1–0	Sheridan (pen)	11,750	20
12 November 1988	West Bromwich Albion	Home	2–1	Baird, Aizlewood	20,442	19
19 November 1988	Oldham Athletic	Away	2–2	Davison (2)	8,824	20
22 November 1988	Birmingham City	Away	0–0	—	6,168	19
26 November 1988	Stoke City	Home	4–0	Baird (2), Davison, Sheridan (pen)	19,933	14
3 December 1988	Walsall	Away	3–0	Davison (2), Whitlow	6,885	11
10 December 1988	Shrewsbury Town	Home	2–3	Davison, Sheridan (pen)	19,967	14
17 December 1988	Crystal Palace	Away	0–0	—	9,847	14
26 December 1988	Blackburn Rovers	Home	2–0	Baird, Davison	31,622	11
31 December 1988	Plymouth Argyle	Home	2–0	Baird, Snodin	24,043	11
2 January 1989	Manchester City	Away	0–0	—	33,034	11
14 January 1989	Birmingham City	Home	1–0	Hilaire	21,937	7
21 January 1989	Oxford United	Away	2–3	Blake, Hilaire	7,928	11
4 February 1989	Sunderland	Home	2–0	Davison, Sheridan (pen)	31,985	8
11 February 1989	Watford	Away	1–1	Pearson	13,439	9
18 February 1989	Leicester City	Away	2–1	Snodin, Davison	14,151	6
25 February 1989	Swindon Town	Home	0–0	—	22,651	8
1 March 1989	Bradford City	Home	3–3	Baird, Blake, Hilaire	33,325	8
5 March 1989	West Bromwich Albion	Away	1–2	Adams	15,914	10
11 March 1989	Ipswich Town	Home	2–4	Blake, Hilaire	19,639	12
14 March 1989	Hull City	Away	2–1	Baird, Davison	8,887	10
19 March 1989	Barnsley	Away	2–2	Aizlewood, Sheridan (pen)	11,578	10
25 March 1989	Portsmouth	Home	1–0	Baird	27,049	8
27 March 1989	Blackburn Rovers	Away	0–2	—	11,533	10
1 April 1989	Bournemouth	Home	3–0	Shutt (3)	21,095	6
5 April 1989	Crystal Palace	Home	1–2	Shutt	25,604	9
9 April 1989	Plymouth Argyle	Away	0–1	—	9,365	10
15 April 1989	Brighton & Hove Albion	Home	1–0	Williams	14,915	7
22 April 1989	Chelsea	Away	0–1	—	30,337	10
29 April 1989	Stoke City	Away	3–2	Davison, Strachan, Sheridan (pen)	9,051	10
1 May 1989	Walsall	Home	1–0	Aizlewood	13,280	10
6 May 1989	Oldham Athletic	Home	0–0	—	14,459	10
13 May 1989	Shrewsbury Town	Away	3–3	Rennie, Strachan (2)	4,693	10

FA Cup

Win	Draw	Loss

FA Cup match details^[4]
Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result F–A	Scorers	Attendance
Third round	7 January 1989	Brighton & Hove Albion	Away	2–1	Baird (2)	10,900
Fourth round	28 January 1989	Nottingham Forest	Away	0–2	—	28,107

League Cup

Win	Draw	Loss

League Cup match details^[4]
Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result F–A	Scorers	Attendance
Second round first leg	27 September 1988	Peterborough United	Away	2–1	Snodin, Baird	4,979
Second round second leg	12 October 1988	Peterborough United	Home	3–1 (5–2 agg.)	Davison, Hilaire, Sheridan (pen.)	8,894
Third round	2 November 1988	Luton Town	Home	0–2	—	19,447

Full Members' Cup

Win	Draw	Loss

Full Members' Cup match details^[4]
Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result F–A	Scorers	Attendance
First round	9 November 1988	Shrewsbury Town	Home	3–1	Davison (2), Aizlewood	3,220
Second round	29 November 1988	Millwall	Away	0–2	—	4,242

First team squad

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


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	GK	ENG	Mervyn Day
—	GK	ENG	Ian Andrews
—	GK	WAL	Neil Edwards
—	DF	WAL	Mark Aizlewood (captain)
—	DF	ENG	Mickey Adams
—	DF	SCO	Jack Ashurst
—	DF	ENG	Neil Aspin
—	DF	ENG	Brendan Ormsby
—	DF	ENG	Simon Grayson
—	DF	ENG	Chris Fairclough
—	DF	ENG	Peter Haddock
—	DF	ENG	Mike Whitlow
—	DF	ENG	Gary Williams
—	DF	SCO	David Rennie
—	DF	JAM	Noel Blake
—	DF	ENG	Dylan Kerr
—	DF	ENG	Glynn Snodin
—	DF	ENG	Peter Swan


No.	Pos.	Nation	Player
—	MF	ENG	David Batty
—	MF	ENG	Vince Hilaire
—	MF	IRL	John Sheridan
—	MF	WAL	Gary Speed
—	MF	ENG	John Stiles
—	MF	SCO	Gordon Strachan (captain)
—	MF	WAL	Mickey Thomas
—	MF	ENG	Andy Williams
—	FW	ENG	Ian Baird
—	FW	ENG	Bobby Davison
—	FW	ENG	Peter Mumby
—	FW	ENG	John Pearson
—	FW	ENG	Carl Shutt
—	FW	ENG	Bob Taylor

Transfers

Transfers in

Player	From club	Transfer fee
Vince Hilaire	Portsmouth	£190,000
Noel Blake	Portsmouth	Free
Andy Williams	Rotherham United	£175,000
Gordon Strachan	Manchester United	£300,000
Chris Fairclough	Tottenham Hotspur	£500,000
Carl Shutt	Bristol City	£50,000

Transfers out

Player	To club	Transfer fee
Bobby McDonald	V.S. Rugby	Free
Vince Brockie	Doncaster Rovers	£15,000
Jack Ashurst	Doncaster Rovers	£10,000
Mickey Adams	Southampton	£250,000
Peter Swan	Hull City	£200,000
Bob Taylor	Bristol City	£175,000

Loaned in

Player	From club
Ian Andrews	Celtic

Loaned out

Player	To club
Ronnie Sinclair	Halifax Town

Source: leeds-fans.org^[3]

References

^ "Leeds United Results 1988/89". www.soccerbase.com. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
^ "eng-championship-1988-1989". www.worldfootball.net. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Leeds United: Season 1988 - 1989: Division Two". leeds-fans.org. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Leeds United 1988–89". www.ozwhitelufc.net.au. Retrieved 20 August 2020.

[www.soccerbase.com-1] "Leeds United Results 1988/89". www.soccerbase.com. Retrieved 9 May 2020.

[www.worldfootball.net-2] "eng-championship-1988-1989". www.worldfootball.net. Retrieved 14 May 2020.

[leeds-fans.org-3] "Leeds United: Season 1988 - 1989: Division Two". leeds-fans.org. Retrieved 14 May 2020.

[ozwhitelufc-4] "Leeds United 1988–89". www.ozwhitelufc.net.au. Retrieved 20 August 2020.

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