I don’t know if it was Craig Brown that brought statistics into football debate but there’s no shortage of stats floating about in the modern game.
It has been suggested that Newcastle Utd once had a Stats Department dreaming up Alan Shearer’s 100th Newcastle/Premiership/senior goal, Alan Shearer 200 Newcastle/Premiership/senior goal, the 25th/50th/60th ground that Shearer had scored at, Shearer’s 50th/100th/150th goal at St James Park or whatever was required to deflect away from the trophy room.
After the goal-less draw with Motherwell on Saturday Tony Mowbray quickly came out with some stats to demonstrate Celtic’s dominance only to be hit with a two wins in seven home matches stat in reply!
As Mowbray admitted, stats can be massaged to suit whatever purpose although the Celtic boss stopped short of Ebbe Skovdahl’s classic quote that: “Statistics are just like mini-skirts, they give you good ideas but hide the most important thing.”
Celtic’s start to the season is apparently the worst since 1946 but there wasn’t many games against Arsenal and Dinamo Moscow through the forties and fifties, League Cup qualifying groups tended to be a bit more gentle than the cutting edge of European competition.
Without doubt season 1977/78 was a horrendous campaign as the club missed out on Europe finishing fifth in the Premier Division and losing to First Division Kilmarnock in the Scottish Cup.
Comparing like for like, league matches, the current season is a beacon of consistency compared to the disastrous 77/78 campaign.
So far Celtic have won two and drawn two at home this season, turning the clock back 32 years makes for very painful viewing as Celtic lost at home to Motherwell and St Mirren, drew with Dundee United while beating Hibs and Clydebank to record P5 W2 D1 L2.
Away from home wasn’t much fun either with the start of the season including defeats at Ayr United, Aberdeen, Rangers and Partick Thistle!
I’m pretty confident that this season will turn out much better than the 77/78 campaign which collapsed largely on the back of injuries to Danny McGrain and Pat Stanton following the transfer of Kenny Dalglish to Liverpool during the close season.
The only stats that matter are shown in the SPL table although the standard of football is clearly a concern when the club plays against European opposition, I suspect that there could be some scary Euro stats coming this week, off the top of my head I think that Celtic have only won two of their last 15 European matches.
Peter Latchford Supersonic 70s interview
Evening Herald report on Motherwell match
