Cod Almighty | Article

by Andy Holt

4 September 2006

Just a brief Ballpark Figures for you this week. Brief but informative. This week the question we'll be addressing, following another league game without a win, is just exactly how bad is this start to the season? The chart below is simple; it's just Grimsby's points tally after six games for every season back to 1980-81.

With five points to our name so far this season, things are not looking too pretty. The average for the previous 26 seasons is 7.89 points, so the current team, if you want to quantify their performance, are 37 per cent below average. The start to this season is the worst for four years and ranks 21st in the 27 seasons considered. The only season in the past five when we've started worse than this, 2002-03, saw us relegated.

So that's overall performance, but what about goals scored and conceded? Should we blame the attack or the defence for the below-par start to the season? The chart below attempts to answer that question by showing goals scored and goals conceded in the first six games of the same seasons as before.

Starting with goals scored, our current tally of five goals is our worst for four years, is 34 per cent below average and ranks 20th out of the 27th years considered. The total of 11 times Barnes has picked the ball out of his net since the start of the season is 41 per cent above average, ranks fourth highest out of the seasons covered in our study and is the highest goals conceded tally since 1996-97. That was another season we were relegated.

In conclusion, we've started seasons better than this. True, we've started seasons worse too, but not many. As for blaming the attack or the defence, I reckon both are to blame, with slightly more blame being attached to the people at the back. I know you're not relegated in September but we do need to improve; that much is clear.