THE WORST STARTS TO A SEASON
It's tricky to fully define the worst start to a season. We can't compare points (since the league moved from 2 points to 3 points for a win) and if we compare league position that can be affected by other teams around us. So we have to use game results, but is it better have drawn three, or won one and lost two? Questions, questions, questions, so I'm going to show the starts for a few horrible seasons and use some artistic licence.We started 2021-22 with four league losses, exactly like we did last season. Before that, the previous time we lost the first four league games of the season was in 1954-55, when we actually lost the first five games (but still finished in 15th place and avoided relegation). So that means 2021 was initially our worst start to a season in 67 years and then turned into the worst start for 108 years (and then turned into our best season for many years).
Our actual worst start however is actually easy to see, and it's 1913-14. We didn't get a point in the first 6 games and only had one draw by the time we beat Blackpool in week 9. It's not a surprise we finished 20th (in bottom place) and needed re-election to stay in the league.
Here's all the seasons where we lost at least our first three league games:
| Season | Final Pos |
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | 2021-22 | 4th Promoted! | Coventry City Score: 1-2 | Bournemouth Score: 1-2 | Blackburn Score: 1-2 | Stoke City Score: 0-1 | Derby Score: 1-1 | Cardiff City Score: 1-2 | Middlesbrough Score: 0-2 | Huddersfield Score: 2-0 | 2020-21 | 17th Safe | QPR Score: 0-2 | Cardiff Score: 0-2 | Huddersfield Score: 0-1 | Bristol City Score: 1-2 | Blackburn Score: 1-0 | 1954-55 | 15th Safe | Luton Score: 0-3 | Stoke City Score: 0-3 | Hull City Score: 0-1 | Stoke City Score: 0-2 | Lincoln City Score: 1-2 | Middlesbrough Score: 4-1 | 1938-39 | 20th Safe | Sheff. United Score: 0-2 | Plymouth Score: 0-3 | Burnley Score: 1-2 | Norwich City Score: 1-0 | 1924-25 | Bottom Relegated | Arsenal Score: 0-2 | Huddersfield Score: 0-3 | Man City Score: 2-4 | Huddersfield Score: 0-1 | Bury Score: 2-0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1913-14 | Bottom Re-elected | Leic. Fosse Score: 1-3 | Wolves Score: 1-3 | Leic. Fosse Score: 1-5 | Hull City Score: 0-1 | Barnsley Score: 0-2 | Bury Score: 0-1 | Huddersfield Score: 1-1 | Lincoln Score: 0-1 | Blackpool Score: 3-0 |