Score early, we win.

[mattbianco1]

Start of the season we came out the blocks quickly and grabbed early goals. That is when we were at our best. Proved again tonight, grab that early goal and the game is them in our hands.

The longer the game is at 0-0, the less confidence I have in us to win.

 

[DronnieBlade]

As do approx 80 - 85% of teams !

UTB

 

[SwissBlade]

Start of the season we came out the blocks quickly and grabbed early goals. That is when we were at our best. Proved again tonight, grab that early goal and the game is them in our hands.

The longer the game is at 0-0, the less confidence I have in us to win.

That's why a lot of sides gamble by parking the bus. If we get an early goal its unusual for us to then lose the game as teams have to attack us.

Fulham was probably a notable exception to this

 

[Blade56]

Start of the season we came out the blocks quickly and grabbed early goals. That is when we were at our best. Proved again tonight, grab that early goal and the game is them in our hands.

The longer the game is at 0-0, the less confidence I have in us to win.

You make a good point mb, we have slowed to an Adkin's type snails pace in the second half of the season and its reflected in results. We have nothing to lose going for it. Shots on goal average went back to early season levels last night. Good news is we are getting near the WLWLWLW average of 2 points per game over the past 7 games! If we had a giraffe (grafikhaus ) it would show an upturn

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

That's why a lot of sides gamble by parking the bus. If we get an early goal its unusual for us to then lose the game as teams have to attack us.

Fulham was probably a notable exception to this

We also lost at Forest after scoring early.

 

[SwissBlade]

We also lost at Forest after scoring early.

True, can’t think of many more off the top of my head though

 

[Bladesman]

You make a good point mb, we have slowed to an Adkin's type snails pace in the second half of the season and its reflected in results. We have nothing to lose going for it. Shots on goal average went back to early season levels last night. Good news is we are getting near the WLWLWLW average of 2 points per game over the past 7 games! If we had a giraffe (grafikhaus ) it would show an upturn

That is true, we had 16 shots I think last night?

Also are you trying to give grafikhaus some work to do on a snow day?

 

[blade too long]

Ive found also if we score more than the opposition we also win

 

[IdLiketoRogerMoore]

Ive found also if we score more than the opposition we also win

I totally disagree.

It's when we concede less than the opposition we win...

 

[grafikhaus]

That is true, we had 16 shots I think last night?

Also are you trying to give grafikhaus some work to do on a snow day?

Well, Jeremy Kyle was crap so...

Our League form so far is:

P: 34 W: 17 D: 4 L: 13 Pts. 55

The matches when we've scored first read:

P: 17 W: 15 D: 0 L: 2 Pts. 45

The matches when we've scored early (0-15 minutes) are:

P: 11 W: 8 D: 1 L: 2 Pts. 25

Billy Sharp has scored most early goals (5).

An overall view of when we're scoring/conceding is:

 

[Woodwardfan]

Stats for the full Premier League season 2012 showed :

Home team score first- 72% win 17% draw.

Away team score first- 61% win 25% draw.

Always a good plan

 

[Bladesthorpe]

Start of the season we came out the blocks quickly and grabbed early goals. That is when we were at our best. Proved again tonight, grab that early goal and the game is them in our hands.

The longer the game is at 0-0, the less confidence I have in us to win.

How many times have we led 2-0 and let the opposition get one back and finished up hanging on or getting pegged back?

 

[Silent Blade]

True, can’t think of many more off the top of my head though

Fulham

 

[Rusty view]

I'm fed up of having a dodgy spell after half time. We seem to conceded an awful lot between 45 and 55. Not checked stats so it could be my mind playing tricks on me

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

We are at our most dangerous at the end of each half and at our most vulnerable in the middle of each half.

 

[grafikhaus]

How many times have we led 2-0 and let the opposition get one back and finished up hanging on or getting pegged back?

Well if you think I'm going to work that out....

 

[SwissBlade]

Fulham

Ha ha See post 3

 

[Silent Blade]

Ha ha See post 3

You said "probably", I say "definitely!"

 

[SwissBlade]

You said "probably", I say "definitely!"

Good point well made, nice recovery

 

[beatific blade]

I totally disagree.

It's when we concede less than the opposition we win...

The pigs can fail to score and still win. Now that is the mark of a top side.

 

[mattbianco1]

Well if you think I'm going to work that out....

I don't think we've lost a game having been 2-0 up though, surely??

