Play-offs 2022/23 - Goals For & Against

[Rattus Norvegicus]

I think Murphy, Cardwell and Dalby are all capable of getting on the end of chances. Supply from midfield and from the flanks is vital and the area I think we’ll be concentrating on most. Delivery of set pieces and getting men in the box to take advantage will be key also. Hobson has proved a decent target for set pieces, good for maybe 5/6 goals a season, being optimistic. Creative attacking wing backs/midfielders and good passers of the ball as well as physical ball winners in the centre of the park and I think we’ll be fine.

I really do think that we need to asking the defenders to be weighing in with more goals - as they used to do in the days of Edwards, Spinner, Barrett, Clarke etcetera. Either with headers or from picking up balls from attacking corners etcetera.

 

[Whispering Bob]

I really do think that we need to asking the defenders to be weighing in with more goals - as they used to do in the days of Edwards, Spinner, Barrett, Clarke etcetera. Either with headers or from picking up balls from attacking corners etcetera.

I'll give you Barrett, but the other 3 amassed 21 goals in 515 games.

 

[Rattus Norvegicus]

Really? I could swear they were knocking in goals from time to time.

What about Coker & Francis - they used to score didn't they?

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Really? I could swear they were knocking in goals from time to time.

What about Coker & Francis - they used to score didn't they?

Simon Francis 4 league goals in 4 seasons with us.
Ben Coker 4 league goals in 6 seasons

Last season’s wingbacks were more prolific!

 

[Rattus Norvegicus]

I don't believe that! Francis - 4 goals? I would swear that I saw him score with his left foot, his right foot & his head! (Not all in the same game of course!)

 

[Whispering Bob]

Really? I could swear they were knocking in goals from time to time.

What about Coker & Francis - they used to score didn't they?

Clarkey got a few, but the Eagle and Spencer around 5 each.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

I don't believe that! Francis - 4 goals? I would swear that I saw him score with his left foot, his right foot & his head! (Not all in the same game of course!)

It does beg the mystery as to which body part he scored the 4th with.

 

[Dutch Branch]

Getting into the play-offs in the forthcoming 2022/23 season will quite simply mean scoring a shed load more goals than we concede.

Win it, job done. The number of goals is irrelevant as long as we score more than the opposition.




Goals scored

Looking at the top 8 for the season just finished gives the following numbers:-

Stockport 87

Wrexham 91

Solihull Moors 83

Halifax 62

Notts County 81

Grimsby 68

Chesterfield 69

That gives an average of 77. Highest Wrexham, lowest Halifax.

To me, the numbers suggest that Southend needs to score at least 70 to 75 goals next season to be in the play-offs. 80 should see us well placed.

[Note: This takes into account an increase of 1 in the teams in the division.]

 

[rigsby]

Score your pens, 5 from throws, 5 each from corners and kicks with direct headers or head down ( Stockport scored 4 out of 5 against us that way).

That is the magical 20 a season without signing a single player. The biggest points winner would be to concede 20 less. Defenders win you titles not strikers.

 

[BALDY]

SUFC the first ever club to win the NL championship.........On a fans forum...Steeeeve 20 goals lol

 

[Rattus Norvegicus]

So, here we are - the first fixture coming up in a few days time and without wishing to sound negative but ..........

....... mathematically, I still don't know where the 70 to 75 goals that are required to be in the top 7 in the league are going to come from.

We have Hyde but have lost Dalby. Still talk of signing some loan players including a forward so perhaps time will tell.

 

[Jasrod]

So, here we are - the first fixture coming up in a few days time and without wishing to sound negative but ..........

....... mathematically, I still don't know where the 70 to 75 goals that are required to be in the top 7 in the league are going to come from.

We have Hyde but have lost Dalby. Still talk of signing some loan players including a forward so perhaps time will tell.

You only need 30 one nil victories to win this league

 

[Rattus Norvegicus]

You only need 30 one nil victories to win this league

You have a lot of confidence in the defence then.

 

[Zeuss]

Ok, how about something like

Cardwell 14
Dalby 12
Mooney 11
Murphy 7
Husin 6
Powell 4
Bridge 4
Clifford 3
Hobson 3
Demi 2
Wood 2
Miley 1
Ralph 1
Lomas 1
Kensdale 1
Own goals 2

That would be 75 goals there.

Those amounts all seem individually achievable. Those players (so not including own goals) actually scored 71 league goals between them last season and there’s an extra 2 league games.

