Stat from last season

[the other bob wilson]

I think it's worth looking at our season in a bit more detail.

We won 10 games away from home. 6 were by a solitary goal, 3 by a 2 goal margin and 1 was 4-0.

At home we only won 8. Two were by a single goal (2-1 and 3-2) while one was by two goals (3-1). Two were by a 3 goal margin and three were by a four goal margin. From 18 wins in the league our goal difference is +38. Norwich won 29 games and the goal difference from those wins is +49, clearly lower on average.

In those 8 wins we scored 26 goals. In our remaining 15 games we scored only 11 goals. We kept only 6 clean sheets at home. One was a 0-0 draw, the others were in big home wins. We failed to score in 6 home games, losing 5 of them. Of the games at home where we conceded 1, we drew 4 and lost 3.

42.4% of our goals scored increased our lead in games, the highest in the division. However, only 9 sides scored less equalising goals as a percentage than we did and only 3 sides scored less lead taking goals as a percentage than us. That makes me thing of TOBW's phrase from years ago of us being flat track bullies - great when ahead and could steam roller sides when on form, but in tough, gritty games (particularly at home) where we needed to break down teams when things were tight, we weren't good enough. We were average when it came to gaining points after scoring first and the same when conceding first.

One of the improvements we saw under McCarthy was that we stopped conceding so many early goals. Teams were able to score against us and defend well enough to keep us out, unless we found some magic from a set piece.

I can’t begin to explain the sort of team we were over the last nine months. Away from home, we were not far short of a promotion team with the ability to grind out the narrow wins which are so necessary for a top two or top six finish - our “in your face” style which has been so much of the way we’ve played in recent seasons worked away from home. However, the wins we got at home were mainly down to our attacking players having a good day when they showed there was the potential to play with the style and ability of sides that were thought to be “footballing” outfits. Where we failed st home is that we were unable to outpower teams in tight games to gain those low scoring wins that we saw away from home - why should that be when there were no fans in the ground?

[Eric the Half a Bee]

I can’t begin to explain the sort of team we were over the last nine months. Away from home, we were not far short of a promotion team with the ability to grind out the narrow wins which are so necessary for a top two or top six finish - our “in your face” style which has been so much of the way we’ve played in recent seasons worked away from home. However, the wins we got at home were mainly down to our attacking players having a good day when they showed there was the potential to play with the style and ability of sides that were thought to be “footballing” outfits. Where we failed st home is that we were unable to outpower teams in tight games to gain those low scoring wins that we saw away from home - why should that be when there were no fans in the ground?

I think the stat of away teams generally getting better results (and home teams generally worse results) since lockdown is in play here, to some effect. It doesn't explain it fully, though.

I think there has still been the onus on home teams to take the game to the opposition. We were better at this under McCarthy than we were under Harris and we were better defensively, but we still struggled with this all too often. These are their respective home records:

Harris P 13 W 4 D 2 L 7 F 19 A 17
McCarthy P 10 W 4 D 4 L 2 F 18 A 9

Even under McCarthy, that's still quite average home form, though under Harris it was pretty shocking.

Away from home our form was average under Harris, but 2nd best in the division under McCarthy. The 5 conceded at Hillsborough denting what would have been a very impressive defensive display away from home, though we were better at home with McCarthy as well.

If we continue our defensive discipline next season there's no reason why we couldn't finish top 6, but we need the creativity to break down teams in tight games.