16th March 1998

[Fan of Big Tone]

I’ve been clearing our loft and found some old ornaments wrapped in newspaper, one paper was the Evening Post from 16th March 1998.

Who remembers our championship winning year under Sam Alardyce?

[DangerousSausage]

I remember it well, and I remember the game against Colchester too! That day was a bit of a damp squib, a 0-0 draw and I can't remember whether we'd have gone up with a win. Luckily we were at home the following week too, and we just needed a win to claim the title.

Fun fact: that season Lincoln won automatic promotion on just 75 points, some 24 behind us.

[liampie]

it sounded like a brilliant season even if big sam decided to go to bolton at the end of it, he delivered promotion and @Chris has mentioned that we played arsenal in the pre-season after selling jermaine pennent to them. i cant imagine finding my clippings from papers these days, as i dont buy any and prefer to read content from more credible sources.  

[Chris]

I believe I would average between 5–6 games per season with my grandfather, until 1998. He wanted me to witness seeing Notts go up as Champions, so we went to a fair amount of games that season. I remember the red arrows and a parachuter entering the stadium by gliding in before the Arsenal friendly.

The season itself, I don't remember a lot of - it all sort of merges into one.

It was a good season. I had seen Notts be successful before but not to this level. I know my grandfather felt it was important for us to get out of League Two. Little would he know that after his death, it would be where we called home for far too long. It's why we shouldn't rush things or think on the short term objective.

[DangerousSausage]

Sam left us 18 months later @liampie, so he had another full season after that one. We struggled after we went up. We suffered an injury to a key player (Sean Farrell) and couldn't score. But in the end we stayed up comfortably after bringing in a series of strikers (including Stallard) and did well the following season. 

To put it in the right context, we hadn't played in the fourth division for 30 years until that promotion season. Dropping that far seemed almost as unimaginable as falling into the National League a few years back, and it was really important to the club to bounce back quickly. So it was all the more depressing when things went downhill again after Sam left. 

[TheSkipper]

It would have been an amazing season to watch unfold, before my time though, but I appreciate reading what fans have to say. @DangerousSausage has some very interesting comments which help to learn more about the season.

[Fan of Big Tone]

The thing I remember most about that season was Big Sam singing “We are the Champions” whilst holding the trophy aloft.