For example, Mark Ellis (59) outscored Chris Robertson (45), despite starting far fewer games (24 to 43). But if you were asked to vote for defender of the year now, would you rank Ellis, who hasn't played in months, above Robertson?
I also wanted to see how players who didn't play in a full season would compare to each other. Branston came in last year (2009/10) and changed our fortunes around, but Benyon, who was here for the whole season, won Player of the Year. A similar thing has happened this year, with Benyon leaving part-way through the season and players like Stanley and Robinson coming in mid-way to replace them.
Was Benyon's half-season better than Billy Kee's full season? Would Stanley have beaten Branston if he had been here for a full season?
Well, perhaps the simplest way to look at it is with a simple points per start calculation. So that's what I did. Personally I found the results quite interesting, although I do love a good statistic, other people may have a life.
1. Craig Stanley (3.89)
2. Guy Branston (3.48)
3. Chris Zebroski (3.38)
4. Gavin Tomlin (2.93)
5. Eunan O'Kane (2.62)
6. Elliot Benyon (2.55)
7. Mark Ellis (2.46)
8. Lee Mansell (2.44)
9. LRT (2.25)
10. Jake Robinson (2.08)
11. Damon Lathrope (2.00)
12. Joe Oastler (1.94)
13. Billy Kee (1.80)
14. Danny Potter (1.78)
15. Kevin Nicholson (1.76)
16. Scott Bevan (1.53)
17. Danny Stevens (1.42)
18. Nicky Wroe (1.20)
19. Chris Robertson (1.05)
Craig Stanley would have won the Player of the Season award, had he been at Plainmoor for the whole season (and of course kept up his form over the whole season, which is a different question and why he didn't win Player of the Season). Branston and Zebroski (who did keep it up for the whole season) are still right up there and quite a way above what anyone else managed, even for part of the season. Tomlin's cameo 15 starts were hugely impressive, enough to give him 4th place and then you hit O'Kane, Benyon and Ellis, 3 superb young players who didn't start as many games as their talent should dictate (34, 22 and 24 respectively). Other interesting features are that Potter had a higher points per game ratio than Bevan, and LRT than Nico, although over much shorter periods of time. Nicky Wroe was sh*t, but then you didn't need statistics to show that.
If anyone has any ideas for other stats they'd like to see then please feel free to ask. I have all the raw data from the 49 games, so if I can produce any other (hopefully) interesting data, I'll do my best.
