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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 |