Thetownend.com

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11096/11373570/sky-sports-ultimate-league-2017-18-overachieving-and-underachieving-clubs-revealed

I would say that being down with 8 other clubs who've all been underachievers by ending up in the Conference or in some cases now lower, is something  not to be too happy about... that the other stand out is Cov who are widely known as the basket makers, basket case, isn't much of a solace.

Let me get this right, we should celebrate being better at being shit than them?    :no:

 I'm surprised to see us down with Southport as an underachiever.... given the criteria of 10 FL seasons in the last 50 years.

 I suppose PaulD could provide some inside info on the Sandgrounders, but it seems to me an long time ago that I saw us stick 5 on them at the CG with The Don notching 4.

 PB needs to see this as an opportunity to get us moving back towards our historic status.... I think he instinctively gets that.

Don't know about inside info, but the consensus from talking to friends/relations back home was that they'd kind of done well to avoid the drop for so long given the years of lack of investment (tbf, that was all that was available). Don't think anyone was surprised when they finally failed to pull themselves out of it in the last few weeks - had to happen eventually like a Conference Sunderland. But mainly relieved they didn't continue falling, and seemed to have steadied it a bit in Conf North, before tailspinning a bit toward the end of the season. Not even sure that counts as underachievement tbh, the relegation was disappointing but inevitable, don't know that a season in the division below counts as historic underachievement.

Right so we have underachieved more than them, how is this a good thing?

Straws are being clutched

I take it nobody bothered to scroll down to the bottom of the article showing, what Sky call, the Ultimate League Table, putting us above Oxford. It shows where clubs stand in their overall history - albeit the relatively short history of Oxford.

But it doesn't, only shows the last 50 years.  Incidentally 20/21 will be our centenary of being an FL club, if we make it.

Throw in our illustrious Southern League history, and there's no comparison.

Cheltnumb come in at 91 but we still can't beat them....  >:(

THe result of that table is fairly skewed as they've taken the average finishing position. This will likely put teams finishing mid table or surviving relegation in a slightly better position overall.

They should produce it with the "+/-" field as a better indicator. Even then it'll still be strange as comparing a team in Div 4 with 100 pts to a team in Div 1 with 42 pts is hardly comparable at all. Also length of time in the Football League comes into play. A team that say comes up from the conference for the first time and finishes 3rd in Div 4. They'll have awesome stats but the model will be too small.