Gillingham's Kevin James takes a bus ride at the Withdean

Last Updated : 15-Sep-2002 by

Paul Shaw - scored twice for Gillingham
Elsewhere in the division we really do have to start at Brighton where the highlight of the season so far came in stoppage time. Defending a 3-2 lead with only ten men Gillingham hoofed the ball clear to Kevin James who picked it up just inside his own half.

The sole Brighton defender was making his way across as their goalkeeper Andy Petterson was running back towards his own goal line. Petterson tripped and was left down and out and James just slid the ball into the empty net to clinch the game.

That’s when the fun started. James run to the Gillingham fans to celebrate, the fans being almost a bus ride away beyond the running track at the Withdean. As he returned to the pitch referee Mark Cooper waved a second yellow and a red card at him for an over exuberant celebration.

Cooper was called Tommy Cooper by Chris Kamara on Sky and let’s face it the game can really do without this sort of official. Thanks to him though for giving us all a laugh. James didn’t seem to mind either, he run off a hero.

This game also found the only ex-Burnley scorer in the Football League with Paul Shaw scoring twice for Gillingham.

Elsewhere last Tuesday’s Turf Moor referee Colin Webster was busy sending off two Forest players in their home defeat to Watford and there could be no complaints at either decision as firstly David Prutton and then Jack Lester were sent off.

There was another win for leaders Portsmouth and they are already nine points clear of the bottom play off place and only Leicester, who beat Derby 3-1, are staying anywhere near them. Harry Redknapp is believed to be ready to bring in another ten new players should they finally lose a game.

Portsmouth are the only unbeaten team whilst Norwich and Leicester have lost just one. At the other end of the table Grimsby remain the only side without a win and Brighton, Preston, Sheffield Wednesday and Stoke have won just one.

Grimsby came close at Coventry but finally went down to a 3-2 defeat, We have already mentioned Brighton and Stoke’s latest defeats and the other two, Preston and Sheffield Wednesday, fought out a draw at Deepdale.

Sheffield United have hardly looked back since winning at the Turf and they beat Rotherham 1-0 with Peter Ndlovu scoring the winner. Ndlovu was named as a sub but only arrived at the ground just before kick off on his way back from a family funeral in Zimbabwe. He came on with less than twenty minutes to go to score the only goal.

The weekend ended with an amazing finish in the East Anglia derby with Ipswich grabbing a stoppage time equaliser after winning a penalty for hand ball. The spot kick hit the post but Ambrose was quickly onto it to hit in a second shot that was brilliantly saved before it fell to substitute Pablo Counago who hammered it home.

Trying to find former Burnley players having scored is proving difficult but we must mention the hat-trick scored by Dino Maamria for Leigh RMI in their 4-2 Conference home win against Barnet. It is a second hat trick of the season for Burnley's Ethnic Minorities Development Officer.

Back to Division One and the highest attendance of the weekend was the 31,049 who watched the Leicester v Derby game and the lowest was just 4,678 who saw Walsall lose at home again, this time 1-0 against Bradford City.

And finally the leading goal scorers. With as many as fifteen players now having scored three league goals we will now show only those players who have scored four or more.

Darren Byfield’s four goals for Rotherham in their opening day 6-0 win at Millwall remains the only occasion any player has scored three or more in a game this season.

First Division Leading Scorers:

6: Jamie Cureton (Reading)
6: Paul McVeigh (Norwich)
4: Darren Byfield (Rotherham)
4: Malcolm Christie (Derby)
4: Brian Deane (Leicester)
4: Ricardo Fuller (Preston)
4: David Johnson (Nottm Forest)
4: Shefki Kuqi (Sheffield Wednesday)
4: Alan Lee (Rotherham)
4: Neil Shipperley (Franchise)