Given the delay in the new Swindon manager announcement you can feast your eyes on some more statistics I’ve gathered over the course of the season.

This time I’ll be having a look at the defensive phase of play and the contribution of all players with a defensive role, in particular, these stats reveal how many goals have been conceded whilst each player has been on the pitch, how many per game played and the frequency arising from total minutes per player.

Obviously these stats are crude and don’t take into account individual performances, however they are an interesting insight into defensive contribution.

Kennedy hasn’t conceded, however he’s only appeared in 3 games and played 145 minutes. So whilst this isn’t a fair comparison with the rest of the players, this certainly bodes well for next season as he may be called on as 1st choice.

Of those who’ve played a fair share of matches, Michael Timlin is by far the most efficient with a likelihood of  81.11 minutes between the opposition scoring, nearly an entire game. I’m trying to think of why, but I just can’t put my finger on it, I obviously underestimated his importance when coming to the conclusion he shouldn’t be offered a new contract a few weeks ago…

Considering how attacking Alan Sheehan is, he performs well above average with an opposition goal every 70.43 minutes, highlighting that he hasn’t overlooked his key defensive responsibilities.

As for Sheehan’s (now former) colleague at left back Michael Rose, the statistics don’t lie, 47.17 is by far the worst defender, as N’Diaye, Flint and Clark have only played a handful of games, and further evidence how his poor positioning and marking won’t be missed next season.

Other one that leaped out has been the positive impact of Frampton. The best performing centre back with 61.91 and perhaps proving a few doubters wrong, including myself, as to his real contribution this season.

In January losing Morrison was a big loss, however his inexperience shows with a likelihood of conceding every 51.82 minutes, by far the weakest of the central defenders (not counting Flint who’s played just 3 games). Also after Morrison left our goals against per game rate also changed for the better…

Amankwaah beats Caddis for right back, however youngster Nathan Thompson in his 3 appearances shows why, along with Kennedy, we can be confident of our squad depth for the future.

In terms of the midfield, Prutton comes out on top against Jonathan Douglas 62 to 60 minutes, however neither can say they’ve performed anywhere near their best.

Conceded = The number of goals conceded by the team when the player is on the pitch

Player	Appearances	Conceded	Con Per Game	Mins Per Goal Conceded
Kennedy	3	0	0	145.00
Timlin	22	18	0.82	81.11
Sheehan	21	21	1.00	70.43
Thompson	3	3	1.00	67.00
Prutton	41	48	1.17	62.00
Frampton	23	32	1.39	61.91
Smith	27	40	1.48	60.55
Amankwaah	19	25	1.32	60.24
Douglas	39	56	1.44	60.00
TEAM	46	72	1.57	58.25
Cuthbert	41	60	1.46	58.22
Jean-Francois	18	24	1.33	57.79
Lucas	21	32	1.52	53.69
Caddis	38	61	1.61	52.89
Morrison	19	33	1.74	51.82
Ferry	21	31	1.48	49.32
Rose	35	54	1.54	47.17
N’Diaye	6	4	0.67	46.50
Flint	3	4	1.33	46.25
Clark	1	0	0	2.00

A Season in Stats:

Part 1 – Relegation

Part 2 – Slow out of the blocks

Part 3 – Who is the better goalkeeper?