1995–96 Blackburn Rovers F.C. season

During the 1995–96 English football season, Blackburn Rovers F.C. competed in the FA Premier League.

Blackburn Rovers F.C.

1995–96 season
Owner	Jack Walker
Chairman	Robert Coar
Manager	Ray Harford
Stadium	Ewood Park
FA Premier League	7th
FA Cup	Third round
League Cup	Fourth round
FA Charity Shield	Runners-up
UEFA Champions League	Group stage
Top goalscorer	League: Shearer (31) All: Shearer (37)
Average home league attendance	27,714
Home colours Away colours Third colours
← 1994–95 1996–97 →

Season summary

Blackburn had a disappointing title defence in the FA Premier League, dropping to 7th in the standings in the wake of Kenny Dalglish's resignation as manager. Their first half of the season was little short of disastrous, their 5–0 defeat at struggling Coventry City in mid December being their eighth in the league, with relegation a distinct possibility. However, Blackburn improved in the second half of the season, losing just five more games and only narrowly missing out on a UEFA Cup place.

They also got knocked out of the Champions League already in the group stage against comparatively unknown Rosenborg and Legia Warsaw. Compounding the misery was the sale of fan favourite and top scorer Alan Shearer, who went to Newcastle for a British transfer record at the end of July.

Final league table

Main article: 1995–96 FA Premier League

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
5	Arsenal	38	17	12	9	49	32	+17	63	Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round
6	Everton	38	17	10	11	64	44	+20	61	Excluded from the UEFA Cup[a]
7	Blackburn Rovers	38	18	7	13	61	47	+14	61
8	Tottenham Hotspur	38	16	13	9	50	38	+12	61
9	Nottingham Forest	38	15	13	10	50	54	−4	58

Source: Premier League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
Notes:

1. The Football Association was initially awarded a UEFA Fair Play berth to the Premier League's highest-placed team not qualified for Europe, but was revoked by UEFA for its clubs fielding under-strength sides in the 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup.^[1]

Results summary

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
38	18	7	13	61	47	+14	61	14	2	3	44	19	+25	4	5	10	17	28	−11

Source: Statto

Results by round

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38
Ground	H	A	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	A	H	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A
Result	W	L	L	L	D	L	W	L	W	D	W	L	L	W	D	W	L	W	D	W	W	D	W	W	W	L	L	L	D	W	W	L	L	W	W	W	D	W
Position	6	7	13	13	14	17	13	15	11	11	11	11	11	10	13	10	11	11	10	9	9	10	8	5	6	6	9	9	10	8	6	8	9	9	8	6	7	7

Source: Statto.com
A = Away; H = Home; W = Win; D = Draw; L = Loss

Results

Blackburn Rovers' score comes first^[2]

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

FA Premier League

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
19 August 1995	Queens Park Rangers	H	1–0	22,860	Shearer (pen)
23 August 1995	Sheffield Wednesday	A	1–2	25,544	Shearer
26 August 1995	Bolton Wanderers	A	1–2	20,253	Holmes
28 August 1995	Manchester United	H	1–2	29,843	Shearer
9 September 1995	Aston Villa	H	1–1	27,084	Shearer
16 September 1995	Liverpool	A	0–3	39,502
23 September 1995	Coventry City	H	5–1	24,382	Shearer (3), Hendry, Pearce
30 September 1995	Middlesbrough	A	0–2	29,462
14 October 1995	Southampton	H	2–1	26,780	Bohinen, Shearer
21 October 1995	West Ham United	A	1–1	21,776	Shearer
28 October 1995	Chelsea	H	3–0	27,733	Sherwood, Shearer, Newell
5 November 1995	Everton	A	0–1	30,097
8 November 1995	Newcastle United	A	0–1	36,473
18 November 1995	Nottingham Forest	H	7–0	27,660	Shearer (3), Bohinen (2), Newell, Le Saux
26 November 1995	Arsenal	A	0–0	37,695
2 December 1995	West Ham United	H	4–2	26,638	Shearer (3, 1 pen), Newell
9 December 1995	Coventry City	A	0–5	29,469
16 December 1995	Middlesbrough	H	1–0	27,996	Shearer
23 December 1995	Wimbledon	A	1–1	7,105	Kimble (own goal)
26 December 1995	Manchester City	H	2–0	28,915	Shearer, Batty
30 December 1995	Tottenham Hotspur	H	2–1	30,004	Marker, Shearer
1 January 1996	Leeds United	A	0–0	31,285
13 January 1996	Queens Park Rangers	A	1–0	13,957	Shearer
20 January 1996	Sheffield Wednesday	H	3–0	24,732	Shearer, Bohinen, Gallacher
3 February 1996	Bolton Wanderers	H	3–1	30,419	Shearer (3)
10 February 1996	Manchester United	A	0–1	42,681
24 February 1996	Liverpool	H	2–3	30,895	Wilcox, Sherwood
28 February 1996	Aston Villa	A	0–2	28,008
2 March 1996	Manchester City	A	1–1	29,078	Shearer
13 March 1996	Leeds United	H	1–0	23,358	Fenton
16 March 1996	Tottenham Hotspur	A	3–2	32,387	Shearer (3, 1 pen)
30 March 1996	Everton	H	0–3	29,468
6 April 1996	Southampton	A	0–1	14,793
8 April 1996	Newcastle United	H	2–1	30,717	Fenton (2)
13 April 1996	Nottingham Forest	A	5–1	25,273	Shearer, McKinlay, Wilcox (2), Fenton
17 April 1996	Wimbledon	H	3–2	24,174	Shearer (2), Fenton
27 April 1996	Arsenal	H	1–1	29,834	Gallacher
5 May 1996	Chelsea	A	3–2	28,436	Sherwood, McKinlay, Fenton

