The Story of a Premiership Season

2000 Cups and awards

Worthington League Cup
Leicester City 2 Tranmere Rovers 1
Both Leicester goals came from set pieces which Matt Elliot headed home but the game turned on the second half dismissal of Tranmere’s Clint Hill. Elliot scored his first goal just short of the half hour but the First Division side hit back with just 13 minutes left, when David ‘Ned’ Kelly equalised. But with the game just nine minutes from extra-time the one-man advantage paid off for the Premiership side and Elliot scored to put City into a winning lead which they maintained. Hill wasn’t the only one to leave the field as Alan Wilkie pulled a calf muscle and became the first referee to be stretchered off at Wembley.

FA Cup Final
Chelsea 1 Aston Villa 0
The last cup final at Wembley proved to be one of the worst football matches staged there, perhaps spoiled by the playing of both semi-finals at the same venue for the first time. The first half was poor but after the interval Chelsea increased the pressure on Villa and it paid off with just 17 minutes remaining. Zola’s free-kick was poorly punched by David James and bounced off Gareth Southgate for Di Matteo to crash the ball into the roof of the net. It was a sad occasion for football reflected in the lowest FA Cup Final attendance since the last pre-Wembley final at Stamford Bridge in 1922.

FWA Footballer of the Year
Roy Keane Manchester United

PFA Player of the Year
Roy Keane Manchester United

PFA Young Player of the Year
Harry Kewell Leeds United

Manager of the Year
Alan Curbishley Charlton Athletic