Post by KimThePanther on May 20, 2008 20:59:22 GMT
When I was writing our Wikipedia article one of the most ambiguous parts of our history turned out to be how exactly we came to win our last championship back in the 1955-56. Several sources came up with different theories and it's not hard to see why. The final table for the 1956 British National League was -
The first thing to note is how ridiculously close the league was that season, with just 8 points separating us in first and the Racers in last. By comparison we'd already won the Autumn Cup (which was essentially a league in it's own right in those days) by 7 points earlier in the season.
So how did we win manage to win that league by the skin of our teeth? We would actually have won it on several tiebreakers that have used over the years - which is one of the reasons it proved so tricky to work out how. We'd have won it under the current system of greater number of wins (17 to 16) and we'd have won it on goal difference (+19 to -1). To get the answer I had to delve into the Nottingham Evening Post archives at Central Library (incidentally a great resource for local history) and thankfully the NEP of May 7th, 1956 gave the answer. Goal average. This is something I hadn't actually considered previously as it had been replaced as the main tiebreaker in the Football League before my time.
Goal average works by dividing the number of goals a team scored by the number of goals conceded. In this case we had a goal average of 1.1144 to Wembley's 0.9941 meaning that we were 0.1203 better off than the Lions. It is easy to see why goal average was eventually replaced, as it is possible for a team that has scored more goals and conceded less than the rival they were level with to end up losing out.
We had a rather nervy end to the season that year, needing 11-10 (!!) and 7-6 wins over Harringay in our final two games to clinch the title.
No. | Team | Won | Lost | Tied | For | Against | Pts |
1 | Nottingham Panthers | 17 | 14 | 1 | 185 | 166 | 35 |
2 | Wembley Lions | 16 | 13 | 3 | 170 | 171 | 35 |
3 | Paisley Pirates | 15 | 14 | 3 | 138 | 134 | 33 |
4 | Brighton Tigers | 12 | 14 | 6 | 145 | 156 | 30 |
5 | Harringay Racers | 11 | 16 | 5 | 171 | 182 | 27 |
The first thing to note is how ridiculously close the league was that season, with just 8 points separating us in first and the Racers in last. By comparison we'd already won the Autumn Cup (which was essentially a league in it's own right in those days) by 7 points earlier in the season.
So how did we win manage to win that league by the skin of our teeth? We would actually have won it on several tiebreakers that have used over the years - which is one of the reasons it proved so tricky to work out how. We'd have won it under the current system of greater number of wins (17 to 16) and we'd have won it on goal difference (+19 to -1). To get the answer I had to delve into the Nottingham Evening Post archives at Central Library (incidentally a great resource for local history) and thankfully the NEP of May 7th, 1956 gave the answer. Goal average. This is something I hadn't actually considered previously as it had been replaced as the main tiebreaker in the Football League before my time.
Goal average works by dividing the number of goals a team scored by the number of goals conceded. In this case we had a goal average of 1.1144 to Wembley's 0.9941 meaning that we were 0.1203 better off than the Lions. It is easy to see why goal average was eventually replaced, as it is possible for a team that has scored more goals and conceded less than the rival they were level with to end up losing out.
We had a rather nervy end to the season that year, needing 11-10 (!!) and 7-6 wins over Harringay in our final two games to clinch the title.