EFL's Christmas Stats

[shoddycollins]

Something of interest from the Football League.

Over the last twenty years what has become of the clubs in each position at Christmas

 

[shoddycollins]

18th at Christmas is not a good place to be Hartlepool.

 

[Gladders]

Woohoo we have avoided relegation, time to build for next season

 

[E10rifle]

Looks like Frankie B's playoff charge is still on. Forza Orient! *looks menacingly into camera*

 

[Vanni]

This obsession Carlisle have with Pools is getting a tad boring I reckon*. Can't wait for Barrow to come up next year

#tiresome#brokenrecord#unreciprocatedrivalry

Pools will stay up one way or another only because there are 3/4 clubs in a bigger mess than them.

* PS - only kidding Shoddy!

 

[shoddycollins]

This obsession Carlisle have with Pools is getting a tad boring I reckon*. Can't wait for Barrow to come up next year

#tiresome#brokenrecord#unreciprocatedrivalry

Pools will stay up one way or another only because there are 3/4 clubs in a bigger mess than them.

* PS - only kidding Shoddy!

I've put flags all along the A689

Pools will stay up because they are Pools, was it you who described them as the Sunderland of League Two?

I hope Barrow come up this year... I hope we don't get the pleasure of playing them though. Hopefully Morecambe stay up for them, that used to be a feisty little derby.

 

[hellogregory]

Someone in 9th position at Christmas ended up finishing bottom

 

[AmbiguousBon]

So we're going to finish some place between 2nd and 24th. Lump on.

 

[Boletus Edulis]

So what this is saying is that ourselves and Wycombe occasionally cock it up. I have a bit more confidence this year.

 

[dedwardp]

Someone in 9th position at Christmas ended up finishing bottom

York in 2003/04. Finished the season without a win in 20 games.

 

[AdamStag]

Least we're consistent

 

[shoddycollins]

Who was 21st at Christmas and made the play-offs?

Also, 6th at Christmas and just avoided relegation?

 

[shoddycollins]

York in 2003/04. Finished the season without a win in 20 games.

That was also the season we went down.

 

[Alan Partridge]

Who was 21st at Christmas and made the play-offs?

Also, 6th at Christmas and just avoided relegation?

I'm maybe thinking of L1 but didn't Blackpool storm the second half of a season and win the play-offs after a poor start?

They were on fire, they had Keigan Parker playing for them and beat Swansea at the Liberty something radge like 6-2 on the final day?

 

[Tom_CUFC]

I think it was York a few years ago who made the playoffs from near the bottom, I've got a feeling they dropped lower than 21st at some point after Xmas too but then proceeded to win every game 1-0.

 

[dedwardp]

I'm maybe thinking of L1 but didn't Blackpool storm the second half of a season and win the play-offs after a poor start?

They were on fire, they had Keigan Parker playing for them and beat Swansea at the Liberty something radge like 6-2 on the final day?

Barnsley were bottom of League One in December last year and then walked all over the league for the rest of the season - 56 points from their final 26 games before winning the play-offs.

 

[shoddycollins]

I think it was York a few years ago who made the playoffs from near the bottom, I've got a feeling they dropped lower than 21st at some point after Xmas too but then proceeded to win every game 1-0.

York certainly have an eventful league history.

 

[shoddycollins]

Another set of stats released by the Football League (I really dislike calling them the EFL)

There's a full page on it here
http://www.efl.com/news/article/2016/revealed-efl-christmas-day-league-positions-the-stats-3481408

This is the highest percentage of any of the three divisions (65% in the Champ and 70% in L1), most likely affected by the fact there is one more automatic place available than in the other two.

They don't have a graphic for just L2 for this one, but the figures are 100% for both L2 and L1, and 90% for the Championship, so two teams in the Championship who have been top at Christmas and fallen outside the play-off places are the only league teams to do so in the past 20 years (these two were Huddersfield in 2000 and Burnley in 2002)

Again, this is the highest of any of the three divisions (Champ 35%, L1 41%), although the fact there are only two places is likely to be a big factor, note that L1 teams have a better survival rate than the Championship despite having one more relegation place to contend with. You could say that the flipside of having more relegation places is you don't have to be as totally awful to end up occupying one at Christmas and therefore more likely to have teams in the relegation places who have it in them to improve.

They also confirm that the two teams in 9th and 12th at Christmas who went on to get relegated were York (2004) and Barnet (2001) respectively. York actually continued to win after Christmas, on winning two out of the next three and then went on to lose every game bar five draws for the rest of the year. Ironically their last win was against Carlisle who were adrift at the bottom, but ended up finishing just above York.

Between 2011 and 2014, none of the eight clubs in the League Two relegation zone at Christmas went down. Of the for teams occupying the relegation places since then, Tranmere and Dag'num went down but Hartlepool and Yeovil survived, meaning that since 2011, the prospects for teams in bottom two at Christmas have been even better, with only two out of twelve going down.

The team who were 6th at Christmas and just avoided the drop, finishing 22nd were Chester City in 2008, this is the biggest post-Christmas drop of any league team.

Also, they add that for the purposes of the table that shows percentages of teams in each position being relegated, you should really read 'finished in the bottom two' as that is what they've worked out even though some of those go back to when there was only one relegation place.

 

[SVH]

Great stuff and interesting reading. Just about sums it up - anything is possible.

 

[Habbinalan]

I hope Barrow come up this year... I hope we don't get the pleasure of playing them though. Hopefully Morecambe stay up for them, that used to be a feisty little derby.

I'll go with that. It just doesn't seem in the natural order of things for Barrow and Carlisle to be in the same division. Leaves room for a giant killing in the FA Cup (or even the League Cup) - and you still have chance of meeting in the Who-Gives-a-F*ck Trophy.

I think most Barrow fans would be happy for Morecambe to go down but I'd be happy for them to give me another couple of excuses for a trip north.

 

[shoddycollins]

York in 2003/04. Finished the season without a win in 20 games.

Under Chris Brass... currently managing Bury (whoops)

 

[AdamStag]

Mansfield haven't scored a first half goal this season to date, if that counts?

 

[shoddycollins]

Mansfield haven't scored a first half goal this season to date, if that counts?

You most certainly have, and we were both there to witness it.

 

[shoddycollins]

I put this in another thread, not this one I don't think, but the last 0-0 at Brunton Park was in April of 2014

 

[AdamStag]

You most certainly have, and we were both there to witness it.

At home!! At home.

Damn beer.