Maths of the Day - November

November wasn't the easiest month. One win, one draw and knocked out of the FA Cup. Is there an air of despondency? Not quite, but a bounce back is needed fairly soon. How do things look using the power of graphs? 

Nobody can be surprised about our topsy turvy form, which didn't quite bounce back how we'd hoped in November. We are either due a surge in December or the two big peaks of form we've experienced this season are aberrations. December isn't an easy month with three away games and two home against teams relegated from the Championship last year. It looks set to be pivotal.

Short term form isn't really having a major impact on long-term form. That's mainly because our early season form last year was pretty moderate. Despite everything, in the 46 games up to Southend we took 74 points, two ahead of our total at the end of last season. 

The concern is that our last year we relied on a surge of form in the New Year. It was, at times, extraordinary, in all competitions eight wins in nine. The hope is that we find a similar surge this year. The problem is that extraordinary trends tend to not to be the norm and anyone who has peeped in the physio room recently will know that we are probably not best set up for a post-Christmas promotion run. Poor short-term form leaves us pretty much in exactly the same place we were this time last year, but we can't afford for it to continue.

It may, however, just be the mix of fixtures we've had up until now. In exact like-for-like results we're 3 points ahead of where we were last year, with the draw against Southend, that's a point ahead of where we were at the end of October.