2002–03 Football League First Division

The 2002–03 Football League First Division (referred to as the Nationwide First Division for sponsorship reasons) was the eleventh season of the league under its current format as the second tier of English football.

Football League First Division

Season	2002–03
Champions	Portsmouth (3rd divisional title)
Promoted	Portsmouth Leicester City Wolverhampton Wanderers
Relegated	Sheffield Wednesday Brighton & Hove Albion Grimsby Town
Matches played	557
Goals scored	1,512 (2.71 per match)
Top goalscorer	Svetoslav Todorov (26 goals)
Biggest home win	Nottm Forest 6–0 Stoke, Wolves 6–0 Gillingham
Biggest away win	Millwall 0–6 Rotherham
Highest scoring	Grimsby 6–5 Burnley, Burnley 4–7 Watford
Longest winning run	7 games[1] Portsmouth
Longest unbeaten run	15 games[1] Leicester City
Longest winless run	16 games[1] Stoke City
Longest losing run	12 games[1] Brighton & Hove Albion
Average attendance	15,599[2]
← 2001–02 2003–04 →

Portsmouth won the division to return to the Premier League after a fifteen-year absence. In Harry Redknapp's first full season in charge the team secured the title on 27 April, with a victory over Rotherham, having been promoted with four games to spare by defeating Burnley.^[3][4]

Leicester City were promoted at the first attempt following their relegation. Their promotion was contentious as they entered administration during the season due to debts in excess of £50 million stemming from their loss of Premier League income and major investment in a new stadium, but were able to write-off these entirely when a new consortium took control and therefore avoided having to sell off players.^[5] Following this incident, the Football League would introduce rules that penalised any club entering administration with a ten-point points deduction;^[6] although Leicester would still have finished in second place had been this been applied.

Wolverhampton Wanderers won the play-offs to reach the modern-day Premiership for the first time after a 3–0 win in the play-off final against a Sheffield United team which had reached the semi-finals of both domestic cup competitions.^[7] This marked a return to top-flight football for Wolves after a nineteen-year exodus that had seen them fall as low as the fourth tier. Also leaving the division were Sheffield Wednesday, Brighton & Hove Albion and Grimsby Town, who were all relegated.

Team changes from previous season

From the First Division

Promoted to the Premiership:

• Manchester City
• West Bromwich Albion
• Birmingham City

Relegated to the Second Division:

• Crewe Alexandra
• Barnsley
• Stockport County

To the First Division

Relegated from the Premiership:

• Leicester City
• Ipswich Town
• Derby County

Promoted from the Second Division:

• Brighton & Hove Albion
• Reading
• Stoke City

Team overview

Stadia and locations

Bradford City

Brighton

Burnley

Coventry

Crystal Palace

Derby County

Gillingham

Grimsby Town

Ipswich Town

Leicester City

Millwall

Norwich City

Nottingham Forest

Portsmouth

Preston North End

Reading

Rotherham

Sheffield United

Sheffield Wednesday

Stoke

Walsall

Watford

Wimbledon

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Locations of the 2002–03 First Division clubs

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Bradford City	Bradford	Bradford & Bingley Stadium	25,136
Burnley	Burnley	Turf Moor	22,546
Brighton & Hove Albion	Brighton	Withdean Stadium	8,850
Coventry City	Coventry	Highfield Road	23,489
Crystal Palace	London	Selhurst Park	26,309
Derby County	Derby	Pride Park	33,597
Gillingham	Gillingham	Priestfield Stadium	11,582
Grimsby Town	Cleethorpes	Blundell Park	10,033
Ipswich Town	Ipswich	Portman Road	30,311
Leicester City	Leicester	Walkers Stadium	32,500
Millwall	London	The New Den	20,146
Nottingham Forest	Nottingham	City Ground	30,576
Norwich City	Norwich	Carrow Road	26,018
Portsmouth	Portsmouth	Fratton Park	20,224
Preston North End	Preston	Deepdale	23,408
Reading	Reading	Madejski Stadium	24,161
Rotherham United	Rotherham	Millmoor	8,300
Sheffield United	Sheffield	Bramall Lane	32,702
Sheffield Wednesday	Sheffield	Hillsborough	39,812
Stoke City	Stoke	Britannia Stadium	27,740
Walsall	Walsall	Bescot Stadium	11,300
Watford	Watford	Vicarage Road	17,504
Wimbledon	London	Selhurst Park1	26,309
Wolverhampton Wanderers	Wolverhampton	Molineux	27,828

• Note 1: Wimbledon rented the use of Crystal Palace's Selhurst Park home.

