So we've played...

[BillyStubbsTears]

Back to the original point of MY post on MY thread (see! I can to that attention white thing an all) I'm sure you'll recall that last season, our first 10 games included 6 against sides who finished in the bottom 8, three against sides who were relegated and only two against sides that finished in the top 6. Both at home.

So comparisons with last season's start need to be made with some understanding of the context.

[dickos1]

But surely you make that comparison at the end of the season?
Gillingham and Rochdale could be relegated, Blackpool, Lincoln could finish in the bottom 8.
So the context isn’t really there when comparing a league table after 10 games and one after 46 games

[Chris Black come back]

Why not celebrate as the OP has objectively pointed out, a superb start to the season including the results of the last two away games, rather than dragging up the transfer window again?

I said it was a very good result and we have had a very good start to the season.
Not quite as good as last seasons which I believe we discussed a few weeks ago

Yes - when you said very clearly that the best we could hope for after 10 league games was to have 16 points.

We have played 9 games and have 16 points.

Yes
You were going on about our best start for 25 years after 4 games. I said you can’t consider a start after 4 games let’s see if after 10 games it’s as good as last season which was 21 points after 10 games.
I said I bet we have around 25% less points and depending on Saturday I could be spot on.

Think you have just made the original point yourself, right there - expecting defeat in the next game.

We have a very good manager - he might not be the guy you want - but a very good manager and a good squad of players playing great football and getting great results. All very regrettable really.

[dickos1]

Never had a bad word to say about Moore, he’s doing a great job.
Certainly not expecting a defeat on Saturday, we’re doing great at home.

So two assumptions there, completely Incorrect

[BillyStubbsTears]

Dickos.

I'm sure I'm going to regret dipping my toe into this, but...ah f**k it.

I accept your point. Of course, it would have been better made if you'd gone and out in the bit of effort to check where our opponents were early in the season. You (as in YOU, not "one") could check very easily. There's a whole Internet out there.

But I'll do it for you.

After we had played 9 matches last year, these are the positions of the sides we had played.

Peterborough 1st
Portsmouth 2nd
Walsall 5th
Luton 12th
Burton 15th
Southend 16th
Wycombe 18th
Shrewsbury 20th
Bradford 22nd

Average position of opponents 12.3

This year it is:

Ipswich 1st
Fleetwood 3rd
Coventry 4th
Blackpool 6th
Peterborough 8th
Lincoln 11th
Rotherham 13th
Gillingham 16th
Rochdale 18th

Average position 8.9

If you take the PPG positions (because the table is badly messed up this year with everyone playing different numbers of games) I'm pretty sure the average position of our opponents would come down to about 8, as most of them have only played 9-10 games, not the full 11.

[dickos1]

The point being though, the league table isn’t really relevant after 9 games when considering which were the harder games,
I’d wager come May that Portsmouth will be above Wycombe, currently there’s 17 places between them.
At this stage of a season you can win two games and jump 15-16 places.
At the end of the season you may well wish to look back and identify when we played the poorer sides.

[BillyStubbsTears]

No. You need to look at the form of the team's we play, around the time that we play them.

But I'm bowing out of this one now. Fill your boots.

[sedwardsdrfc]

Why not celebrate as the OP has objectively pointed out, a superb start to the season including the results of the last two away games, rather than dragging up the transfer window again?

I said it was a very good result and we have had a very good start to the season.
Not quite as good as last seasons which I believe we discussed a few weeks ago

Yes - when you said very clearly that the best we could hope for after 10 league games was to have 16 points.

We have played 9 games and have 16 points.

Yes
You were going on about our best start for 25 years after 4 games. I said you can’t consider a start after 4 games let’s see if after 10 games it’s as good as last season which was 21 points after 10 games.
I said I bet we have around 25% less points and depending on Saturday I could be spot on.

Not sure why but I get the impression you'd rather be "spot on" than us win the game! Obviously thats not the case i'm sure....

[dickos1]

Yeah that’s right I’ll be cheering on Portsmouth on Saturday.

[sha66y]

Yeah that’s right I’ll be cheering on Portsmouth on Saturday.

I think you’ll be cheering on Donny ..... but you most certainly will be holding your “ I told you so “ card,  in reserve ....... win win for you !

[graingrover]

Judging from this very promising start and considering DM has had to virtually replace nearly all last year’s squad in a matter of a few months only ...one wonders what the man could build over time here .