I’ve assumed Cardwell takes pens - if he doesn’t maybe bump a few off him and add them elsewhere. His is the biggest increase from his tally last season as he’s up 4. He’d scored 7 before joining us and added a further 3 for us.

One goal for Ralph ?
We would be depriving ourselves of a rich source of goals if we keep spring-heeled Ralph in a defensive role.
He’d be lethal when arriving late at the far post to meet Demi’s accurate crosses.

 

[Leigh_Seasider]

SUFC the first ever club to win the NL championship.........On a fans forum...Steeeeve 20 goals lol

If you check .. there’s a thread with a poll on here and most of this fans forum have us finishing between 6th and 9th.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Ok, how about something like

Cardwell 14
Dalby 12
Mooney 11
Murphy 7
Husin 6
Powell 4
Bridge 4
Clifford 3
Hobson 3
Demi 2
Wood 2
Miley 1
Ralph 1
Lomas 1
Kensdale 1
Own goals 2

That would be 75 goals there.

Those amounts all seem individually achievable. Those players (so not including own goals) actually scored 71 league goals between them last season and there’s an extra 2 league games.

I’ve assumed Cardwell takes pens - if he doesn’t maybe bump a few off him and add them elsewhere. His is the biggest increase from his tally last season as he’s up 4. He’d scored 7 before joining us and added a further 3 for us.

Thought it’d be interesting to look at this again and see how we’re doing.

We’re a little over a third of the way through the league season and currently are on course for 67 goals which isn’t that far off the 75 pace, particularly considering our slow start (just a single goal from the first 3 games of the season) as we struggled to come to terms with losing Dalby and injuries. Over the last 10 (a spell including games against Wrexham and Chesterfield) we’ve scored 17 which would be the equivalent of 78 goals over a season which suggests to me we can make up for the slow start.


Cardwell 14 - 0 injured.
Dalby 12 - 0 as sold on eve of season
Mooney 11 - 1 maybe there’s more to come
Murphy 7 - 0 injured.
Husin 6 - 0 a bit disappointing. I think Noor’s got more to offer here.
Powell 4 - 6 with starts I’d allocated to others he’s already exceeded expectations.
Bridge 4 - 2 (1p) possibly on track to exceed expectations, particularly if he’s on pens
Clifford 3 - yet to score
Hobson 3 - 1 on track
Demi 2 - been replaced by Gus who has already 2
Wood 2 - been relegated down the pecking order by Fonguck who has 1 already
Miley 1 - not yet
Ralph 1 - not yet
Lomas 1 - been supplanted by Łopata who has 1 goal
Kensdale 1 - yet to score
Own goals 2 - looking forward to these chipping in some more

Joined since that post
Hyde 3 (and a cup goal)
Wreh 3
Dackers 3 (1p)

Obviously the top 5 were way off, mainly as the forwards haven’t played as much as expected, but the important point is we’ve seen others step in and chip in. We don’t have anyone on track to be a 20 goal a season and only Powell looking like he can get to 15 but we look on course for a play-off spot. Hopefully Cardwell’s return can lift us another level too.

 

[Rattus Norvegicus]

So here we are, in the 2nd half of the season.

It's a little difficult to make some comparisons due to teams having played a different number of matches but here goes .............

So far, Notts County have scored the most goals; 69 after 27 games or 2.2 per match.
At this rate they will score over 100 goals in the season.

Wrexham are 2nd in the table; 64 goals in 25 matches or 2.56 per match.

The remaining teams in places 3rd to 7th are managing around 1.7 per match - so there is quite a difference in "fire power" between Notts County & Wrexham and the other "top" teams.

Southend United are the lowest scorers in the top 7 by some distance - 33 goals so far. That is less than half the number of goals that Notts County have scored.

On the plus side, two teams have conceded the fewest goals in the league - Wrexham & Southend United.

Barnet & Daggers have let in almost twice as many goals as Southend have so far.

 

[Rattus Norvegicus]

Just to finish this off ...........

Season 2021/22 - average 77 goals scored for top eight teams.

Season 2022/23 - average 72.5 goals scored for the top eight teams.

Boreham Wood scored 52 goals compared with Southend's 57.

These figures compare with the average number of goals scored per team across the entire division was 64.2.

In conclusion ........

- We (Southend United) scored less goals than the average for the league.

- One can get into the play-offs without scoring a shed-load of goals.