Do cheats prosper ?

Despite finishing a lowly 18^th in the Football league division one last season, Derby County managed to top that performance in the “Fairplay League” for season 2002-2003.The Rams held 20^th position in the FP league with just four teams below them.

The Rams record of 627 fouls, 86 bookings and five players show the red card isn’t one of the worst in the league but FA officials will be keeping a close eye on discipline this coming season.

Funnily enough it seems that dirty tactics do seem to pay off, as promoted Leicester City had nearly the worst disciplinary record of the entire league. With 651 fouls, 96 yellow cards and seven red cards they averaged an average of 19.1 points per game. The points system looks like this; 1 point for a fouls, 2 points for a yellow card and 5 points for a dismissal (red card). Only Burnley having a worse record although it was just on fouls committed and not cards shown. Burnley had 692 fouls, 86 yellow cards and 7 reds at an average of 19.6 points per game.

Nottingham Forest finished just above the Rams in 16^th place following their 601 fouls, 70 yellow cards and 5 sendings off. Averaging 16.7 points per game compared to the Rams 17.9

Lets hope next season George Burley can get the Rams playing football instead of kicking the opposition.