Notts County fans "most stressed"
Liverpool fans do less nail-biting than anyone else
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Friday, 05, Jan 2007 03:23
A poll commissioned by Littlewoods Pools, the Football Fever Report, has settled the debate over which league club's fans are the most stressed. The answer? Notts County's.
The investigation took into account the number of manager changes, the 'yo-yo effect' of frequent promotions and relegations, the team's home record, financial problems at the club and the team's involvement in extra-time cup ties and penalty shoot-outs.
The Meadow Lane club holds the distinction of being the oldest in the Football League, although it also boasts the record for the most division changes in the post-war era - 29.
Only one other league club has endured more manager changes than County (35) - Wigan Athletic (36) - and the team only avoided relegation from the league altogether on the last day of last season.
Milton Keynes Dons fans were found to be the second-most stressed of any team, having endured a fall from the Premiership to the bottom tier of the Football League in the space of just six years.
The club also has the worst post-war home record, failing to win nearly half their games at their own ground, and, if this wasn't enough, the club has also relocated from south-west London to Buckinghamshire and lost a large proportion of its original fan base.
In third place in the poll are Cumbrian outfit Carlisle United, while Darlington and former Premiership side Swindon Town round out the top five.
League Two club Bury are sixth, Crewe Alexandra seventh and Portsmouth, the only current Premiership side in the top ten, are eighth.
Stockport County earned ninth place in the poll and have the distinction of the lowest average league position over the last decade (15th), which they share with Carlisle, and Grimsby Town fans are tenth.
The least-stressed fans in the country are those of Liverpool, while fans of the other three clubs in the 'big four' - Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea - are all among the five sets of fans that bite their nails the least each season.
League One outfit Yeovil Town is the anomaly that creeps into this five-team group - at number 90 of the 92 league teams, above both of the Premiership's current top two.
The Glovers have only been part of the Football League for three full seasons, winning promotion to League One in their second year.
They are currently in the play-off places in that division and, up until their promotion from the Conference in 2003, had beaten league opposition as a non-league team more times than any other.