Notts County is 'worst football team to follow' » Communities » 24dash.com

The worst football teams to follow have been named and shamed today in the first list of clubs that give their fans the most grief.

Perennially struggling Notts County, the oldest club in the Football League, tops the list of teams having the most distressed supporters, according to the Football Fever Report, launched today.

The national survey, by Littlewoods Football Pools, claims to be the first ever in-depth 20-year study of which teams regularly leave their fans sick as parrots or over the moon.

County fans suffered the most.

The club has sacked a mind-boggling 35 managers since 1945, switched divisions a record 29 times and only ensured survival in the Football League on the last day of last season.

Portsmouth have the most stressed fans of a current Premiership club side, followed by Manchester City and Watford.

In contrast, Liverpool fans have it easy. Having chosen to follow England's all-time most successful club, they were deemed to be the most relaxed, followed by Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United.

The report studies all 92 football league clubs. Fans were asked to identify the factors that caused them the most anxiety when following their favourite's fortunes.

A number of 'stress factors' are identified, including sacking managers, missing out on promotion, going into administration, losing in the play-offs, the 'yo-yo' effect of promotion and relegation, regular defeats at home, losing games from being in a winning position and losing in cup finals.

MK Dons (formerly Wimbledon FC) emerges as the second most nerve-jangling club to watch. The club has managed to have the worst home record in English football since the war, experienced debts of more than £20m and clocked up three relegations in the last 10 years.

Equally troubled are fans of Carlisle United, with the Cumbrian club the nation's third most distressing team to watch. Their average league position of 15th over the last 10 years was the worst in England, while their relegation out of the Football League and spell in administration further heightened fan's woes.

Based on the stress ranking system, the nations' Top 10 most stress-inducing clubs are as follows:

1 Notts County

2 MK Dons

3 Carlisle United

4 Darlington

5 Swindon Town

6 Bury

7 Crewe Alexandra

8 Portsmouth

9 Stockport County

10 Grimsby Town

Jon Sheehy, director of marketing for Sportech PLC, owners of Littlewoods Football Pools said: "The Football Fever Report is the first-ever insight into which clubs lead their fans on an emotional roller coaster, and is further evidence that supporting a team near the foot of the league is harder than supporting one that is always at the top."

Each football club was given a mark according to each of the stress factors, though more weight has been given to each club's more recent 20 year history (10-15 years being the average length of time a current supporter has been watching his or her favourite team).

The scores for each club have also been weighted to take account of fans' expectations, as research shows that fans who expect their team to do particularly well, or particularly badly, each season are less likely to suffer from nervous anxiety during the course of the season.

Copyright Press Association 2007