FA Charity Shield

Main article: 1995 FA Charity Shield

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
13 August 1995	Everton	N	0–1	40,149

FA Cup

Main article: 1995–96 FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R3	6 January 1996	Ipswich Town	A	0–0	21,236
R3R	16 January 1996	Ipswich Town	H	0–1	19,606

League Cup

Main article: 1995–96 Football League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R2 1st Leg	20 September 1995	Swindon Town	A	3–2	14,740	Sutton, Shearer (2)
R2 2nd Leg	4 October 1995	Swindon Town	H	2–0	16,924	Shearer (2)
R3	24 October 1995	Watford	A	2–1	17,035	Shearer, Newell
R4	29 November 1995	Leeds United	A	1–2	26,006	Kelly (own goal)

UEFA Champions League

Main article: 1995–96 UEFA Champions League

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers	Referee
Group B	13 September 1995	Spartak Moscow	H	0–1	20,940		Michel Piraux (Belgium)
Group B	27 September 1995	Rosenborg	A	1–2	12,210	Newell	Günter Benkö (Austria)
Group B	18 October 1995	Legia Warsaw	A	0–1	15,000		Anders Frisk (Sweden)
Group B	1 November 1995	Legia Warsaw	H	0–0	20,897		Urs Meier (Switzerland)
Group B	22 November 1995	Spartak Moscow	A	0–3	25,000		Pierluigi Pairetto (Italy)
Group B	6 December 1995	Rosenborg	H	4–1	20,677	Shearer (pen), Newell (3)	Didier Pauchard (France)

Squad

^[3] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  ENG Tim Flowers 2 DF  WAL Chris Coleman 3 DF  IRL Jeff Kenna 4 MF  ENG Tim Sherwood 5 DF  SCO Colin Hendry 6 DF  ENG Graeme Le Saux 7 MF  ENG Stuart Ripley 8 FW  SCO Kevin Gallacher 9 FW  ENG Alan Shearer 10 FW  ENG Mike Newell 11 MF  ENG Jason Wilcox 12 DF  ENG Nicky Marker 13 GK  ENG Bobby Mimms 14 FW  ENG Graham Fenton 15 MF  ENG Matty Holmes 16 FW  ENG Chris Sutton

No. Pos. Nation Player 17 MF  SCO Billy McKinlay 18 MF  SWE Niklas Gudmundsson 19 DF  ENG Adam Reed 20 DF  NOR Henning Berg 21 MF  ENG Paul Harford 22 MF  NOR Lars Bohinen 23 MF  ENG Garry Flitcroft 24 DF  ENG Paul Warhurst 25 DF  ENG Ian Pearce 26 DF  IRL Gary Tallon 27 DF  ENG Tony Whealing 28 MF  ENG Wayne Gill 29 DF  ENG Steve Hitchen 30 DF  ENG Marlon Broomes 31 GK  IRL Shay Given 34 DF  ENG Gary Croft

Left club during season

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

No. Pos. Nation Player 22 MF  ENG Mark Atkins (to Wolverhampton Wanderers) 14 MF  ENG Lee Makel (to Huddersfield Town)