 

[Rusty]

I'm fed up of having a dodgy spell after half time. We seem to conceded an awful lot between 45 and 55. Not checked stats so it could be my mind playing tricks on me

Yep especially last season...I think..

 

[grafikhaus]

Yep especially last season...I think..

 

[tomtheblade]

How many times have we led 2-0 and let the opposition get one back and finished up hanging on or getting pegged back?

It's true we do seem to have done this a lot this season, but on the other hand we've never actually lost a game after this occurring, and only once has the other team actually come back from 0-2 back to 2-2 (and we all remember how THAT turned out )

So, when Reading scored on Tuesday and everyone in the shout box started getting suicidal, saying 'here we go again', 'why do we always do this' etc, I felt the same.. until I remembered that even though we do continuously let teams back into the game, we do also always see it out and win as well, so actually no need to worry. When Moore saved the pen I felt like some sort of footballing cosmic justice was happening..

From memory, here are the games where this happened:
Derby H 2-0 back to 2-1, won 3-1
Sunderland A 2-0 back to 2-1, won 2-1
Pigs A 2-0 back to 2-2, won 4-2
Reading H 2-0 back to 2-1, won 2-1
Norwich A 2-0 back to 2-1, won 2-1
QPR H 2-0 back to 2-1, won 2-1
Reading A 2-0 back to 2-1, won 3-1

 

[LenTednTony]

I totally disagree.

It's when we concede less than the opposition we win...

.....and when neither team score, we lose! I, of course, reference the Sheffield Derby at Bramall Lane.

Edit: Sorry Beatific Blade, I didn’t see your reference to the reference that I referred to earlier. My bad

 

[Cerberus Blade]

As do approx 80 - 85% of teams !

UTB

And did you know that approximately 83% of football statistics are made up on the spot?

 

[Cerberus Blade]

It's true we do seem to have done this a lot this season, but on the other hand we've never actually lost a game after this occurring, and only once has the other team actually come back from 0-2 back to 2-2 (and we all remember how THAT turned out )

So, when Reading scored on Tuesday and everyone in the shout box started getting suicidal, saying 'here we go again', 'why do we always do this' etc, I felt the same.. until I remembered that even though we do continuously let teams back into the game, we do also always see it out and win as well, so actually no need to worry. When Moore saved the pen I felt like some sort of footballing cosmic justice was happening..

From memory, here are the games where this happened:
Derby H 2-0 back to 2-1, won 3-1
Sunderland A 2-0 back to 2-1, won 2-1
Pigs A 2-0 back to 2-2, won 4-2
Reading H 2-0 back to 2-1, won 2-1
Norwich A 2-0 back to 2-1, won 2-1
QPR H 2-0 back to 2-1, won 2-1
Reading A 2-0 back to 2-1, won 3-1

So..7 out of 34 times, this season, is the answer. That’s a gnat’s cock over 20%. Put another way, in the vast majority of games, almost 80% of the time, this doesn’t happen. But believe different if you want to? It’s how urban myths are formed.

 

[tomtheblade]

So..7 out of 34 times, this season, is the answer. That’s a gnat’s cock over 20%. Put another way, in the vast majority of games, almost 80% of the time, this doesn’t happen. But believe different if you want to? It’s how urban myths are formed.

True, but I don't think people look at it that way. The underlying issue here is that we struggle to kill teams off, despite generally dominating many games.
Only in two games this season have we gone ahead, stayed ahead and increased our lead without reply from the opposition: Sunderland and Wolves at home, and in the latter we were slightly fortunate that they didn't convert a penalty at 1-0.

We have had other comfortable victories, such as Burton and Hull, but in those we had to come from behind or get back in front after being pegged back.

The point which I think sticks in peoples mind is that when we go 2-0 up we almost always let the opposition get a goal back. So instead of 80% of games where this doesn't happen, it's looked upon as: in 7 out of 9 games where we've gotten ourselves into a comfortable position, we've let them back into the game. That's actually more like 80% in the other direction.

It would be the same for any other stat which shows a consistent pattern throughout the season. Eg. Always starting slow and coming from behind or, letting in equalisers in the last minute. Of course for these things to happen other events first have to happen (concwding first before equalising etc), but the point is that when the first set of circumstances occur, the pattern nearly always plays out in the same way. I think that's why fans are frustrated that we don't have a few more 2-0 and 3-0 victories under our belt, rather than many nervy 2-1s, as fans it's not good for our hearts!