1995–96 Wimbledon F.C. season


During the 1995–96 English football season, Wimbledon F.C. competed in the FA Premier League. It was their tenth successive season in the top flight of English football and although they finished 14th, lower than on any of the previous nine occasions, they finished high enough to maintain their top flight membership.

Season summary

With the Premiership's lowest crowds and transfer budget, Wimbledon had begun most of their top division seasons since promotion in 1986 as pre-season relegation favourites, but the "Crazy Gang" spirit kept Wimbledon going once again, although their 14th-place finish was their lowest since joining the top flight 10 seasons earlier.
Dean Holdsworth and Efan Ekoku were once again a formidable strikerforce, while Vinnie Jones was as combative as ever and Oyvind Leonhardsen's performances attracted attention from several bigger clubs. Manager Joe Kinnear managed to hold on to all his key assets, as well as adding a few more, over the close season as he grew ever more determined to defy the odds once again.
It was the last season at Wimbledon for long-serving goalkeeper Hans Segers, who lost his place early in the season to Paul Heald and was transferred to Wolves soon afterwards. Within a few months however, Kinnear had decided on Neil Sullivan as his regular goalkeeper.
The season saw Wimbledon play in European competition for the first time in their history, in the Intertoto Cup. However, as Selhurst Park was unavailable the club were forced to play the matches at Brighton & Hove Albion's Goldstone Ground. The lack of home support affected Wimbledon's performances, and they finished fourth in their group of five after a 4-0 home defeat to Turkish club Bursaspor, a 1-1 draw at Slovakian side Košice, a 0-0 draw with Israelis Beitar Jerusalem at home and a 3-0 away defeat at Belgian team Charleroi.

Kit

became Wimbledon's kit manufacturers for the season. Birmingham-based electronics company Elonex remained the kit sponsors.

Final league table

;Results summary
;Results by round

Results

Wimbledon's score comes first

Legend

FA Premier League

FA Cup

RoundDateOpponentVenueResultAttendanceGoalscorers
R36 January 1996WatfordA1-111,187Leonhardsen
R3R17 January 1996WatfordH1-05,142Clarke
R47 February 1996MiddlesbroughA0-028,915
R4R13 February 1996MiddlesbroughH1-05,520Holdsworth
R517 February 1996Huddersfield TownA2-217,307Ekoku
R5R28 February 1996Huddersfield TownH3-17,015Ekoku, Goodman
QF9 March 1996ChelseaA2-230,805Holdsworth, Earle
QFR20 March 1996ChelseaH1-321,380Goodman

League Cup

Players

First-team squad

Squad at end of season

Left club during the season

Transfers

In

Out