No. Pos. Nation Player 23 MF  ENG David Batty (to Newcastle United)

Reserve squad

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

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  AUS Frank Talia — DF  IRL Graham Coughlan — DF  ENG Richard Hope — DF  IRL David Worrell

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  IRL Damien Duff — FW  ENG James Beattie — FW  ENG Michael Holt

Transfers

In

Date	Pos	Name	From	Fee
9 August 1995	DF	Adam Reed	Darlington	£200,000
15 August 1995	MF	Matty Holmes	West Ham United	£1,200,000
1 October 1995	MF	Lars Bohinen	Nottingham Forest	£700,000
10 October 1995	MF	Billy McKinlay	Dundee United	£1,750,000
14 October 1995	DF	Graham Coughlan	Bray Wanderers	£100,000
6 November 1995	ST	Graham Fenton	Aston Villa	£1,500,000
21 December 1995	DF	Chris Coleman	Crystal Palace	£2,800,000
1 March 1996	MF	Niklas Gudmundsson	Halmstads BK	£750,000
28 March 1996	MF	Garry Flitcroft	Manchester City	£3,500,000
29 March 1996	DF	Gary Croft	Grimsby Town	£1,600,000

Out

Date	Pos	Name	To	Fee
11 August 1995	MF	Tony Carss	Darlington	Free transfer
14 August 1995	MF	Robbie Slater	West Ham United	£600,000
10 September 1995	MF	Mark Atkins	Wolverhampton Wanderers	£1,000,000
13 October 1995	MF	Lee Makel	Huddersfield Town	£300,000
9 November 1995	GK	Frank Talia	Swindon Town	£150,000
24 February 1996	MF	David Batty	Newcastle United	£3,750,000

Transfers in: £5,750,000

Transfers out: £1,050,000

Total spending: £4,700,000

Statistics

Appearances and goals

No.	Pos	Nat	Player	Total		FA Premier League		FA Cup		League Cup		UEFA Champions League
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Goalkeepers
1	GK	ENG	Tim Flowers	48	0	37	0	2	0	3	0	6	0
13	GK	ENG	Bobby Mimms	2	0	1+1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Defenders
2	DF	WAL	Chris Coleman	22	0	19+1	0	2	0	0	0	0	0
3	DF	IRL	Jeff Kenna	43	0	32	0	2	0	4	0	5	0
5	DF	SCO	Colin Hendry	44	1	33	1	2	0	4	0	5	0
6	DF	ENG	Graeme Le Saux	19	1	13+1	1	0	0	2	0	2+1	0
12	DF	ENG	Nicky Marker	10	1	8+1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
20	DF	NOR	Henning Berg	50	0	38	0	2	0	4	0	6	0
24	DF	ENG	Paul Warhurst	18	0	1+9	0	0	0	1+2	0	4+1	0
25	DF	ENG	Ian Pearce	19	1	12	1	0	0	3	0	4	0
Midfielders
4	MF	ENG	Tim Sherwood	46	3	34	3	1+1	0	4	0	6	0
7	MF	ENG	Stuart Ripley	38	0	28	0	2	0	3	0	4+1	0
11	MF	ENG	Jason Wilcox	10	3	10	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
15	MF	ENG	Matty Holmes	12	1	8+1	1	0	0	0	0	2+1	0
17	MF	SCO	Billy McKinlay	22	2	13+6	2	1+1	0	1	0	0	0
22	MF	NOR	Lars Bohinen	20	4	17+2	4	1	0	0	0	0	0
23	MF	ENG	Garry Flitcroft	3	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Forwards
8	FW	SCO	Kevin Gallacher	19	2	14+2	2	2	0	0	0	0+1	0
9	FW	ENG	Alan Shearer	47	37	35	31	2	0	4	5	6	1
10	FW	ENG	Mike Newell	42	8	26+4	3	2	0	4	1	5+1	4
14	FW	ENG	Graham Fenton	14	6	4+10	6	0	0	0	0	0	0
16	FW	ENG	Chris Sutton	22	1	9+4	0	0	0	2+1	1	3+3	0
18	FW	SWE	Niklas Gudmundsson	4	0	1+3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Players transferred out during the season
14	MF	ENG	Lee Makel	5	0	0+3	0	0	0	0	0	1+1	0
22	MF	ENG	Mark Atkins	5	0	0+4	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
23	MF	ENG	David Batty	33	1	23	1	1	0	4	0	5	0

Last updated: 30 May 1996
Source: Competitions