Eagle-eyed readers of Bulls News may remember an article written by Mike Margetts published on February 3rd which suggested an unusual phenomenon in League Two this season.
Any Hereford United supporter glancing down the list of League Two results on Saturday evening would, of course, have derived great pleasure from seeing the score line at Millmoor – another excellent win away from home for The Bulls.
But it would not only have been Bulls fans celebrating victory on the road: incredibly NINE of the 12 matches ended in the visitors claiming all three points.
Now although this was obviously a severe case of ‘home sickness’ it also underlines an unusual trend in League Two this season. A study of the current table shows that no fewer than 11 of the 24 clubs have prospered more on their travels than in their own backyards.
Given the benefit of history and the perceived wisdom that it’s generally more profitable to play at home, it does, inevitably, beg the question why. And why is the phenomenon apparently exclusive to League Two?
A month after Mike's article the Football League has noticed the same phenomenon. Below is a part of their article.
For any Football League club with aspirations of promotion, one of the unwritten rules is that, first, you have to win your home matches and then try to get at least a draw on your travels. However, this season's Coca-Cola League 2 is turning convention on its head and re-writing The League's record books in the process.
For the first time in The League's 120-year history a single division is set to record a higher number of away wins than home wins. To date, the 2007/08 Coca-Cola League 2 season has seen clubs rack-up a total of 167 victories on their travels compared to only 149 wins on home turf.
"It really is quite remarkable that after so many seasons and so many matches that this should suddenly happen in the current League 2 campaign. There's no obvious explanation as to why it has occurred now, but it does certainly demonstrate how competitive the Division is," said John Nagle, Football League Head of Communications.
In more than 167,000 matches played in The Football League since the competition began on September 8, 1888 the number of home wins is more than double the number of away wins. In total 87,656 matches have been won by the home team compared to 39,051 by the away team. The exact ratio of home wins compared to away wins is 2.24.
In the early days of league football this ratio peaked at three and a half home wins to every away win, with the lowest recorded figure for The League as a whole being 2002/03's one and half wins. The previous lowest figure for a single division was the 1.34 home wins for each away win recorded in Division Three in 1993/4 - a record sure to be smashed this year.
The astonishing away form of League 2 clubs has also produced some remarkable sets of results. Already, this season's League 2 fixture programme has seen nine away wins on a single day once (Feb 2) and eight away wins on three other occasions (Aug 25, Dec 29 and Feb 23). Prior to the beginning of this season eight or more away wins in a single Division on a single day had only occurred 9 times in the entire history of The League.
For the record to date Hereford United have won 19 games this season, 8 at home and 11 away.
Text at top (next game etc)
Next game: Scarborough Away On Saturday March 15th at 3.00pm