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Division One Review - Gillingham shock Tractor Boys

Last updated : 28 October 2002 By Tony Scholes

Palace on the attack against struggling Brighton
This is the big derby game for Brighton and one where their fans were hoping they would turn the corner. For Steve Coppell it was a return to his former club in his first away match in charge at Brighton. It didn’t go to plan though and the Seagulls suffered yet another defeat, their 12th in succession in the league and this was their heaviest yet as they went down 5-0.

Nothing went right, they conceded two penalties and Andy Johnson scored a hat-trick. They already look more than odds on for a quick return to Division Two and their win at the Turf on the opening day of the season still remains their only win.

Performance of the day must go to Gillingham for their 1-0 win at Ipswich. With no disrespect to the Gills I hardly fancied them at Portman Road especially after the way Ipswich played last Tuesday against the Clarets. This result now looks to have cost Tony Mowbray any hope of replacing George Burley as manager and long ball Joe Royle looks favourite to be installed before they play again.

Grimsby’s win at Molineux last season signalled the start of the Wolves collapse but they had no such problems yesterday and gave the struggling Mariners a pasting, their 4-1 win taking them into the top half. Grimsby are thankful to Brighton for keeping them off the bottom but they are now four points away from the safety positions with Franchise picking up a point at Sheffield United.

Gillingham score at Ipswich
It was no surprise to see former Burnley players scoring in two games that each had four goals. Alan Lee scored Rotherham's second in their 4-0 win over Stoke, this was Stoke’s second defeat in south Yorkshire this week, and needless to say David Johnson got Forest’s first from the penalty spot as they came from two down to draw 2-2 at home to Leicester. These two are now clear as the division’s leading scorers.

The top six remain as they were with just Watford and Forest swapping places but despite the defeat to Portsmouth the Clarets remain close to that group. A win yesterday would have seen us go fifth.

There is almost a full fixture list in midweek with games on both Tuesday and Wednesday as follows:

Tuesday 29th October

Franchise v Rotherham United
Gillingham v Wolverhampton Wanderers
Grimsby Town v Burnley
Leicester City v Coventry City
Norwich City v Nottingham Forest
Portsmouth v Preston North End
Reading v Bradford City
Walsall v Crystal Palace

Wednesday 30th October

Derby County v Sheffield United
Sheffield Wednesday v Millwall
Stoke City v Watford

Leading Goalscorers (League only)

14: David Johnson (Nottm. Forest)
9: Alan Lee (Rotherham)
8: Darren Byfield (Rotherham)
8: Paul McVeigh (Norwich)
7: Carl Asaba (Sheffield United)
6: Nathan Blake (Wolves)
6: Malcolm Christie (Derby)
6: Richard Cresswell (Preston)
6: Jamie Cureton (Reading)
6: Brian Deane (Leicester)
6: Paul Dickov (Leicester)
6: Neil Shipperley (Franchise)
6: Svetoslav Todorov (Portsmouth)
5: Darren Ambrose (Ipswich)
5: Jay Bothroyd (Coventry)
5: Pablo Counago (Ipswich)
5: Steve Kabba (Grimsby including 1 for Crystal Palace)
5: David Nielson (Norwich)
5: Vincent Pericard (Portsmouth)
5: Michael Tonge (Sheffield United)
4: Wayne Allison (Sheffield United)
4: Richie Barker (Rotherham)
4: Andy Cooke (Stoke)
4: Nicky Forster (Reading)
4: Dougie Freedman (Crystal Palace)
4: Ricardo Fuller (Preston)
4: David Healy (Preston)
4: Heidar Helguson (Watford)
4: Andy Hughes (Reading)
4: Guy Ipoua (Gillingham)
4: Andy Johnson (Crystal Palace)
4: Shefki Kuqi (Sheffield Wednesday)
4: Jorge Leitao (Walsall)
4: Paul Merson (Portsmouth)
4: Phil Mulryne (Norwich)
4: Michael Proctor (Bradford)
4: Paul Shaw (Gillingham)
4: Dean Sturridge (Wolves)

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