Wednesday, 11 September 2013

Shortest and longest lossless streak

Following the separation of the management team of Giovanni Trapattoni and Marco Tardelli with the FAI in the aftermath of the losses to Sweden and Austria, a question was posed on the You Boys In Green forum about whether that was the shortest time between consecutive losses in qualifers.

After examining the list of games available on soccerscene.ie, I can reveal that the shortest time between losses in a qualification series is three days in 1975, when the Soviet Union and Switzerland defeated the Irish 2-1 on the 18th May, and 1-0 on the 21st, respectively.

The Longest we went without losing a qualifier was from 10-10-1937 when we lost to Norway until 2-6-1949 when Sweden beat us, a total of 4253 days, although World War Two meant very few games were played between those two dates!

In the modern era, the longest time I can find between losses is between 16-11-1988 and 10-10-1993,  a total of 1789 days. Both losses on those dates came to Spain and both in World Cup qualifiers, 2-0 and 3-1, respectively.

Wednesday, 4 September 2013

Irish Abroad player statistics for May 2013

Following the summer break, I've compiled the monthly appearance statistics for the opening month of the season in England and Scotland: http://irish-abroad.appspot.com/MonthlyStats
With the extra week of games, Scottish and Championship players lead most of the tables.
Paddy Kenny, Jake Carroll, Richard Dunne, Richard Keogh, Aaron Doran and Richie Foran all started four wins for their respective clubs.
Seamus Coleman was the only player to start three draws in the first month of the new season
Jim Goodwin, Stephen Dawson, Jay Tabb and Graham Carey started four losses in August
Paddy Kenny, Richard Keogh and Stephen Dawson all started each of their respective clubs' seven games in August, and all three players completed 90 minutes in every game
Aaron Doran and Noel Hunt were both substituted four times, more than any other player
Four is also the most number of introductions for Irish players in August, Conor Sammon and Sean Scannell both coming off the bench four times
Goalkeepers again dominate the most stayed on bench table, with three players remaining unused five times or more, with Leicester's Conrad Logan's six times the most. Of the outfield players, Stephen Kelly, Sam Foley, Callum Reilly and Conor Smith all remained unused four times.
Robbie Keane topped the scoring charts in August, with five goals coming in two games. Andy Reid's three goal in five starts secures second place, along with Anthony Stokes
Keane and Stokes' goals led to two wins for their clubs, along with Robbie Brady's two game winning strikes for Hull
Three players managed to collect two bookings in August, David van Zanten, Harry Arter and Anthony Stokes all being shown a yellow card twice