When Dave Jones was under pressure thirteen months ago, people like me were quick to point out how poor the team's record had been over the period November 2006 to November 2007 when we would have, in all likelihood, been relegated if that period had constituted a full Championship season.
It is only fair to our manager therefore to bring attention to how well the side have done over the calendar year 2008.
Before I do that however, it is is worth recording that City ended 2007 in fine form as well - after, allegedly, being given two games to save his City career after the 3-0 defeat at Charlton on 10/11/07, Dave Jones' record for the rest of that year read;
P 10 W 5 D 3 L 2 f 13 a 9 Pts 18
Yesterday's win over Plymouth took our league record in 2008 to;
HomeP 24 W 16 D 4 L 4 f 37 a 17 Pts 52
AwayP 23 W 3 D 14 L 6 f 26 a 31 Pts 23
OverallP 47 W 19 D 18 L 10 f 63 a 48 Pts 75
We also played a lot of FA and League Cup matches in 2008;
P 9 W 7 D 0 L 2 f 14 a 6
Throw in a pre season programme which saw us pick up a trophy while being unbeaten at all levels as well and I think a reasonable argument can be made to say that 2008 was as good a year on the pitch as we have had in in decades (my own opinion is that it has been our best year since I started watching the club in 1963).
Looking at those figures a couple of things stand out to me;-
1. After years when it became something of a sick joke, the old "Fortress Ninian" tag was justified in 2008.
2. In these days of three points for a win, we didn't win enough league games away from home in the year. However, to lose only six times on the road in a calendar year is an outstanding achievement (as is losing just ten overall in the year).
In a way it's a shame that we played that forty seventh game because that would have given a programme of forty six league games which could have been used as a direct comparison with a league season.
Therefore, I am going to disregard yesterday's match and say that over a 46 game campaign beginning on 1/1/08 we picked up seventy two points - would that have been enough to get us into the Play Offs?
It certainly would have been last season, but, over the last ten years, the average number of points achieved by the team finishing sixth in the Championship has been 74.1 - interestingly though seventy two points takes us above the ten year average for the seventh best team of 71.8.
If we didn't quite get results that would normally clinch a Play Off spot in 2008, have we managed to do it so far this season?
At the moment, our forty four points from twenty six games played works out at 1.69 points per game - if we maintain that record over our remaining twenty matches, that would give us another 34 points which would take us to 78 for the season. With the highest number of points achieved by the team finishing sixth over the past ten years being 76 and the lowest 70, that would almost certainly be enough to guarantee sixth place (and probably a top four place if truth be told).
The potential fly in the ointment of course has to be what could happen during the transfer window next month because if you were to take, say, Chopra, Routledge and Ledley out of the current squad without getting in good replacements then I think we would see the sort of end of season fade out that characterised Dave Jones' first two seasons in charge.
However, there is a lot of encouragment to be taken from the fact that, for about thirteen months now, we have been one of the best teams in this league - if we keep on doing what we have been doing over our last fifty seven league games, then we'll definitely make the play offs and could even squeeze into the top two!
Whatever happens though, what can be said now is that we have just ended a year of football that we haven't seen the likes of in ages - speaking as someone who spent most of the summer of 2008 having a right go at Messrs Jones and Ridsdale, it's only right that I now say full marks to the players, coaching staff, manager and board for giving us such a great year.
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