Damned Lies!

Someone, it could have been a U.S. president, or it could have been Eric Trevorrow for all I know, once said, there are lies, damned lies and statistics, with that in mind I thought tonight I'd trot out some statistics. As an avid Sky Blue's fan these do not make for 'comforting' reading, but maybe, just maybe, it'll help us get over the difficult months that lie ahead. I decided to look at my old programmes and the one fact that stands out is the team that were bottom of the league in mid-November, over the last 3 seasons, were either relegated or at least finished bottom come April. In 2005/6 it was Ards, bottom in November and bottom in April, 2006/7, then it was Loughgall, bottom in November and bottom still in April, while last season Institute were bottom in November, but although they were bottom in April they stayed up at the expense of clubs who had not 'put their houses in order', so to speak. Another interesting statistic is that at this stage last year, we had played 17 games, scoring 29 goals and conceding 32. This season we have played 20 games, scoring 18 goals and conceding 41. Looking at these statistics one would think that our defence is to blame as we have conceded an average of just over 2 goals a game, but actually it's just a little bit more complicated than that. The fact is that last season at this time our strikers had scored 15 goals amongst themselves, our midfielder's had scored 12 goals, while our defence had chipped in with 2, not a lot, but 2 more than we have this year. This year our strikers have scored 16 goals, our midfielder's 2 and as I said earlier our defence this season have scored none. So never mind the defence letting in a lot more goals, the midfield is way behind with their goalscoring. Added to this their tackling is, to put it mildly, 'pathetic' and I believe this was a contributing factor to the Aiden Watson sending off last week, when nobody was willing to tackle, he took it on himself and paid the ultimate penalty to an over-officious referee. The bottom line is that if our midfield don't start weighing in with some goals pretty soon, we will after all be seeing quite a few new grounds next season. Roy Walker has a tough job ahead of him, the going is 'tough', but it's 'high' time, for United, to get going!