Minutes On Top

So how is "The Man" feeling this morning? A undoubted smile is spread across his face and there's an autumn spring in his step. Did he have a good nights kip or is it those shiny new pumps that Mrs. Monica brought for him in Spain during the summer?

But Monica's not thinking about his shoes, he's had a great weekend and right now he's reliving every minute of the win against Man. City. He'll have read that the Addicks were lucky but he doesn't care about luck, that's for those people that believe in horoscopes. It was also pointed out that its been 10 weeks, in the Premiership anyway, since he enjoyed a win, but that's for the sad billys that keep such records.

No, for our Monica its just another happy week at the office and time to get out those weekend videos and for a change they're not nasty ones.

And as usual he'll be optimistic about the mood of the players. And why is that? Because Mrs. Monica, with the aid of her ample spreadsheets, has provided another secret weapon for our Head Coach to use in his fight against the "R" word. And their new weapon is cheekily named "Minutes On Top"!

Mrs. Monica it was, after wrapping up Darrens' daily supply of safety-first sandwiches, pointed out the reason for todays good humour. And no, its not bedtime numbers we're talking here. Saturdays' 28th minute goal by Darren himself gave the Addicks the lead for all of 62 minutes. That's the longest time the Addicks have been in front, in the Premiership, all season.

After our tough start to the season we have been behind in 7 of our 11 Premiership games, and all of them we have lost. In all of our 11 games we've only been in front 5 times and before Saturday for only 73 minutes, an hour an a bit. We have now nearly doubled that to 115 minutes, out of a total of 990 minutes - 11% of the time. In total we have been trailing our opponents for 28% of the games while for 51% of the time we've been level.

But now after three consecutive Premiership clean sheeets as a bonus from the last 3 games, Monica will also know that in the last four Premiership games we're only been behind for a total of 25 minutes, a mere 7% of the time.

Monicas' a keen psychology man and will be keen to guage the effect of these numbers on his players. He's aware of how draining it is on a footballer to be always second-best, always behind to the opposition. So he'll no doubt use his new "Numbers On Top" to raise the humour and increase the confidence.

Well, I hope so anyway.