NWCFL statistician Kevin Lawton had cast his eye over the 2018/19 Premier Division season and has come up with all the key stats.
Let’s begin this roundup of League Game Stats by looking at the games played. Of the 380 matches, 172 resulted in home win, 149 in away wins and 59 in draws, of which 8 were no score games.
There were 697 home goals and 631 away goals, with an average of 3.49 goals per game. Fans of Barnoldswick Town got the best return for their money with an average of 4.03 goals at their games. The highest number of goals in one game was 9, on the first day of the season as City of Liverpool won 6-3 at 1874 Northwich. Ashton Athletic hit 8 goals in their win against Padiham in December, the highest number by any team in a league game.
— City of Liverpool FC (@CityofLpoolFC) April 27, 2019
When it comes to Own Goals, Bootle were the recipients of five, whilst Squires Gate and Northwich Vics benefitted from four. Most generous were City of Liverpool and West Didsbury and Chorlton who kindly scored 4 times in their own nets!
Congleton Town and Bootle both had the best clean sheet record, with 18 each, Abbey Hey had the worst record with just 2. The longest unbeaten run went to Bootle who went 21 games without defeat in their run in which almost claimed them the league title.
The best attendance at a league game was the, almost, but not really, title decider between Bootle and City of Liverpool. A cracking 1374 was there to see Bootle win 1-0. The lowest was the 35 who witnessed Ashton Atheltic beat Hanley Town 1-0 in December. City of Liverpool topped the home averages with 425, followed by West Didsbury and Chorlton with 314.
When it comes to player stats, three players started all 38 games for their clubs, Josh Nicholson and Martin Pearson, both with Ashton Athletic and David Parton at Whitchurch Alport. Brandon Barski at Northwich Vics started 37 and was a sub in the other, whilst seven other players missed just one game – excellent effort.
The ‘SuperSub’ 2018/19 crown went to Oliver Oxley at Charnock Richard who came off the bench 19 times.
68 - GOALLL Congleton Town 2-1 CHARNOCK RICHARD - A long punt downfield and Grimshaw gets a slight touch for Oliver OXLEY to take it first time past the keeper #FeedTheOx pic.twitter.com/a5AuAYvQsP
— Charnock Richard Football Club (@CharnockFC) January 26, 2019
In the hat-trick stakes, Scott McGowan at 1874 Northwich was the only player to hit four in a league game, while Carl Grimshaw at Charnock Richard hit four hat-tricks and Robert Doran (Irlam) and Zack Dale (Barnoldswick) hit two each.
The Premier League penalty king was Joel Brownhill (Northwich Vics) who banged home 9 times from the spot. In total 49 players scored penalties in league games.
The leading League goalscorer was Carl Grimshaw (Charnock), hitting the back of the net 40 times, Zack Dale (Barnoldswick) hit 32. 140 different players scored Premier League goals during the 2018/19 season.
