Helping Hands 2010/2011 11/05/2011
Posted by Matt Rowson in Thoughts about things.trackback
You should know the form by now. Listed below an account of this seasons “assists”, tallied up by ploughing through match reports, youtube, and so on, and so forth. Don’t mock, this is what gets me through the summer. Good god, the season only ended last Saturday…
This is the fourth year in which I’ve compiled this table; click on the season to check out the 2009-10, 2008-09 and 2007-08 equivalents.
My figures tend to differ from those tabulated on the Official Site. I’m the statistician, watch me not care. I’ve defined being fouled for a converted penalty as an assist, but no assist for being fouled for a converted free kick, and if a cross is flicked on then both crosser AND flicker-on get the assist.
Thoughts? First off, the breadth. Only three outfield players who started games failed to provide an assist, and they had eight starts between them. This is dramatically different from previous seasons; in our most prolific campaign for a while, it’s clear that the variety of threat is a key factor.
The key contributions are obvious. Don Cowie notches up the highest figure recorded in the last four seasons, and his value to the team never more obvious than when he’s not in it. Danny Graham, of course. A complete striker at this level, as valuable for his role in the forward line as for the goals he scored. Stephen McGinn… these figures emphasise how big a blow his injury was on top of the inability to retain the very capable Jordon Mutch, backing up the impression that here was evolving a very useful player indeed. Get well soon, Stephen. And Martin Taylor, a valuable weapon in our attacking armoury as well as vital at the back, he was directly involved in ten goals in the campaign just gone.
Disappointments? I suspect we ought to expect more from 30 starts as an attacking wide man than Will Buckley’s four assists, two of which in the memorable flaying of Cardiff. For a capable crosser of the ball, it surprises me that Lee Hodson only has one assist to his name. And Danny Drinkwater, in context… coming in on loan isn’t always going to be as easy as it sometimes looks, but he was the nearest we got to an incoming replacement for Mutch or McGinn. He clearly didn’t deliver.
School report starts soon. When are the fixtures out…?
| Assists | Apps | Gls | Assists vs | |
| Cowie | 14 | 39 | 4 | NoC (A), DoR (H), Mwl (A), Mwl (A), Mwl (A), Mbo (A), LeC (H), CaC (H), DeC (H) , Mwl (H), IpT (A), Mbo (H), HuC (H), LeU (A) |
| Graham | 10 | 47+2 | 27 | NtC (H), Mwl (A), ShU (A), NoF (H), CaC (H), Por (H), CaC (A), NoC (H), LeU (A), PNE (A) |
| McGinn | 7 | 27+6 | 2 | NoC (A), CvC (H), DeC (A), CrP (A), QPR (A), HpU (H), PNE (H) |
| Mutch | 6 | 21+2 | 5 | Por (A), Bur (A), Rdg (H), LeC (H), LeC (H), Por (H) |
| Deeney | 5 | 20+20 | 3 | CrP (A), ScU (A), SwC (A), Bar (H), LeC (A) |
| Sordell | 4 | 29+17 | 15 | NoC (A), Ald (A), SwC (H), Bur (H) |
| Buckley | 4 | 31+6 | 4 | Mwl (A), CaC (H), CaC(H), DeC (H) |
| M.Taylor | 4 | 49 | 6 | Mwl (A), Mbo (H), IpT (H) , PNE (H) |
| Whichelow | 3 | 5+16 | 3 | HpU (h), HpU (h), Rdg (a) |
| A.Taylor | 3 | 19 | 1 | IpT (h), QPR (a), Bur (A) |
| Eustace | 3 | 42 | 6 | Ald (a), BrC (a), ShU (h) |
| Bennett | 2 | 7+5 | 0 | HpU (h), DeC (h) |
| Weimann | 2 | 10+9 | 4 | BrC (h), DoR (a) |
| Doyley | 2 | 40+0 | 0 | Ald (a), SwC (h) |
| Mariappa | 2 | 49 | 1 | BrC (a), CaC (a) |
| Townsend | 1 | 2+1 | 0 | CrP (h) |
| Bryan | 1 | 4+3 | 0 | Por (a) |
| Thompson | 1 | 8+3 | 1 | ShU (h) |
| Jenkins | 1 | 15+7 | 1 | IpT (a) |
| Hodson | 1 | 28+3 | 1 | CvC (h) |
| Hoban | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | |
| Kiernan | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | |
| Oshodi | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | |
| Massey | 0 | 0+4 | 0 | |
| Walker | 0 | 0+5 | 0 | Murray | 0 | 1+1 | 0 | Drinkwater | 0 | 3+9 | 0 | Gilmartin | 0 | 4 | 0 | Mingoia | 0 | 4+3 | 1 | Loach | 0 | 46 | 0 |
All assists accounted for!
BHaPPY (not BSaD) 
Those that know me will know that my other sporting passion is ice hockey. I’ve always liked their points system – one for a goal, one for an assist and one for the second assist. Therefore your analysis above is highly appealing to me !
Using that logic, then DG is streets ahead obviously (37 points) and is going to be really hard to replace next year.
However, there is hope. Sordell’s return of 19 points from 29 starts is pretty good – as is Cowie’s return of 18 points from 39 starts. He was hampered by injury for much of his playing time and so we will need him fit for next year.
As you say Buckley’s return is disappointing. For a person who claims he would rather play up front, he doesn’t carry much of a goal threat for my liking. A Rookery dwelling friend of mine can regularly be heard berating Buckley’s lack of end product. And its ironic that said friend missed the Cardiff home game.
Any chance of a +/- analysis for the team? (ie gain a point for being on the pitch when we score a goal and lose a point for being on the pitch when conceding a goal). That should keep you busy for a while!
oh you bugger… 🙂
Great work Matt, always an interesting read.
The two against Hartlepool were both Whichelow – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCZxn6pEX38
many thanks James… I’d watched some clips on Youtube but not this version. Will update accordingly.
Good stuff Matt. It is at this time that a more objective view really starts to show the contributions made and often the unsung heroes. Would that some of the boo boys would understand this.
The assist for Graham’s second at Aldershot was a John Eustace tackle pass:
http://www.livevideo.com/video/collingwoodfcmagpies/BD97C8D29F5A41A9B11A9C25ABCD3504/aldershot-town-v-watford-tues.aspx
Just found that myself Simon, thanks. Well worth an assist. Full house now I think…
Amazing work….does Malky have this ?
I don’t think Malky needs any help from oiks like me…
I was reading this year’s HeHa review and recalled I always seem to feel at the start of every season that we’ve lost our main goal threats – scorers and assistants alike.
So I have made some calculations based on your helpings hands for the last four seasons. Basically I wanted to see how large a percentage of goals and assists from the previous season we’d lost for the next.
I am going by your lists which means that players who are sold after having player until the end of August or till January are counted as being in our squad.
For the 2008-09 season we had lost (18) players who in the previous season were responsible for:
23 goals (44%)
36 assists (53%)
For the 2009-10 season we had lost (24) players who in the previous season were responsible for:
24 goals (38%)
40 assists (53%)
For this season just gone we had lost players (16) who in the previous season were responsible for:
23 goals (49%)
39 assists (61%)
Going by the average of the previous 3 seasons, before the beginning of next season we will lose players worth 33 assists and 47 goals. FORTY-SEVEN!
Losing the loanees (who are gone already) along with Graham, Cowie and Eustace would put us on 33 assists but five goals short of 47. Puts this season’s performance in some kind of perspective.