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Team Strengths - 1976


Grachan

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With so much emphasis on averages these days when building teams I was interested to see the combined team averages at the start of the 1976 season printed in an old programme. There was more than 10 points between the highest - Exeter - and the lowest - Birmingham.

 

Exeter - 50.31

Wolves - 49.54

Belle Vue - 48.62

Sheffield - 47.73

Reading - 47.30

Hull - 46.81

Ipswich - 46.68

White City - 46.68

Leicester - 46.53

Halifax - 46.11

Cradley United - 45.53

Newport - 45.23

Kings Lynn - 44.33

Poole - 44.43

Wimbledon - 43.41

Coventry - 43.37

Hackney - 42.87

Swindon - 42.46

Birmingham - 39.87

 

Eventual champions Ipswich were 7th in the averages at the start of the season. Swindon finished 5th but were 2nd from bottom average wise and Sheffield, who had the fourth highest average, finished 3rd from bottom. It does make you wonder if too much is made of averages these days. The final league table, according to the Hackney website, was:

 

 

1. Ipswich 55

2. Belle Vue 48

3. Exeter 48

4. Coventry 44

5. Swindon 42

6. Reading 41

7. Hackney 40

8. Newport 39

9. Cradley 39

10.Poole 37

11. Wolverhampton 37

12. Hull 36

13. White City 35

14. Kings Lynn 35

15. Halifax 29

16. Wimbledon 27

17. Sheffield 27

18. Birmingham 14

19. Leicester 11

 

If you take the average strength for all the teams together you get an average of 45.67, which I suppose makes 45 a fairly reasonable figure for team averages if you're going to have one.

 

Of course, the table doesn't take into account any team changes that may have been made. I know, for a start, that Swindon signed Jan Andersson during the season.

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As a Wolves fan I remember this season with a mixture of perverse pleasure and embarrassment. Our combined averages as posted were slightly misleading! This was our first season after Olsen left for Coventry (never as good as he was for us) and we were allocated Hasse Holmquist, Tommy Johansson, Guiseppe Marzotto and Jimmy Mcmillan. The first two never showed, Marzotto rode for two months and Jimmy Mac became our number one. We got through the season by hiring loads of guests, my particularly ridiculous memory was our demolition of Eastbourne away in the inter league cup.

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