Why Harry is so important to our play-off hopes.

Maybe it is time to face a fact: we’re suffering something of a mini crisis. Two games without a win and just two league wins in the last nine appearances. Even despite our recent defeats, if we’d turned a couple of our draws into wins we would be slap bang in the middle of a promotion push.

Maybe it is a season too early, but that wouldn’t be anything to get despondent about. In 1974/75 we had a squad almost capable of promotion, if memory serves me correct (and I wasn’t actually born then) we signed just one player that summer and went on to win the league by a record margin. I’m not saying we only need one player now, nor that we should give up on promotion, but I firmly believe this squad is only a player or two away from being a top three side.

However, if we are going up this season, or at least going to assert ourselves back in the top seven, then we absolutely have to find a way of starting Harry Anderson each week. Against Barnet and Crewe he started on the bench and came on at half time, against Cheltenham he came on for the injured Danny Rowe and changed the shape of the game and against Luton, after his dismissal we went to pieces. There’s other players who are as crucial at the back, Neal Eardley and Michael Bostwick being the prime example, Matt Green is just as valuable up front. In between though, we’ve lacked a creative spark and Harry has that little bit of je ne sais quoi that sets one footballer apart from the other.

That stats don’t lie either. Anderson has had 2703 minutes on the pitch this season and in that time has smashed 20 shots on target, a ratio of one shot on target every 135 minutes. It might not sound grand, but Matt Green has a ratio of a shot on target every 130 minutes (3270 mins and 25 on target). For a winger to have the second highest ratio is superb. Matt Rhead, our second striker, has a 135 minute ratio.

It isn’t just his regularity with shooting on target. Harry is far and away our most accurate player too. He’s had 31 shots with 20 on target, meaning he hits the target with every other shot (in fact, two of three he takes are on target). Matt Green, our leading scorer, has 25 on target from 61 efforts. The person with the most number of shots after Green is curiously Michael Bostwick with 46, only 15 of which were on target.

Stats can be made to say anything if you look closely, but in this instance the numbers and the theory correlates perfectly. Harry has 4 league assists, level with Eardley and Rhead, again at the right end of one of the numbers tables. In fact, if you look at almost any stats you can with attacking at its heart, Harry Anderson is in the top two.

It isn’t just figures though is it? Harry is a crowd pleaser, the sort of player who gets fans up off their seats. When a defence plays a high line and he’s got space to run into, he’s more than a menace. He can finish, he can run and he fights like a pit bull terrier with a chip on his shoulder. Also, he my Dad’s favourite player, much to the detriment of every body else. “Who’s playing out wide today?” Is my most feared question on a match day because when I say anyone other than Harry Anderson his face clouds.

“I’d play Harry, not that bloody Petty or whatever he’s called.”

Yes, Dad. I know. You said before the game, incessantly.

The stats I’ve given you are from league games only and don’t include the various cup matches we’ve played in. I feel those numbers skew the proper picture somewhat, whilst going to Wembley is a huge achievement the first team picture changes significantly for those early games.

Harry is even a safe bet when it comes to bookings, in his 27 starts this season he hasn’t been booked once. He has got a red card for the Luton game, by the larger picture shows an eager and bullish young man with nothing but creating and scoring goals on his mind.

We’re in a mini-slump, we’re not Grimsby but we have slipped from third to tenth in a quick space of time. There’s time to catch up, but with the squad looking increasingly thread bare it might not be the year we do it. Many won’t agree, but a Wembley final and a tenth placed finish would be a successful season, especially if we recruit well in the summer. Those worrying that our January signings weren’t brilliant and that Danny shows weakness in the transfer market need not worry, it shows quite the opposite. What the signing of Wilson, Pett and Frecklington demonstrates is a desire to build for the future, even if that is detrimental in the short term.

League One isn’t going anywhere, it has always been one step above League Two and it will be again next season. If we don’t make it to the play offs this season, there will be no shame, no disaster in the pipeline and no reason to panic. This football club is in great shape and growth might come steadier than some believe, but predictions of fans staying away in their droves and the club tumbling back to the National League are short-sighted and fear-mongering at best.

However, there is still a chance this season, it is still in our own hands and if we are to achieve back to back promotions over the next two months, we will only do so by getting Harry Anderson onto the pitch and onto the ball as much as possible. The stats say it’s right, the fans reactions say it is right and perhaps more importantly of all, my Dad says it’s right too.

All photos courtesy of Graham Burrell and Lincoln City