Personnel and sponsoring

Team	Manager	Kit maker	Sponsor
Bradford City	Nicky Law	BCAFC	JCT600
Burnley	Stan Ternent	TFG Sports	Lanway
Brighton & Hove Albion	Martin Hinshelwood	Erreà	Skint Records
Coventry City	Gary McAllister	CCFC	Subaru
Crystal Palace	Trevor Francis	Le Coq Sportif	Churchill Insurance
Derby County	John Gregory	Erreà	Pedigree
Gillingham	Andy Hessenthaler	Gills Leisure	SeaFrance
Grimsby Town	Paul Groves	Avec	Dixon
Ipswich Town	George Burley	Punch	TXU Energi
Leicester City	Micky Adams	Le Coq Sportif	LG
Millwall	Mark McGhee	Strikeforce	24seven
Nottingham Forest	Paul Hart	Umbro	Pinnacle Insurance
Norwich City	Nigel Worthington	Xara	Digital Phone Company
Portsmouth	Harry Redknapp	Pompey Sport	Ty
Preston North End	Craig Brown	Voi	NewReg.com
Reading	Alan Pardew	Kit@	Westcoast
Rotherham United	Ronnie Moore	Bodyline	T-Mobile
Sheffield United	Neil Warnock	Le Coq Sportif	Desun
Sheffield Wednesday	Terry Yorath	Diadora	Chupa Chups
Stoke City	Steve Cotterill	Le Coq Sportif	Britannia
Walsall	Colin Lee	Xara	Banks's
Watford	Ray Lewington	Kit@	Toshiba
Wimbledon	Stuart Murdoch	Patrick	Go MK
Wolverhampton Wanderers	Dave Jones	Admiral	Doritos

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Brighton & Hove Albion	Peter Taylor	Resigned	29 April 2002[8]	Off season	Martin Hinshelwood	15 July 2002[9]
Brighton & Hove Albion	Martin Hinshelwood	Moved to director of football position	7 October 2002[10]	24th	Steve Coppell	7 October 2002[10]
Stoke City	Steve Cotterill	Resigned to become assistant manager at Sunderland	10 October 2002[11]	15th	Tony Pulis	1 November 2002[12]
Ipswich Town	George Burley	Sacked	11 October 2002[13]	19th	Joe Royle	28 October 2002[14]
Sheffield Wednesday	Terry Yorath	Resigned	31 October 2002[15]	22nd	Chris Turner	7 November 2002[16]
Crystal Palace	Trevor Francis	Mutual consent	18 April 2003[17]	11th	Steve Kember	23 May 2003[18]
Derby County	John Gregory	Sacked	9 May 20032[19][20]	18th (end of season)	George Burley	5 June 20033[21][22]

• Note 2: Although Gregory was dismissed on this date, he had already been suspended from his post on 21 March after "serious allegations" were made against him.
• Note 3: Burley was initially appointed on 31 March as interim manager following John Gregory's suspension.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Portsmouth (C, P)	46	29	11	6	97	45	+52	98	Promotion to 2003–04 FA Premier League
2	Leicester City (P)	46	26	14	6	73	40	+33	92
3	Sheffield United	46	23	11	12	72	52	+20	80	Qualification for First Division Playoffs
4	Reading	46	25	4	17	61	46	+15	79
5	Wolverhampton Wanderers (O, P)	46	20	16	10	81	44	+37	76
6	Nottingham Forest	46	20	14	12	82	50	+32	74
7	Ipswich Town	46	19	13	14	80	64	+16	70
8	Norwich City	46	19	12	15	60	49	+11	69
9	Millwall	46	19	9	18	59	69	−10	66
10	Wimbledon	46	18	11	17	76	73	+3	65
11	Gillingham	46	16	14	16	56	65	−9	62
12	Preston North End	46	16	13	17	68	70	−2	61
13	Watford	46	17	9	20	54	70	−16	60
14	Crystal Palace	46	14	17	15	59	52	+7	59
15	Rotherham United	46	15	14	17	62	62	0	59
16	Burnley	46	15	10	21	65	89	−24	55
17	Walsall	46	15	9	22	57	69	−12	54
18	Derby County	46	15	7	24	55	74	−19	52
19	Bradford City	46	14	10	22	51	73	−22	52
20	Coventry City	46	12	14	20	46	62	−16	50
21	Stoke City	46	12	14	20	45	69	−24	50
22	Sheffield Wednesday (R)	46	10	16	20	56	73	−17	46	Relegation to 2003–04 Second Division
23	Brighton & Hove Albion (R)	46	11	12	23	49	67	−18	45
24	Grimsby Town (R)	46	9	12	25	48	85	−37	39

Updated to match(es) played on 11 May 2003. Source: Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated

Play-offs

Main article: 2003 Football League play-offs

	Semi-finals							Final
	3	Sheffield United	1	4	5
	6	Nottingham Forest	1	3	4
								3	Sheffield United	0
								5	Wolverhampton Wanderers	3
	4	Reading	1	0	1
	5	Wolverhampton Wanderers	2	1	3

Awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Notes
	Manager	Club
August	Harry Redknapp	Portsmouth	[23]
September	Micky Adams	Leicester City	[24]
October	Ray Lewington	Watford	[25]
November	Alan Pardew	Reading	[26]
December	Gary McAllister	Coventry City	[27]
January	Neil Warnock	Sheffield United	[28]
February	Alan Pardew	Reading	[29]
March	Joe Royle	Ipswich Town	[30]
April	Mark McGhee	Millwall	[31]

PFA Team of the Year^[32]

Pos.	Player	Club
GK	Shaka Hislop	Portsmouth
DF	Denis Irwin	Wolverhampton Wanderers
DF	Joleon Lescott	Wolverhampton Wanderers
DF	Michael Dawson	Nottingham Forest
DF	Matthew Taylor	Portsmouth
MF	Muzzy Izzet	Leicester City
MF	Michael Brown	Sheffield United
MF	Paul Merson	Portsmouth
MF	Michael Tonge	Sheffield United
FW	David Johnson	Nottingham Forest
FW	Paul Dickov	Leicester City