Division One – Top and bottom pulling away

Last updated : 02 March 2003 By Tony Scholes

Yakubu Ayegbeni - two goals for Portsmouth
In what is a tight First Division there are now gaps appearing in the vital positions both at the top and bottom of the league.

Second are now eleven points clear of third, whilst sixth are a full six points clear of seventh and down at the bottom of the league the four strugglers now find a gap of nine points to the next club.

Top of the league Portsmouth must surely take the Performance of the Week award with a 5-0 win at Millwall and without any of their supporters allowed in. They were four up by half time and the win sees them go four points clear of Leicester who drew 1-1 at Derby, the home side equalising in stoppage time through Craig Burley.

Third place Reading surprisingly lost at Franchise and they are now just three points ahead of the next three clubs Wolves, Forest and Sheffield United.

Wolves had an easy 4-0 win against Mr. Misery’s Palace whilst Forest drew 1-1 at Watford. Sheffield United were back to winning ways on Friday evening with a 2-1 win at Rotherham where the worst decision of the weekend came with the award of a penalty to Rotherham.

Already 2-0 behind Alan Lee went down in the box with no contact from anyone. Penalty said the referee and Lee took it himself. Remember the 4-2 defeat at Crewe a couple of seasons ago, the game with four penalties? You’ve guessed it, the same referee, Alan Kaye from Wakefield.

After the gap behind the play off positions it is tight, very tight, and there are only eleven points between 7th and 20th (Norwich and Bradford).

Below that it is becoming more and more certain that the three relegated clubs will come from the bottom three. Stoke looked every bit a relegation side against us yesterday and remain two points clear of Sheffield Wednesday and point behind Grimsby and Brighton. They all lost yesterday with all but Brighton at home. They didn’t score a single goal between them.

Sheffield Wednesday lost 1-0 at home to Preston, Grimsby 2-0 at home to Coventry and Brighton 3-0 at Gillingham. It was a big day for Coventry who have had a dreadful spell and this was their first win since Boxing Day.

Ipswich won the East Anglian derby this afternoon and although they remain in 7th place Norwich have now won just one of their last nine games.

There is a full fixture list this midweek although a limited number of matches next Saturday due to four Division One clubs being involved in the FA Cup 6th Round.

The fixtures are as follows with all midweek games kicking off at 7:45 p.m. and all Saturday’s games at 3:00 p.m.

Tuesday 4th March

Bradford City v Leicester City
Franchise v Portsmouth
Gillingham v Nottingham Forest
Grimsby Town v Sheffield United
Millwall v Burnley
Rotherham United v Walsall
Watford v Preston North End

Wednesday 5th March

Derby County v Crystal Palace
Norwich City v Reading
Sheffield Wednesday v Coventry City
Stoke City v Brighton and Hove Albion
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Ipswich Town

Saturday 8th March

Bradford City v Crystal Palace
Brighton and Hove Albion v Rotherham United
Coventry City v Franchise
Ipswich Town v Stoke City
Leicester City v Sheffield Wednesday
Portsmouth v Norwich City
Preston North End v Derby County
Walsall v Millwall

Leading Goalscorers (League Only)

22: David Johnson (Nottm. Forest)
16: David Connolly (Franchise)
16: Paul Dickov (Leicester)
16: Svetoslav Todorov (Portsmouth)
14: Marlon Harewood (Nottm. Forest)
14: Kenny Miller (Wolves)
13: Darren Byfield (Rotherham)
13: Alan Lee (Rotherham)
12: Richard Cresswell (Preston)
12: Andy Gray (Bradford)
12: Paul McVeigh (Norwich)
12: Neil Shipperley (Franchise)
11: Nicky Forster (Reading)
10: Darren Bent (Ipswich)
10: Pablo Counago (Ipswich)
10: Brian Deane (Leicester)
10: Steve Kabba (Sheffield United incl. 6 for Grimsby and 1 for Palace)
10: Gareth Taylor (Burnley)
10: Bobby Zamora (Brighton)