Friel

A list of all sides relegated from the 2nd tier since  2001/02 with 3rd tier season position the following year. 2001/02 Crewe - 2nd Promoted Barnsley - 19th Stockport - 14th 2002/03 Sheff Weds -16th Brighton - Promoted (Playoffs 4th) Grimsby - 21st (relegated) 03/04 Walsall - 14th Bradford - 11th MK dons - 20th 04/05 Gillingham - 14th Forest - 7th Rotherham - 20th 05/06 Crewe - 13th Millwall - 10th Brighton - 18th 06/07 Southend - 6th (Playoffs - failed) Luton - 24th (Relegated) Leeds - 5th (Playoffs - failed) 07/08 Leicester - 1st (Promoted) Scunthorpe (Playoffs - yet to play) Colchester -12th So in the last 7 years of the 21 sides that have gone down, only 2 sides have gone back up automatically, 4 have reached the playoffs but only one has gone up that way (Scunthorpe may make it 2 this season) and two sides have been relegated. Luton aside, the last two seasons have seen an improvement in the how relegated sides have faired so maybe the gap is widening.

[quote user="WACCOLO"]I totally agree with point 1 and thats a main thing you have to to - accept where you are, but for the most of it, i dont agree with point 2. Going to many games home and away this season i have enjoyed every minute of it, partly through success and partly because the grounds are places ive never been to before, great atmosphere (fantastic being on a terrace..) and i think the majority of you will enjoy it, our fans had fantastic banter with clayton ince and walsall, including a snowball fight, we have created a great friendship with cheltenham and their fantastic fans.But mainly, the pitches are generally no worse than in the championship and the there is a lot of good football played, so i definately wouldnt call their teams ''crap'', even hereford came with an attackive 4-4-2, looking to play football how its meant to be played, overall i''d say about 16-18 of the teams come to play good football and definately gave us a good game home and away. If/ when you are confirmed as relegated, dont expect it to be an easy season playing against crap teams, because its not like that, and enjoy the new grounds and this time next year, you would have had an amazing time at all the little grounds (with an atmosphere and a bit of character, unlike a lot of grounds in the top 2 leagues - leicesters included) and its also a great time to rebuild and get a winning mentality to push onwards in the future.Just enjoy it and hopefully your team won''t make hard work of it like forest.. p.s (to forest fan) i''m looking forward to our game (and all our other derby matches) next season.. see you soon!! :D[/quote]Well i guess its a few years now since we went down there, your experience being more recent is probably more accurate - I certainly think things improved for the 3 season we were down there, maybe i over-egged the statement, however bear in mind when we first went down we had to visit Chesterfield  - by far and away the worst ground in England! Without turning a Norwich messageboard into an east midlands love-in, I think all teams relegated from the CCC could do with a trip up to Liecester to find out how to deal with Div 1 as the manner in which you bounced back was pretty emphatic, and certanly better than the dog''s dinner we made of it. Looking forward to our derby games next season too.Peace

