Form favours Rovers, Overall record favours City

By Nathan Jackson
May 7 2007

Recent form is on Bristol Rovers' side going into the playoff games, but City have a far better record again top half sides. Out of the 22 games against the other Top 12 sides, City have lost just 5 times compared to Rovers' record of 9 defeats in the same amount of games.

Rovers haven't lost in the league since a surprising defeat at home to Wrexham just one day before the Imps were beaten by Swindon on the Sky cameras. Since then their form has gained momentum with victories over lowly Mansfield, Bury and Macclesfield preparing them for their last 2 wins, at home to Swindon and away at Hartlepool. They've also lost just 4 times in 2007.

City's recent form has been "patchy" shall we say, despite only losing once since the aforementioned game against Swindon, City have only won once and that was Saturday's win over Chester. However, City have kept 5 clean sheets in their last 7 games, including the trip to the Memorial Stadium just over 2 weeks ago. City have lost 7 times so far in 2007.

Recent form is very rarely useful going into the playoffs however, with overall season form usually being the deciding factor. Last season City went into the playoffs having lost just four times in the space of 29 games, a run that had seem them jump from potential relegation candidates to having a chance of only being the second side in 4th tier history to be promoted from the last qualifying position. We faced Grimsby, a side who weren't exactly in the best of form, winning just 8 times in the 2006 half of last season, losing 6. Despite City's impressive run of just 4 defeats in 29, Grimsby went on to win both legs of the playoffs.

City have also picked up more points against top half sides than Bristol Rovers have. The Imps took 11 out of a possible 18 points off of the Top 3 sides and 10 out of 18 off of the other teams in the playoffs. Bristol Rovers took 7 points out of 18 against the Top 3 but just 6 points off of the other 3 teams in the playoffs. Out of all the top half teams, Bristol Rovers only failed to avoid defeat against just two teams, Shrewsbury and Rochdale, failing to get a single double. City avoided defeat to Walsall, Hartlepool, Bristol Rovers, Shrewsbury and secured doubles over Peterborough and Wycombe.

Out of a possible 63 points against the other sides in the Top 12, City secured a highly respectable 37 points, winning 5 of the 11 home games, losing just three and drawing the other three. City also won 5 out of the 11 away trips to Top 12 sides, losing just twice and drawing the other 4.

Rovers got just 27 points and won just 4 out of the 11 home games where they faced teams that finished in the Top 12, losing 4 and drawing the other 3. Out of the 11 away games, Bristol Rovers won 3, drew 3 and lost an alarming 5.

It's against the teams lower down in the table that Bristol Rovers outshine the Imps. Out of the 12 teams in the bottom half, Bristol Rovers have beaten 9 of them at home and lost just one. City have won 7 against the bottom 12, but lost 4 of the other 5. Away from home against the bottom 12 also favours Rovers. Both City and Rovers have won four games away from home against a bottom half club, City have lost 5 and drawn the other 3. Rovers made it a trio of 4s, 4 draws and 4 defeats adding to their 4 wins against the bottom 12 sides.

In terms of goals scored City are the second best in the division with only MK Dons scoring more than them. Bristol Rovers are the only side in the playoffs to have failed to score at least 50 goals, you'd have to go down to Hereford in 16th to find someone who has scored less goals than them. However, Rovers have conceded the fewest in the playoffs and the Imps have conceded the most. Bristol Rovers' 42 goals conceded is only bettered by the top 3, whereas more than half the table has conceded fewer than the Imps.

Recent meetings between City and Rovers have gone majortively City's way. The Imps have won 4 of the last 5 to be played at Sincil Bank, whereas they also haven't lost in 3 visits to the Memorial Stadium. City however haven't won at the Memorial Stadium since Justin Walker scored a last minute free kick to give City a 2-1 win back in 2001/2, that is also the season which saw Bristol Rovers' last victory at Sincil Bank, this time a 1-0 scoreline was enough for the three points for Rovers.

Goals are very rarely in high commodity between the sides. Only 4 goals have been scored in the last 6 meetings, 3 for City and 1 for Rovers. The last 3 meetings at the Memorial Stadium have all ended goalless. The last time Bristol Rovers took the lead against City was the last time they beat us, that was back in 2003/4 when Paul Tait opened the scoring, Ben Futcher equalised before Tait and Thorpe secured the win for Rovers. Junior Agogo's goal in the fixture at Sincil Bank in 2004/5 was the last goal Rovers scored against the Imps.

Since winning 2-1 in 2001/2, City have only scored one at the Memorial Stadium and that is the aforementioned Ben Futcher goal. Bristol Rovers have score three at Sincil Bank in that same time period.