[RedJ]

Yeah that’s right I’ll be cheering on Portsmouth on Saturday.

Which blocks have we given you?

[dickos1]

Yeah that’s right I’ll be cheering on Portsmouth on Saturday.

I think you’ll be cheering on Donny ..... but you most certainly will be holding your “ I told you so “ card,  in reserve ....... win win for you !

All I said was let’s look at our start after 10 games and not 4.
Last season we got 21 points, this season I think we will get around 25% less.
Still a good start though, with some tough fixtures

[BillyStubbsTears]

Ten games is an arbitrary number.

Why not look after 12? I suspect we'll have matched last season's record with a far tougher set of fixtures.

[Bentley Bullet]

.....And playing far better football.

[DonnyNoel]

Ten games is an arbitrary number.

Why not look after 12? I suspect we'll have matched last season's record with a far tougher set of fixtures.

The bit of me that likes nostalgia always likes to think its a nod to Dave Penney - he always used to talk about a "proper" assessment of how the season had started after 10 games.

[BillyStubbsTears]

.....And playing far better football.

Agreed.

[Chris Black come back]

Ten games is an arbitrary number.

Why not look after 12? I suspect we'll have matched last season's record with a far tougher set of fixtures.

That is precisely why he chose the otherwise entirely arbitrary 10 game mark - as the subsequent stretch of league games after game 10 was very poor seeing P7, L5, D1 and W1.

[dickos1]

Entirely arbitrary?
The 10 game marker is spoken about widely as a decent time to assess your start to a season, not just a figure plucked from thin air

I certainly have no reason to manipulate anything to favour McCann, never really
took to him

[BillyStubbsTears]

I've always found 10 games an odd sub-division for a (usually) 46 game season.

6 games is roughly an eighth of the season.

8 games is roughly a sixth.

12 games is roughly a quarter.

15 games is roughly one-third.

But 10 games is roughly two-ninths of a season. Which makes it a strange number.

[IDM]

10 is easy to count to though, or 12, depending on where you come from..

[BillyStubbsTears]

Anyway. We've played 9 games. Got 16 points. After a hellishly bad summer. And a particularly tough set of matches.

Interesting to compare that start against recent promotion seasons.

After 9 games we had.

16/17 - 16 points
12/13 - 14 points
07/08 - 10 points
03/04 - 12 points
02/03 - 20 points


Not bad, eh?

[dickos1]

I've always found 10 games an odd sub-division for a (usually) 46 game season.

6 games is roughly an eighth of the season.

8 games is roughly a sixth.

12 games is roughly a quarter.

15 games is roughly one-third.

But 10 games is roughly two-ninths of a season. Which makes it a strange number.

It may well be but it’s certainly not an arbitrary figure.

[Chris Black come back]

Indeed - it was chosen as the point last season when the early season good form disappeared.

[ditch_drfc]

I think the fairest thing to do when comparing results against the table is to consider form. When we played Lincoln early this season they were flying high with 3 wins and it felt like a tough fixture.

Nobody really has enough time to go back and look at the form table for each game last season, but form counts for a lot heading into each game and considering each result.

Either way it's been a solid start to this season. Here's to hoping we get a win against Pompey this weekend.

[dickos1]

Indeed - it was chosen as the point last season when the early season good form disappeared.

I sometimes wonder if you have any interest in or knowledge of football whatsoever.

[Chris Black come back]

I always wonder the same of you sir.

[Barmby Rover]

Going on current form we could be on 19 points from 10 games, and, as BST pointed out we have had a particularly hard start to the season. Added to this it may be that Ennis and Stirling could both be fit for Saturday according to the manager, I would say we are doing rather well.

[dknward2]

Going on current form we could be on 19 points from 10 games, and, as BST pointed out we have had a particularly hard start to the season. Added to this it may be that Ennis and Stirling could both be fit for Saturday according to the manager, I would say we are doing rather well.

If that happens will be on average of 1.9 points a game which is there or thereabouts for a promotion obviously is still early days but a great start

[KeithMyath]

I'm, all for optimism. You can make any amount of stats make a start of a season good or bad. Were doing well based on what happened pre-season, but I went on Saturday (My first game as I live in Cornwall) and I honestly thought we were along way 2nd best for large parts of that game. We clearly needed another forward, ideally someone who could have held up the ball to take the pressure off. We didn't, they scored and a draw realistically was what we deserved. We're doing well but IMO with a slim squad its going to start to show in the next 2-3 months.