Walsall boss Richard Money has refuted Dennis's claim that last Saturday was Walsall's "Cup Final".
Money, who also claimed the Saddlers were devastated to drop two-points courtesy of a late Alan Thompson equaliser, was clearly riled by Dennis Wise's post-match analysis that Walsall raised their game because the mighty-Leeds were in town!
Money retorted: "We deserved to win, there's no doubt about that. Anybody in the stadium who says differently was at a different game. We know full well that we've totally dominated a team who feel as though they shouldn't be in this division.
"That wasn't our cup final. We've played like this for months. Three points against Leeds is the same as three points against any team, whatever anyone says."
Whilst Leeds were relived to come away from the West Midlands with a point and Walsall are serious contenders for promotion, even the fact that 4000 more than their average attendance turned up on Saturday cannot be ignored!
Despite us "not being famous anymore" and most of the football league happily kicking us whilst we were down in voting for the fifteen point deduction, the bean-counters must love it when Dennis Wise brings his troops to town.
A crowd of 10,102 came to the Bescot on Saturday - usually those sort of crowds are only seen in these parts for car-boot sales. Their average is a pretty pathetic 6112 and that figure takes into account Saturday's bumper gate.
Looking back through this season so far, in Cheltenham (the footballing town where they move the day of the game to accomodate the Christmas lights switch on!) 7.043 watched Leeds slip to a 1-0 defeat. Their average is normally a paltry 4367!
The other averages (with the crowd for the visit of Leeds in brackets) are as follows:
BOURNEMOUTH 5653 (9632)
CARLISLE 7671 (16668)
BRIGHTON 5905 (8691)
OLDHAM 5718 (10054)
GILLINGHAM 5995 (8719)
BRISTOL ROVERS 7847 (11883)
NOTTM FOREST 19406 (25237)
TRANMERE 6607 (11008)
The present Leeds average gate is 27533. A good 8000 more than Forest, who have the second highest average. That famous winter wonderland Cheltenham currently have the Division's lowest. Incidentally Leeds have bitter average gates than any Championship Club, around 3000 more than the current best-supported team Sheffield United (24933) who were of course in the Premiership last season. Leeds biggest crowd of the season so-far (against Huddersfield, 8/12, 32501) was the biggest tier three attendance since 1979 and higher than any Championship club this season!
Leeds also draw bigger average crowds than Premiership "big clubs" such as Wigan, Portsmouth, Bolton, Fulham, Blackburn, Middlesbrough, Reading and Birmingham!
More stats can be found at http://www.livefootball.co.uk/