Town's unfortunate start to the season has got our man Chris Rand consulting the history books to see if the slow start is a typical one.
Ah, August, when we all traditionally bask in the stands wearing less clothing than some of the players (well, Lee ‘Long Sleeves’ Martin anyway), and are reminded that our pre-season optimism is always completely unfounded. With a 0-0 home draw against a newly-promoted side being the highlight of the first four matches, I wondered how often Town do this to us, and perhaps more importantly, whether the start of a season has much bearing on the league position the following May.
At what's now known as Championship level, Town have had several unbeaten Augusts, the best of which were 1999/00 (W4 D1 L0) and 1991/92 (W3 D1 L0). Astute observers will immediately notice those were the club's last two promotion seasons, suggesting that there might be a connection between August and May.
Another promotion season, 1967/68, featured an unbeaten August (W2 D2 L0). The season before last, 2007/08, was the other one which saw Town going into September unbeaten, but it should be noted that there had only been three matches (W2 D1 L0) by that stage.
At the other extreme, 1990/91 saw just two matches in August, both defeats, 1964/65 produced just a single point from three matches, and in 2003/04 it was just two points from five matches.
A defeat against Preston on Saturday would therefore make August 2009 Town's worst-ever at this level (one point from five matches), and even a long-overdue win would put this August in the bottom six ever, alongside Jim Magilton's first season, 2006/07, which you'll remember started off LLLDW.
For those of you wondering if there are more matches in August nowadays than there used to be, the answer is that there are, but the number may be falling back. There always used to be three or four August league games, right through to the late nineties (with the exception of a couple of seasons, including 1988/89, when the campaign didn't begin until 27 August for some reason and only had one match that month).
In 1998/99 we had the first ever ‘five-match August’ at Championship level, and this increased to six matches in 2004/05 and 2005/06. However, in the past four seasons we've dropped back to five, four and even three league matches in August.
August Record at Championship Level by Manager
| Scott Duncan | P3 | W2 | D0 | L1 |
| Alf Ramsey | P13 | W6 | D2 | L5 |
| Jackie Milburn | P3 | W0 | D1 | L2 |
| Bill McGarry | P12 | W6 | D3 | L3 |
| Bobby Ferguson | P2 | W0 | D2 | L0 |
| John Duncan | P8 | W3 | D4 | L1 |
| John Lyall | P6 | W3 | D1 | L3 |
| George Burley | P25 | W10 | D10 | L5 |
| Joe Royle | P17 | W7 | D4 | L6 |
| Jim Magilton | P12 | W4 | D2 | L6 |