Letter from America

... or from Flint to Foster City (or thereabouts)

Well it's been a steady start to the season so far for the Robins, with the Reds currently undefeated away from home, but only having picked up one league win at the Racecourse. For this Letter from America I've decided to take a statistical look at Wrexham's start to the previous seven campaigns. Below is a table comparing Wrexham's opening nine league games for this season with their record in the previous seven seasons:

Season   P  W  D  L F  A  Pts Pos  Final
00/01    9  3  2  4 14 15 11  13th ?
99/00    9  4  1  4 12 13 13  11th 11th
98/99    9  3  3  3 10 12 12  13th 17th
97/98    9  3  2  4 15 13 11  17th 7th
96/97    9  4  4  1 12  9 16  4th  8th
95/96    9  1  5  3  8 11  8  ?    8th
94/95    9  4  2  3 12 10 14  ?    13th
93/94    9  3  2  4 16 17 11  ?    12th

As you can see, Wrexham's start to this campaign is comparable with that of their '97/8 campaign, in which they ended up missing the play-offs by just goal difference ie. that season from their opening nine league fixtures they gained 11 points, the same as they currently have now. However, in the '98/9 season they had one more point than they currently have now, but ended up in 17th position. What do these two contrary statistics tell you? I suggest that they point to the fact that the opening nine league games of the season are no indicator whatsoever to a club's final resting place in the league table. Therefore, I think that we can't draw any firm conclusions at the moment from what we've seen in the league so far. Especially since just about half of the first team this season are new to the club ie. Carlos Edwards, Hector Sam, Lee Roche, Michael Blackwood and Emad Bouanane. So let's hope that the rest of this season pans out like the '97/8 season when from exactly the same start Wrexham finished on the same points as the 5th and 6th placed clubs in the league (Bristol Rovers and Fulham on that occasion). In a sport where increasingly money talks, finishing on equal terms with a clubs like Bristol Rovers would be a marvellous achievement in my opinion.

Cheers
Gareth Collins