THE BERGARA YEARS
By the middle of 1994 I’d been writing for the Tea Party for a couple of years, and I suspect had got a bit of a reputation for being a ‘numbers’ and ‘statistics’ buff. Give that I’d done in degree in that kind of stuff it was little surprise. I’d always kept records, and had innumerable reference books, such as Rothmans Football Yearbooks, going back a long way. By the end of 1993/94 Bergara had finished his 5th full season, and had masterminded, (on the pitch), a complete change around in the Club’s fortunes, and ta the same time giving hope to those County fans which had valiantly supported the Club through the really thin times of the 70’s and 80’s. I decided to have a look at the numbers of that 5 year reign.
..
*****************
..
From memory Danny was appointed on 27th March 1989 the day of a game against Torquay at EP. He formally took charge on 1st April with a visit to Sincil Bank, Lincoln hunt and the remainder of the 1988/89 season presided over 9 games none of which resulted in a victory. By the end of that season the knives were already out wanting to know what an earth Elwood had done bringing in someone whose sole experience of management was 2/3 of a season of Rochdale. Well five full seasons later we know the answer to that – the transformation of a club that was a musical laughing stock; trips to Wembley; promotion campaigns with plenty of good moments offset by some tragedies. Sparing an idle hour leafing through old copies of Rothmans and the Football League Directory it struck me that he has certainly rung the changes on the field with 81 players used, the equivalent of seven different teams plus a handful of substitutes. The facts and figures shown below certainly allow some interesting conclusions to be drawn.
League performance.
Setting aside those first nine games at the fag end of the 88/89 season he’s averaged just under 80 points a season which tells the tale in itself. Automatic promotion generally comes with 85 plus points so the performance has been good but only enough to put us into play-off misery. Converting a couple of losses into wins would have seen Division One. It’s probably the home form that’s done it with an average 20 points a season dropped at EP – because 30 points a season away should be enough.
Cup record.
The League Cup performance has been relatively poor – indeed the visit of Sheffield will be only our third attempt at the second round. The FA Cup has seen better times, Three goes at the third round and an almost unprecedented chance in the 4th have been riches indeed compared to the previous 20 years. The Autoglass success is well catalogued and indeed gave us the opportunity of seeing County at Wembley for the first time -something I thought would be an impossibility in my lifetime.
The Players.
Of the 81 players used, 11 have started more than 100 matches but it’s no surprise that, with the exception of Andy Thorpe, they have formed the backbone of the team over the last three years. 27 players started less than 10 games and a further 7 only made it as far as the bench. Of these there was single full appearances for Dooner, Holmes and Shepherd – as far as I’m aware the only product of the junior teams who have made it as far as the first 11.
Kevin’s tally as leading scorer will be obvious to all but there have been significant contributions from Beaumont, Gannon and Preece. Indeed between the four of them they scored 253 of the 482 goals. We shouldn’t forget the contribution made by Angell (29) and PA Williams (20) to the success of the early years. Altogether 41 players hit the target. Defensively 354 goals in total went past 11 keepers – that’s an average of just over one match. Edwards leads the way with 139 games but who can forget the massive negative contributions made by Muggleton and Kite. The early years seemed to centre around keepers who might generously be described as “past their prime” in the form of Batch, Cooper and Siddall.
On the transfer front purchases amounting to £670,000 have been more than offset by sales of over £1m with the profit on Preece and the two Paul Williams’ contributing much of that. 12 players have been brought in on loan, none of whom contributed a great deal although Barrett did reasonably well at the end of the first play–off season and Duffield managed a Wembley appearance that he couldn’t have expected.
The majority of those who played regularly spent some time on the bench. James takes the honours with 22 of his 37 appearances coming as sub. Interestingly Neil Matthews, with 18 substitute appearances, and Paul Wheeler, with 16, have a pretty good strike rate and could probably be said to have had a rough deal particularly when you recall Matthews contribution to the latter stages of the promotion season and Wheeler’s efforts in getting us to the Autoglass final the first time. Overall Frain tops the appearances chart and at the other end of the scale Mike Cecere and James Quinn probably managed about 8 minutes during a single substitute chance. The full list of players appears above – easily recognisable are the fans favourites as well those who have incurred wrath from the terraces. Bill Williams managed to last the distance appearing in the first match of Bergara’s reign at Lincoln and making his swansong at Wembley last May. Promotion has evaded us for the last three years – already this season we have seen 6 fresh faces added to the list. Will these be the ones who enabled us to cross the bridge and enjoy the fulfilment of the progress that has been made over the last five years.
..
September 1994
Recent Comments