Greetings Canaries Assuming you dont get your get out of jail free card on Sunday and get relegated, I''ve compiled this guide for fans of a big club on how to survive League One, or as I affectionately call it, ''The Abyss''. As a Forest fan, we had 3 delightful seasons down there, so I know of what I speak. If you do get out of jail, keep this handy and read it next year, as safety often convinces boards that all is fine and nothing changes - there''s clearly something wrong at your club, and it often takes relegation to shake things up so maybe in the long run its best to get it over with. 1) Get over yourselves - Seriously, you arent the first ''big'' club to go down to the third tier, and sadly you wont be the last. Man City, Wednesday, Forest and Dirty Leeds all went before you - hey you''ve even got Southampton, Charlton and (hopefully) Dirty Leeds as company, you wont be alone like we were for the first 2 years until Dirty Leeds joined us down there. Expect a team like Derby or Watford to follow you next year. Sad but true. 2) Its a crap division - so get used to it, Crap teams, crap grounds, crap crowds and unplayable quagmire pitches - and thats just August. Worst thing is, you''ll be losing to some of these teams - you''ll be a ''scalp'', their cup final, they''ll be desperate to beat you, or they''ll put ten men behind the ball and say ''come on then, we''re happy with a point''. Its shite, truly shite. 3) "You''re not famous anymore" - expect to hear that alot. Best response is "You weren''t famous anyway". If its sung at their home ground, "here cos its Norwich, you''re only here cos its Norwich" will do the job nicely. Should you score and make it 1-0 for example, "one nil to the famous team, one nil to the famous team...." always goes down a treat. If you''re losing, or have lost, just grin and bear it. 4)  Your local rivals - Will be pissing themselves, on a weekly basis. If you lose, they''ll take the piss, if you win they''ll take the piss "oh wow, you beat <crap team>, woohoo lol". Suck it up, theres nowhere to run and nowhere to hide, you went down, they didnt, they have the bragging rights and you will just have to live with it - think about it, what would you do if roles were reversed,? Exactly the same - Your only hope is that they get a flukey promotion to the premiership, get utterly found out and become the worst team in history - this strategy worked quite well for us. 5) Ok pop quiz - Its late february, you''re a few points off the playoffs - lower than you expected to be after a dodgy run of results, you have a home game against a bottom 6 side thats shipped goals all season, its half time and its goalless. What do you do?  a) hope for better in the second half, go and get a pie. b) boo your team off becuase you should be turning teams like this over in your sleep. If you chose b, you are a cock. This isnt the Ryman premier, you;re not playing pub sides, these are professional players playing for professional teams, and theyre not going to roll over cos you once played in Europe. You''re not going to win every game 4-0, youre not going to win every game period. So what if you only beat yeovil 1-0 with a lucky 87th minute penalty, at least you won. If you''re losing 3-0 at half time then fine, boo away, they deserve it, but booing your team because it isnt men against boys is just gay. Treat every goal, and every win as a bonus, not a given. Some fans expect too much - dont be such a fan. 6) Promotion is the sweetest - think it was great going up to the prem? Thats nothing from the feeling of getting out of Division one. There are benefits to losing out on promotion to the premiership - you get to play in the championship, and that means watching your team play on a saturday afternoon, no ridiculous ticket prices and being part of a genuine league as opposed to a cartel of four sides with sixteen others who just dont want to go down. There are no benefits to losing out on promotion to the championship from Div 1, and when promotion comes the joy is augmented by bucketfuls of utter relief. Our promotion day against Yeovil on the final day matched any from the European days for atmosphere and pure jizz-my-pantsness. Promotion will come eventually, it is inevitable, Division One is like a septic tank - its full of crap but eventually the big chunks rise to the top. Now go my son, tread the oft-worn path of a big club in Division One, and when you return to the championship - for return you surely will - may you be a better fan for it.

I''ve always had a soft spot for Norwich.I''ll be knocking on 40 next year, and ever since the fashanu wonder-goal against the scousers in 1980, Norwich have been a club i''ve always had time for. Maybe its because - aside from our 3 seasons of massive over-achievement in the late seventies - they have often reminded me of my own club - a medium sized provincial club renowned for playing attractive football on the ground, unlikely to win the league but the odd good season now and then, a wembley appearance or two, and a brief flirtation with Europe. Maybe its because I never felt under threat at Carrow Road wearing my forest shirt, or it was never a siege war when Norwich came to the city ground, just nine times out of ten a bloody good game. Whatever the reason, I remember fondly the generous 6-2 5-0 and 1-0 you allowed us in 90/91, or the good natured banter in the 0-0 at Carrow road the following season ("whats it like to plough a field?" "real fun real fun real fun"), and joining in the "Alan Hansen, what a wanker" chants as you turned us over 3-0 at our place in Cloughie''s sad final season - he was right of course, you were never going to win the league, but a wanker he was, second only to John Aldridge - the Jade Goody of the Hillsborough tragedy, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.Fast forward to April 27th 2009 9.55pm, and im punching the air as Norwich''s defeat at home to Reading means Forest are safe from relegation - finally some good news in this miserable season of ...well...misery. A satisfying look at the bottom of the Championship confirms our safety, and then it hits me - Norwich are as good as down. This club that reminds me so much of my own is treading the same path we did 4 years ago. Relegation to the third division, sorry, division one , or whatever its called this week.Its with heavy heart that I celebrate our safety, knowing the cost at which it came. Yes I know Norwich aren''t down yet, a win next sunday and a defeat for barnsley will save the canaries, but even the most optimistic must admit the end is looking pretty damn nigh. Division one is no picnic - Leicester aside, teams that go down there rarely bounce straight back, there isnt the gap that exists between prem and CCC, you have to improve to go back up, stagnate or sell players and you''ll end up like Huddersfield.I''ll be praying for a miracle this weekend, but should one fail to materialize, I hope good times return to Carrow Road soon.