What’s in a stat? Well I guess that depends on how you look at it, statistics are well ingrained within the football fabric and provide us with so much information. Of course they’re in use across the world in most industries to measure, inform and refer back to.
Non League HQ is full of stats, figures and fixtures from the top levels in the grassroots game and even encompassing Welsh and Scottish levels of non-league football.
More and more the game is being looked at using data driven analysis. When clubs look for recruitment the players are already on their list for football ability but do their stats back up performances as well?
Growing up I loved looking at statistics, whether it was the simple top scorers chart to how many appearances players had made through the season. Programmes used to carry seasonal records and all-time career records but then players don’t tend to remain at clubs too long nor do they go back for a second spell anymore.
Books like the Non League Directory carried league records since they were formed and with it each club’s records, nowadays you can find a record for anything far more easily thanks to the internet invention and other sources of information.
Unbeaten runs, the best scoring records, longest run without a win, every club has a record. Furthest runs in cup competitions, we now have the excellent @FACupFactfile and @FAVaseFactfile that helps even more keeping these stats alive and in the forefront of what we can read.
Some clubs do present these stats within their club programme, others will also have them somewhere on the club website as well. Team runs are there to be broken, however some of the player record are unlikely to be beaten especially when as mentioned players don’t stay long enough at a club to get even halfway close to a goalscoring or appearance record. Squad rotation as well doesn’t allow for those records to be smashed to bits, not so much in the non-league game as higher up the levels you find.
Players love stats as well, the exposure as well from social media puts them in the limelight, not always in a good light, however. Most want to do better month on month, year on year, an incentive and desire to do well. If your mind isn’t into what you’re being told there are many who won’t progress further, the game has changed much and does every year somewhere along the line.
The technology these days is there to be embraced and when you see Step 5 players wearing GPS vests to track their running and movement it’s hitting every area of the game. It can be a lot to take in for those who have run clubs for 20 years or longer but if you standstill you get overtaken and left behind, its unfortunately the world we live in.
Inside Non League HQ Matt and Andy do a fantastic job of keeping a site full of football statistics on the level week in week out, have a good look around and if there’s something you feel can enhance the site, drop them a line, they’re always looking for ways to improve it and keep it user friendly, there might be something there to impress your mates down the pub with.
TREVOR KNELL