Division One - Anybody’s game
30/09/02 | by Daniel Harding

In recent years, the First Division has been a two or three-horse race between a club with a rich backer, a relegated team on the way back up and one of a few dormant teams who you wouldn’t expect to be favourites.

At a glance, this year looks to be no different with Portsmouth being the rich team, Leicester the dropouts on the way back and Norwich and Forest appearing to be the best of the rest.

What is different from previous seasons, in my opinion, is that Portsmouth and Leicester are not half as good as Man City and West Brom. Portsmouth, if they do gain promotion, will do so just because of Paul Merson - this cannot be a good basis to build on since Merson hasn’t got long left. Leicester, on the other hand, appear to be a very direct team. I have seen quite a few of their goals and I’m wondering if the TV crew has forgotten to press the record button, because the majority of their goals are identical.

I would have thought that due to the mediocrity of the league, one of those teams will go up (hopefully Forest will snatch one of the top two places). But what has happened to the other teams - the so-called pre-season favourites?

Now it is far too early to write anybody off, as only 11 games have been played, but why are Ipswich, Derby, Wolves, and Millwall and Burnley, to some extent, doing so badly?

    Pld + - Pts
1 Portsmouth 11 25 8 28
2 Leicester City 11 19 10 26
3 Norwich City 11 21 7 24
4 Forest 11 22 12 20
5 Rotherham Utd 11 20 14 18
6 Sheffield United 11 15 13 18
7 Coventry City 11 15 15 18
8 Watford 11 17 18 18
9 Derby County 11 13 15 15
10 Wolverhampton 10 20 13 14
11 Reading 11 11 12 14
12 Gillingham 10 11 14 14
13 Bradford City 11 12 16 14
14 Stoke City 11 14 16 13
15 Walsall 11 13 16 13
16 Preston 11 14 17 12
17 Burnley 10 10 16 12
18 Millwall 11 10 19 12
19 Crystal Palace 10 12 12 11
20 Wimbledon 11 10 17 10
21 Ipswich Town 8 12 8 9
22 Sheffield Wed. 11 9 14 9
23 Grimsby Town 10 6 18 5
24 Brighton 11 9 20 4

Divison One table: 29/09/02

These teams should be, on paper at least, higher than they are but they aren’t. Call it a bad start if you like, but out of those four I would expect only Ipswich to make the play-offs. To do well in this league, you need goals and luck, but most importantly you need passion. This is why season after season teams like Grimsby and Walsall defy the odds and stay up. Rotherham, who, due to a massive stroke of luck last season where they got a vital point they didn’t deserve, are playing very well this season and this is down to their passion. If you aren’t a team like Man City or Fulham, teams like West Brom can get promotion if they are consistent and have passion.

This division is there for the taking - consistency is the key, no matter how much quality you have.

It was back to basics for Portsmouth this week as they bounced back from last week's defeat at Carrow Road to beat Bradford City to stay top - largely due to the goals and industry of a certain Nigel Quashie (did we get a sell-on clause?).

Derby surprisingly managed a win at Portman Road thanks to a Carbonari goal on the stroke of half-time. This could be the start of a momentum building period for them before D-Day on the 20th. Let’s hope not.

Leicester fashioned a win against Wolves and surprise, surprise, Paul Dickov scored another penalty for them as they keep up the pressure on Portsmouth.

In the basement battle, Grimby emerged triumphant thanks to a late goal by Alan Pouton after Bobby Zamora had earlier equalised. One would suspect Brighton will be looking for a new manager shortly.

Finally, about an hour ago, Crystal Palace got a point out of their home encounter with Gillingham. The Gills had twice taken the lead before Wayne Routledge, Palace’s 17-year old right-sided sensation, volleyed them level after the ball reached him at the edge of the box from a corner. For viewers of Channel 4’s The Players, a documentary series about Crystal Palace’s youth team, Wayne may be familiar. This kid has talent and looks to be going all the way. One wonders why a similar documentary has not been carried out at Wilford Lane, since our youth pedigree is slightly higher than that of Crystal Palace.