I thought it was worth a check on our progress so far this season in relation to the last promotion campiagn from the third division. The stats show that after 18 games played we are bang on target with the 1980-81 season.
_____Pl---W D L F A------W D L -F A ---GD Pts
09-10 18--7 2 0 21 8-----3 4 2 13 11 +15 36
80-81 18--7 0 1 17 6-----4 3 3 14 11 +14 36
80-81 23-10 0 1 25 7----6 3 3 16 11 +23 51
80-81 46-14 6 3 36 17-11 3 9 27 27 +19 84*
* equivalent at 3 points for a win
This is good news until you consider that we won the remaining five matches that brought us to the halfway stage in 1980. The next five are all winnable prospects although it will take some doing; Brighton (a), Southend (h), Stockport (a), Millwall (h) and Swindon (a). If we fall short then we do at least have the prospect of making up ground in the second half of the season as we only collected 33 points on the back half as opposed to the 51 at half-way in 80-81.
We only managed promotion in third place last time although with three points for a win, we would have finished in second and been within a point of eventual Champions Rotherham.
Happy days. After we'd gone down with the (at the time) lowest ever division 2 points total, I backed us £5 each way at 66-1 pre-season. Even with only placing, the return was close to a week's wages.
ReplyDeleteBrave man at the time Mike. I wonder how many of our fans lumped on pre-season this year, when we hadn't strenghened our squad having been relegated? The situation mirrors that prior to the 1980 kick-off.
ReplyDeleteNot sure on your figures here Dave.
ReplyDeleteOn the basis of 3 points for a win I make the second row 37 points - the third row 52 and the bottom row 87!
Having said that, the top row should have 2 home draws and 4 away draws to reach the total 36 points.
Are the figures in the other three rows correct?
Tony
Tony - thanks - I think the problem was the drawn and lost columns had reversed headings! Dave.
ReplyDelete