2019/20 – 1.5 PPG (season average 1.20)
I’d described this as a good Christmas, but going into our tie with Ipswich, we’d played two, lost two, against Oxford United and Coventry City. Another Boxing Day defeat stung, and a relegation battle beckoned.
Instead, we put five past Ipswich, did Peterborough in the last minute of our New Year’s Day tie, and took a decent points haul.
2018/19 – 1.75 PPG (season average 1.85)
In a title-winning season, we still averaged less than our season average. It started with a 3-2 win against Newport, but Crewe got a shock 2-1 win against us on Boxing Day.
We then won 2-1 at Cambridge (we were lucky) before drawing 1-1 with Port Vale to round off a decent Christmas, but one below the season average of 1.84 PPG.
2017/18 – 1.75 PPG (season average 1.63)
Two wins, a draw and a defeat could be thought of as a decent Christmas. The wins were at home, against Stevenage and Forest Green, while we shared a point with Newport on December 23rd.
The only defeat came at Luton Town, when future Imps Alan Sheehan was sent off after four minutes, Harry Anderson went before half time and we lost 4-2.
2016/17 – 1.5 PPG (season average 2.15)
In a season where we averaged 2.15 PPG, a return of just 1.5 could be seen as a bad Christmas.
The key was losing against Guiseley on Boxing Day, our first league defeat in 12. We bounced back by beating them 3-1 on New Year’s Day, but it was still a flat Christmas considering the heights we reached in the rest of the season.
2015/16 – 0.33 PPG (season average 1.33)
Halifax did us on Boxing Day (1-0) and Grimsby scored two without reply a couple of days later. A returning Liam Hearn and Craig Stanley earned us a point at the Shay on January 2nd, but it wasn’t a great festive period at all.