As we sit here twiddling our thumbs and wait for 2013 to become just another year in your history textbook, we’re pretty confident that there aren’t too many Boro’ fans sad to see the back of this year. If you can bring yourselves to look back at our fortunes on the pitch since 2012 naffed off, you’ll probably agree with us that it’s been pretty bleak – albeit punctuated by the odd glimmer of good times and cheer.
For every 4-0 against Sheffield United, there were defeats to Bury, Scunthorpe United and Colchester United. And for every away win at Crewe Alexandra, there were goals conceded galore against MK Dons, Bristol City and, uh, Colchester United. But the fine chaps over at Sporting Intelligence have the pure, bloody and explicit statistics to underline why 2013 is not going to be found in the drawer marked “One For The Scrapbook”.
With absolutely no intention of undermining the good work of Sporting Intelligence, we’re going to repeat a few of those statistics so you can end the year with a horror show if you’re keen on that sort of thing. The first stat is the most depressing – out of all the 94 clubs who played in the Premier and Football Leagues during this calendar year, no-one comes out of it worse than us with an average of 0.78 points per game.
To put that in some form of perspective, that’s worse than Barnet.
Dig deeper and we sit top of the list for most defeats (30), most home defeats (13) and very nearly the most away goals conceded (45) – Crewe topping that latter one. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been possible for us to compile a year-by-year comparison. But we can be fairly sure that 2013 will stand as one of the worst years – on the pitch – in the club’s history. And with that, we’re ruddy looking forward to welcoming the gifts that 2014 has for us.
READ: Sporting Intelligence – the best and worst of English league football in 2013.
Gillingham match preview coming shortly…
