Is there a stat for the most games won (or lost) by a single goal in a season?

[TxRover]

Asking given that Raith Rovers are now 11 1-goal wins in 15 matches…the others being 3 draws and a 1-goal loss.

[BFTD]

Different country, but I'd imagine George Graham's Arsenal side must have racked up a good few. Seemed like they were always carving out 1-0 wins.

Raith have rescued an absolute pile of points this season. Check out the number of late goals; they could easily be struggling down at the bottom if their heads went down in the final fifteen minutes. Impressive stuff.

https://www.soccerstats.com/table.asp?league=scotland2&tid=pw

[TxRover]

50 minutes ago, BFTD said:

Different country, but I'd imagine George Graham's Arsenal side must have racked up a good few. Seemed like they were always carving out 1-0 wins.

Raith have rescued an absolute pile of points this season. Check out the number of late goals; they could easily be struggling down at the bottom if their heads went down in the final fifteen minutes. Impressive stuff.

https://www.soccerstats.com/table.asp?league=scotland2&tid=pw

Most I could find for one of Graham’s Arsenal sides was 10 one goal wins in the League…

[BFTD]

10 minutes ago, TxRover said:

Most I could find for one of Graham’s Arsenal sides was 10 one goal wins in the League…

Maybe a slightly unfair reputation then - people used to talk about them going 1-0 up and sitting on it with their mechanical offside trap (which, TBF, was pretty impressive).

[TxRover]

1 minute ago, BFTD said:

Maybe a slightly unfair reputation then - people used to talk about them going 1-0 up and sitting on it with their mechanical offside trap (which, TBF, was pretty impressive).

IDK, 1/4 of your matches that way feels pretty significant…we’ve just utterly blown that out of the water with 80% 1 goal matches, and 73% 1 goal wins!

[craigkillie]

The Scottish League record for single-goal victories in a season is 19, which was achieved by Hearts in the Premier Division 1991/92. That was a 44 game season, with Hearts winning 27 games in total and finishing in 2nd place. The table below shows all the seasons where a team have won 15 or more games by a single goal.

 

Spoiler

 

Clearly that Hearts total was helped by the fact it was a longer season. If we look at it in terms of the proportion of matches played, then Celtic in 2006/07 come out on top. They won 47.4% of all of their matches by a single goal (18 out of 38) on their way to comfortably winning the league title. The table below shows all of the seasons where a team won 40% or more of their matches by a single goal.

 

Spoiler

 

All 12 of Raith's league wins this season have been by a single goal, so I thought I'd also check which clubs had the highest proportion of their victories being by a single goal. There have been a total of 38 instances of a team recording all of their wins by a single goal, but all of these have been cases where the clubs have only recorded a small number of victories. The highest number of wins amongst these teams with 100% records is 8, with the most recent to do that being St Johnstone in the incomplete 2019/20 season.

I thought it was therefore a bit more interesting to focus on teams who have recorded 10 or more wins since that's a bit more relevant to the original question being asked. The table below shows all clubs who have won at least 10 matches where at least 85% of those have been by a single goal.

 

Spoiler

 

[Monkey Tennis]

Again, It's a different country, but I have in my head that Leicester ground out lots of narrow victories on their way to the title in 2016, with their relatively low levels of possession.

Naturally, however, I'm much too lazy to look into it properly.

[Distant Doonhamer]

2 hours ago, Monkey Tennis said:

Again, It's a different country, but I have in my head that Leicester ground out lots of narrow victories on their way to the title in 2016, with their relatively low levels of possession.

Naturally, however, I'm much too lazy to look into it properly.

14 single goal victories from 38 games. 

They did have 4 in a row quite late on in the season (matches 29-32).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015–16_Leicester_City_F.C._season

[LoonsYouthTeam]

On 29/12/2023 at 20:34, craigkillie said:

The Scottish League record for single-goal victories in a season is 19, which was achieved by Hearts in the Premier Division 1991/92. That was a 44 game season, with Hearts winning 27 games in total and finishing in 2nd place. The table below shows all the seasons where a team have won 15 or more games by a single goal.

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

Clearly that Hearts total was helped by the fact it was a longer season. If we look at it in terms of the proportion of matches played, then Celtic in 2006/07 come out on top. They won 47.4% of all of their matches by a single goal (18 out of 38) on their way to comfortably winning the league title. The table below shows all of the seasons where a team won 40% or more of their matches by a single goal.

 

  Hide contents

 

All 12 of Raith's league wins this season have been by a single goal, so I thought I'd also check which clubs had the highest proportion of their victories being by a single goal. There have been a total of 38 instances of a team recording all of their wins by a single goal, but all of these have been cases where the clubs have only recorded a small number of victories. The highest number of wins amongst these teams with 100% records is 8, with the most recent to do that being St Johnstone in the incomplete 2019/20 season.

I thought it was therefore a bit more interesting to focus on teams who have recorded 10 or more wins since that's a bit more relevant to the original question being asked. The table below shows all clubs who have won at least 10 matches where at least 85% of those have been by a single goal.

 

  Hide contents

 

Some incredible stats there Craig. Have you made your own spreadsheet for keeping track of this or is this downloadable somewhere?

[craigkillie]

I have a database that I have been putting together for years now.

[BFTD]

1 hour ago, LoonsYouthTeam said:

Some incredible stats there Craig. Have you made your own spreadsheet for keeping track of this or is this downloadable somewhere?

He's both tremendous and terrifying, and should probably bring out a book with stuff like this in.

Shame that @dundeebarry's Teckle Books seems to have been dissolved.

[TxRover]

Now 14 wins by one goal, 4 losses by one goal, and 5 draws...for a +10 GD. At some point something has to give, surely.

[TxRover]

That’s the first more than one goal win or loss in the league in game 27…15 wins and 5 loses by one goal…6 draws, and 1 win by 2 goals.

[TxRover]

Now 16...that ties us for second on total amount won by one in a season, and we'll take first with two more. Joint 3rd on total one goal wins, but actually tied with Berwick in the 36 game season numbers...and 8 more games to go. I can't see us keeping it up and not winning by more than one at least once more, and that would kill the percentage of total wins by one goal.  

[Ranaldo Bairn]

On 14/01/2024 at 12:49, BFTD said:

He's both tremendous and terrifying, and should probably bring out a book with stuff like this in.

Shame that @dundeebarry's Teckle Books seems to have been dissolved.

I proofread a couple of post-Barry books on that label.

[mrpaddyx]

Now we are up to 17 one goal wins. 3 more from 5 games for the record outright. 

[TxRover]

That’s 18 one goal wins, so most ever in a 36 match season. Also, 18 of the 19 wins by one. Two matches left, unlikely to surpass Celtic’s 19, as I can see at least the Arbroath match being a bloodbath one way or the other.

[TxRover]

And we fall short...18 wins by 1 goal is best in a 36 game season, but is only 90% of wins by 1 goal and fall short of Celtic's 19 in a 44 game season.