Division One, 2001-2002

A look back at our look forward

Never believe what you read here. This is what we said at the start of the season compared with what happened. Our league finish prediction in [**].

  1. Manchester City [3]
    We said: A play off place for Man City, probably followed by promotion at Wembley.
    Now we say: Decent start turned into better than decent finish. Deserved to be champions.
  2. West Brom [8]
    We said: Lack the quality needed for a serious promotion push.
    Now we say: Signin Darren Moore for a snip of £750,000 turned them from also rans to serious contender. Add to that the lack of qulaity in the division and West Brom are Premiership.
  3. Wolves [13]
    We said: Season come, season go, but Wolves stay the same.
    Now we say: Play offs not done at the time of writing but you can bet they will stuff it up agian.
  4. Milwall [19]
    We said: Loss of striker Neil Harris for the season is a huge blow but they should have enough talent to stay up.
    Now we say: Shows what can be done with a team of young talent.
  5. Birmingham City [4]
    We said: A losing play off place.
    Now we say: Replaced one awful manager with another when they got Steve Bruce.
  6. Norwich City [14]
    We said: Norwich are a cautionary tale of letting resources go unused.
    Now we say: Dark horses did well. Had it not been for wretched away form they could have been West Brom.
  7. Burnley [11]
    We said: Limited resources will curtail Stan Ternant's efforts to get is beloved Burnley any higher.
    Now we say: Made the most of what they had, but perhaps over stretched at the end with the signing of Paul Gascoigne.
  8. Preston North End [7]
    We said: Slow start, decent finish.
    Now we say: The lost Moyes. Hard to see them getting back to the play off final of the season before this in the near future.
  9. Wimbledon [10]
    We said: Respectable mid table but the Dons.
    Now we say: Still Respectable.
  10. Crystal Palace [23]
    We said: Frankly appalling manager in Steve Bruce will see Palace plumbing the depths.
    Now we say: Replaced one awful manager with another when they got Trevor Francis.
  11. Coventry City [2]
    We said: The standard of football that Cov and Bradford City have got used to playing at is significantly higher, something that will show this year.
    Now we say: Cov sack good managers for fun. Expect nothing next year either.
  12. Gillingham [22]
    We said: Not enough players good enough for the division.
    Now we say: If the Gills had played like they did against us against everyone else then they would be here. They must do better against other clubs.
  13. Sheffield United [6]
    We said: Following by some way after the top five will be one of a tight bunch of teams.
    Now we say: Poor side.
  14. Watford [5]
    We said: Expect Vialli's Watford to be good, but beatable.
    Now we say: It takes more than a nice jumper to get on in this division.
  15. Bradford City [1]
    We said: We will go up and we will go up as champions.
    Now we say: I do not things we were over optimistic to want the championship, it was a very poor division, but we did underestimate the team that Jim Jefferies had built.
  16. Nottingham Forest [12]
    We said: Paul Hart will be happy with the finish, Forest fans will not be.
    Now we say: A tidy season off the field but not the stuff of Nottingham Forest.
  17. Portsmouth [16]
    We said: Expect nothing decent from the South Coast club.
    Now we say: We were spot on.
  18. Walsall [18]
    We said: The briefest flirtation with relegation.
    Now we say: Colin Lee saved the day. Good on him.
  19. Grimsby Town [20]
    We said: Should be safe, at least for this year.
    Now we say: Safe but you have to worry about them next season.
  20. Rotherham [21]
    We said: The good team spirit factor and the lets stay up to annoy the hell out of them factor that did well for City in the Premiership will come into force.
    Now we say: Good work fellas.
  21. Sheffield Wednesday [15]
    We said: Wednesday should be happy with this finish.
    Now we say: Wednesday were happy to finish lower but stay up. How he mighty have fallen.
  22. Crewe [17]
    We said: Another year in the First Division is another victory.
    Now we say: Shame, damn shame.
  23. Barnsley [9]
    We said: New star replacements Gallen and Gorre guided Town down last year so do not expect fireworks from them.
    Now we say: Barnsley relegated! A cautionary tail for us all.
  24. Stockport [24]
    We said: Expect everything to go wrong, a couple of managers and a low points tally.
    Now we say: How right we were.