MY99 Uk wagon has developed a fault. It seems to be really hard to get a nice smooth gear change and now it's almost like it's going to stall when the clutch is down. It seems worse from 1st to 2nd. Any pointers as to where I should start looking. And it's not the driver

 

try giving the Idle air control valve a clean(IACV) out for the cutting out,
The gear changes could be a sign of a worn syncro, clutch or are you over reving it ?

 

Cheers. Na I'm driving it steady and don't really rev it. Gearbox has a slight whine in 3rd and 5th and a slight notch going into 2nd.