Spot the fans

Last updated : 01 September 2002 By Tony Scholes

Dean Sturridge scores for Wolves in front of the Franchise fans - if you look closely you can see him just to the left of the post
Another win for money men Portsmouth keeps them two points clear at the top with sixteen points, this time a 4-2 home win against Brighton who have picked up just one point themselves since their opening day win at the Turf. Brighton now find themselves in the bottom three with Grimsby and the Clarets.

Hot on Portsmouth’s heels are last season’s play off final losers Norwich who secured an easy 4-0 win against Watford to remain within two points. The top two are the only unbeaten sides in the division and Norwich currently have the best goal difference with 13 goals scored and only two conceded. No team has conceded less and only two, Portsmouth and Wolves, have scored more and then only one more.

Wolves were beaten at Franchise in what was probably the shock of the day finding themselves on the wrong end of a 3-2 scoreline, it was their first defeat of the season. The Wolves fans turned up in numbers, the first club not to support the cause against franchising but it was still by some considerable distance the smallest crowd in the league.

There was mixed news for Burnley fans today with the result of the Steel City Derby. Neil Warnock finished on the losing side in a derby for the first time but the Wednesday win means that the Clarets are now four points adrift from fourth bottom club Millwall.

The South London club finally picked up their first win of the season yesterday with a 2-0 home win over Grimsby in front of another dreadful crowd, this time even lower at 6,677. This now leaves just us and Grimsby without a win in the First Division.

Rotherham, as did Wolves, suffered defeat for the first time going down 4-2 at 10p in the pound club Bradford City. There were no goals for Alan Lee this week, in fact with the scoreline at 3-0 to Bradford he was one of three players substituted in one change with John Mullin also being taken off.

In fact there were no ex-Clarets found their way onto the Division One scoresheet this week and we have to drop down a division. That was at Cheltenham where Neil Howarth equalised against Cardiff in a 1-1 draw. There was also a goal for former loan striker Steve Guinan. He is now at Hereford and scored the first goal in their 3-0 win at Nuneaton.

Back to the First Division though and despite not scoring both Alan Lee and David Johnson remain in the list of top scorers as follows:

6: Jamie Cureton (Reading)
5: Paul McVeigh (Norwich)
4: Darren Byfield (Rotherham)
4: Malcolm Christie (Derby)
4: David Johnson (Nottm Forest)
4: Alan Lee (Rotherham)
3: Deon Burton (Portsmouth)
3: Jason Crowe (Portsmouth)
3: Brian Deane (Leicester)
3: Ricardo Fuller (Preston)
3: Shefki Kuqi (Sheffield Wednesday)
3: Phil Mulryne (Norwich)
3: Riccardo Scimeca (Nottm Forest)
3: Neil Shipperley (Franchise)

Once again we have highlighted the crowds at Millwall and Franchise and once again Burnley’s was very disappointing with another record low since our promotion on 2000. Although the figures can be somewhat misleading at this stage of the season dependent on who a team has played at home below are the list of average crowds at each ground so far this season.

28,231

Derby County

28,022

Leicester City

26,677

Wolverhampton Wanderers

26,415

Ipswich Town

25,564

Sheffield Wednesday

20,340

Norwich City

18,721

Nottingham Forest

18,480

Portsmouth

16,320

Crystal Palace

16,032

Coventry City

15,147

Preston North End

14,376

Sheffield United

13,461

Stoke City

13,455

Reading

13,337

Burnley

12,174

Bradford City

10,871

Watford

8,034

Gillingham

7,660

Rotherham United

7,317

Millwall

6,688

Brighton and Hove Albion

5,401

Grimsby Town

5,225

Walsall

2,740

Franchise