BRISTOL ROVERS BLOG: G is for Gas - Home and awayPosted: January 06, 2016
By Martin BullNo, this isn’t a blog about a tired old Aussie soap, but a look at how important away results can be. It seems like no coincidence that our swift rise up the table has come at a time when we’ve suddenly won five out of six home games, AND crucially continued to keep the away points rapidly ticking over.
Whilst conventional wisdom says that you cannot rely on away form, our incredible record has now lasted so long that it might now be the time to kick that old chestnut into the stingers and let it rot alongside the discarded crisp packets and abandoned jazz mags.
We are not alone though. Although our away record is uniquely in the ‘truly exceptional‘ category (only a brace of away day blanks since mid-September 2014; a staggering record of won 16, drawn 14, lost 2), there seems to be a growing trend of away prowess in our current League. 13 teams have a better away record than home, and only two of the 11 on the opposite side of the fence (Barnet and Notts County) could be considered to possess the time-honoured combination of a home record that is substantially better than their disappointing away results.
Our own league track record on the road this season is a outstanding won 7, drawn 3 and lost 2. Only Plymouth Argyle have a better record. The caveat we may need to add though is that we have only played one of the current top seven teams away, although the caveat on top of the caveat (if that is feasible?) is that although in a lower position now, Leyton Orient were actually top of the table and Mansfield Town were fourth when we faced them.
Points on the road can be incredibly important to a season. We were languishing in 17th spot after losing to Portsmouth in late September, one of four losses in five games, but a trio of away wins followed and our season was suddenly resurrected. Indeed, several fans, and our manager himself, have said that that rather surprising 3-0 trouncing of Hartlepool United on a Tuesday night (our longest trip of the season - thanks fixture computer, I hope your CPU dies tomorrow) was our best result of the season so far.
I realise I’ve used the following stat before, but it is so darn remarkable it deserves repeating, if only to serve as a warning to teams who neglect their away performances. Gillingham got relegated from League One in the 2009/10 season despite earning 44 points at the Priestfield Stadium. A derisory six away points saw them go down on goal difference.
If continued away defeats are cataclysmic, a sudden loss of away form is also debilitating, so we must be on our guard, especially with a very difficult run of away games coming up (Barnet, Oxford Utd, Accrington Stanley, Portsmouth and Wycombe).
Bury are currently on a seven match losing run on the road in League One, and despite three home wins out of four during this period, have dropped from fourth to 14th. Is this the most fascinating statistic of Bury’s recent history? Not really, as before the calamitous losing streak they were our main rival for a startling away record, not having tasted defeat since January, a sequence of 15 games unbeaten (won 12, drawn 3).
Feast or famine is rarely a way to foster longer term success.
Next up on our travels are our old friends Barnet. The Bees have the third best home record in League Two, but the worst away record, which should make for a fascinating clash. The chink of light in their armour is that they’ve only taken four home points against the five teams they have so far faced from the top half of the table. This is no complete surprise, and is merely an exaggeration of their performances last season, being superlative flat track bullies against the lower teams, and also rarely obtaining the mediocrity of a draw.
That brings me onto another truism, that regularly drawing is not much good in modern football. Witness Leyton Orient’s recent fall from 6th to 10th whilst on a seemingly impressive four match unbeaten run. The problem was that they were all 1-1 draws.
Whilst we were the away draw specialists last season, with a dozen of them giving us our highest seasonal tally in our history, we have certainly changed this season, as since back in the Football League draws have only made up 25% of our away results.
Home and away, I just hope we can keep any loss of form at bay until the summer.
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Martin Bull became a Gashead in 1989 and immediately fell in love with Twerton Park, standing near G pillar. His sixth book has just been released. It is entitled ‘Print That Season! - One man’s weekly meanderings throughout Bristol Rovers’ promotion campaign of 2014-15’ and is the antidote to obedient season reviews, with none of the hindsight that most writers rely on. It is a signed and numbered limited edition of only 462 books, and is available via www.printthatseason.club
