Top achievers heading to Carrow Road

Norwich City's revival hinges on beating English football's highest achievers Doncaster Rovers at Carrow Road.

The homely Yorkshire club - currently second-bottom in their debut campaign in English football's second tier - put global heavyweights Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea in the shade according to a new survey of all 92 professional clubs.

Norwich ranked a lowly 78th - 19 places below East Anglian rivals Ipswich - in the Achievers Report 2008, a survey commissioned by the New Football Pools which studied thousands of results, league tables and club records. Those findings were collated alongside financial data to compare the size of each club - based on stadium capacity, average attendances, club investment and player transfers - to produce a comparative analysis with each club's on field achievements since 1992.

Portsmouth and Reading complete the top three while the biggest under achievers were Sheffield Wednesday, Wolves, Nottingham Forest and Manchester City.

Doncaster's success in emerging from five seasons spent in the Conference at the turn of this century ranked highest in the novel survey.

Attendances had dropped to below 2,000 at the club's former ramshackle home Belle Vue.

Jon Sheehy, marketing director at The New Football Pools, said: "We've created a level playing field going back 16 years to take into account a series of factors which we believe achievement could be judged against.

"As fans we all talk about so-called 'big' clubs and perceived inequalities, but that doesn't carry much weight when your team is not living up to its billing on the pitch."

The full report with details of all league clubs can be downloaded for free at footballpools.com/achievers.