orchardsaint Posted 25 October, 2013 Share Posted 25 October, 2013 There was a lot of fuss made when we went the first few weeks letting in very few goals, and records were talked about. Where do we stand now, and what if we go this weekend without conceding? I know it's a bit statto but some people love this, me included. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noodles34 Posted 26 October, 2013 Share Posted 26 October, 2013 see Roma are away to mid table Udinese, guess they wont concede there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaintBobby Posted 26 October, 2013 Share Posted 26 October, 2013 There was a lot of fuss made when we went the first few weeks letting in very few goals, and records were talked about. Where do we stand now, and what if we go this weekend without conceding? I know it's a bit statto but some people love this, me included. Don't know the stats, but I'm always sceptical of these assertions about "starts", as the length of a "start" seems to be a movable feast. If you win your first game 5-0, it's your best "start" for 100 years. You then lose your next five games and it becomes your worst "start" for 25 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CWD Posted 26 October, 2013 Share Posted 26 October, 2013 Don't know the stats, but I'm always sceptical of these assertions about "starts", as the length of a "start" seems to be a movable feast. If you win your first game 5-0, it's your best "start" for 100 years. You then lose your next five games and it becomes your worst "start" for 25 years. Yep I agree, the records we kept breaking in the NPC changed every 5 minutes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zurichsaint Posted 26 October, 2013 Share Posted 26 October, 2013 There was a lot of fuss made when we went the first few weeks letting in very few goals, and records were talked about. Where do we stand now, and what if we go this weekend without conceding? I know it's a bit statto but some people love this, me included. OK, I'll have a go at answering this - going back to 1958 Our best defensive opening 8 games was the 1983/84 season, when we conceded 2. Of course that was our best league finish, coming 2nd to Liverpool, conceding only 38 goals (in 42 games). Our current figure of 3 goals is next best. The only recent season that came close was the 2003/04 one under Strachan (5 goals conceded from 8 games), when we were 4th at Christmas before losing badly at Fulham away. (Incidentally that match was the turning point for me, where it started to go downhill more or less constantly until ML took over...) To answer your question about keeping a clean sheet this weekend: Game 9 in the 83/84 season was a 3-1 reverse away to Luton. So after 9 games, we had conceded 5. If we keep Fulham down to 1 goal or less, we'll have made the best defensive first nine games to a season since 1958 (at least)! Now isn't that something! FWIW, I fully agree with the comments above about 'starts' to the season. It was the same with David Moyes, who either made the best start of a Utd manager for the last 30 yrs, or was their worst manager for 40 years, so something. It all depends on what angle you want to put on the statistics. Another point I noticed, was that last year was, by quite some distance, our worst defensive opening 8 games of the season since 1958, with 24 goals conceded. Only once previously (1998, with 21) had we conceded more than 18. It just goes to show how quickly things can turn round. [removes statto hat] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noodles34 Posted 27 October, 2013 Share Posted 27 October, 2013 see Roma are away to mid table Udinese, guess they wont concede there. And they didn't. They are still better than us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micky Posted 28 October, 2013 Share Posted 28 October, 2013 Quite simply, starts mean absolutely nothing, finishes do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saint in Paradise Posted 28 October, 2013 Share Posted 28 October, 2013 Quite simply, starts mean absolutely nothing, finishes do. Indeed, as much as I am loving the season so far I do remember 2 little points. 1) This is Saints we are talking about 2) Remember W.B.A. last season ? Oh yes and MP better be careful as I am sure NC won't be happy with only 2 - 0 scores he will want higher ones as goal difference can make a difference over a season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pancake Posted 28 October, 2013 Share Posted 28 October, 2013 Our current figure of 3 goals is next best. The only recent season that came close was the 2003/04 one under Strachan (5 goals conceded from 8 games), when we were 4th at Christmas before losing badly at Fulham away. (Incidentally that match was the turning point for me, where it started to go downhill more or less constantly until ML took over...) Agree with the bold so much Would love to see a graph plotting weekly league positions from the 10 years from Xmas 03/04 to this Xmas when we get there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Boy Saint Posted 28 October, 2013 Share Posted 28 October, 2013 A nice wave to be riding at the moment, although we got use to it on the rise, as a Saints fan of many years it is very pleasant to see such a good start especially when such a start puts us in with the "big fish" of the league, which is a vastly different place to the last time we started so well. Alan Hansen made me smile on Saturday night when looking at the upcoming Arsenal fixtures, "then Southampton at home, which will be a difficult game". Arsenal at Home - Southampton - Difficult - all in the same sentence!...... Pinch me!!!! After so many records against teams we had done well against over the years were given up so cheaply when we dropped from the Premiership, it was very nice to comprehensively extend a 78 year record of Fulham not winning away at the Saints for another year! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony F Posted 28 October, 2013 Share Posted 28 October, 2013 Quite simply, starts mean absolutely nothing, finishes do. And with our final game of the season being Man Utd at home........ what chance that will be "winner takes the final Champions League place"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DuncanRG Posted 28 October, 2013 Share Posted 28 October, 2013 Quite simply, starts mean absolutely nothing, finishes do. Starts contribute to finishes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy_D Posted 28 October, 2013 Share Posted 28 October, 2013 And with our final game of the season being Man Utd at home........ what chance that will be "winner takes the final Champions League place"? What if we need to win it to win the league and stop Man City taking the title? Back to this start of ours, looking at the fixtures, if we win the next two games (not a given, but certainly possible) we could be going into the game against Arsenal knowing a win will take us top for at least an hour or so. Chelsea are the late game that day, and Spurs don't play until Sunday. Liverpool have Arsenal, Fulham, and Everton and would need to drop at least two points from those with us gaining three goals on them, or drop three points. Arsenal have Liverpool, Fulham and Man United and would need to drop at least two points for us to be able to overtake them with a win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Window Cleaner Posted 28 October, 2013 Share Posted 28 October, 2013 Starts contribute to finishes we'll see when we get to the end of the beginning as Winston would have called it. Looking for another 8 points from the next 4 games myself to keep up our 2 points per game average. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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