Strap's Stats!
Less Goals Than Games
I don't know if any of you eagle eyed trainspotters out there noticed anything out of the ordinary about last week's 0-4 defeat at Middlesbrough? Well, for the untrained eye, it means we have now scored less league goals than league games played! Yep - 21 goals in 22 games! Not good !! Our fighting performance against Wolves, whilst being good to watch, only reinforced the problem - Trevor Morley was the only Royal to have a shot on target until the last 10 minutes of the game. So, going into the Christmas games, we've now scored 21 league goals in 23 games!! Below I've listed the relegation positions in new Div 1/old Div 2 for the last eleven years. I'll leave you to digest the stats before pointing out the glaringly obvious!!
Season Team Games Goals Final Position Goals per game 1996-97 Grimsby 46 60 22nd of 24 1.30 (D1) Oldham 46 51 23rd of 24 1.11 Southend 46 42 24th of 24 0.91 No other teams scored less than 46 goals 1995-96 Millwall 46 43 22nd of 24 0.93 (D1) Watford 46 62 23rd of 24 1.35 Luton 46 40 24th of 24 0.87 Wolves 46 46 20th of 24 1.00 1994-95 Swindon 46 54 21st of 24 1.17 (D1) Burnley 46 49 22nd of 24 1.07 Bristol C 46 42 23rd of 24 0.91 Notts Co 46 45 24th of 24 0.98 Sunderland 46 41 20th of 24 0.89 1993-94 Birmingham 46 52 22nd of 24 1.13 (D1) Oxford 46 54 23rd of 24 1.17 Peterbro 46 48 24th of 24 1.04 No other teams scored less than 46 goals 1992-93 Brentford 46 52 22nd of 24 1.13 (D1) Cambridge 46 48 23rd of 24 1.04 Bristol R 46 55 24th of 24 1.20 No other teams scored less than 46 goals 1991-92 Plymouth 46 42 22nd of 24 0.91 (D2) Brighton 46 56 23rd of 24 1.22 Port Vale 46 42 24th of 24 0.91 Barnsley 46 46 16th of 24 1.00 1990-91 WBA 46 52 23rd of 24 1.13 (D2) Hull 46 57 24th of 24 1.24 Watford 46 45 20th of 24 0.98 1989-90 Bournemouth 46 57 22nd of 24 1.24 (D2) Bradford C 46 44 23rd of 24 0.96 Stoke 46 35 24th of 24 0.76 No other teams scored less than 46 goals 1988-89 Shrewsbury 46 40 22nd of 24 0.87 (D2) Birmingham 46 31 23rd of 24 0.67 Walsall 46 41 24th of 24 0.89 No other teams scored less than 46 goals 1987-88 Sheffield U 44 45 21st of 23 1.02 (D2) READING 44 44 22nd of 23 1.00 Huddersfd 44 41 23rd of 23 0.93 Birmingham 44 41 19th of 23 0.93 Shrewsbury 44 42 18th of 23 0.95 1986-87 Sunderland 42 49 20th of 22 1.17 (D2) Grimsby 42 39 21st of 22 0.93 Brighton 42 37 22nd of 22 0.88 Shrewsbury 42 41 18th of 22 0.98 Millwall 42 39 16th of 22 0.93 Hull 42 41 14th of 22 0.98As you can see, of the 33 relegation places, 15 were filled with teams who ended the season scoring less than a goal a game. Only seven teams have managed to escape relegation from this division by scoring less than a goal a game in a season, and five of those were right at the start of the period in question. It seems to me that Terry Bullivant needs to do something pretty dramatic in the second half of the season to boost our scoring rate. Believe it or not, we've only scored in 10 out of 23 league matches!! That's right - 13 blanks!!
Trouble is, I can't see how he's going to turn it round! Against Wolves, our main threat seemed to be pumping high balls to Carl Asaba or Trevor Morley, who in turn tried to flick it on for Trevor Morley or Carl Asaba, (if you see what I mean!). Could be we actually miss Michael Meaker more than I actually credited?! Of the 12 league starts he's made this season, we've actually scored 16 of our 21 goals. Without him, we've managed 5 goals in 11 matches!! And to think I've never really rated him!! Statistics are great aren't they? You can make them "prove" virtually anything you want!!
As ever though, I'm not going to leave you full of doom and gloom for long. Next time, I'll supply the stats to "prove" we'll pull through, and avoid both relegation and the dreaded less than a goal a game record.
Final point, if you spot any glaring errors or corrections, please let me know.
Strap