First scorer wins.

[Guest raven]

Read an article a few weeks back that stated that in U.K football the team that scores first wins 84% of the time. (was an article about a fellow that 'motivates' Motherwell FC btw.) What do you fellows think of this? Personally I think it's B.S but have no statistical resources to back it up yay or nay.

[Joe]

Re: First scorer wins. I think Pauls Steele's book had something on this, but can't remember what the figure was. Based on league games from 21 European division 2000/01 to 2002/03 (that's 21,232 matches), I'd say it's possible. 80% of home teams winning at half time went on to win at full time. I realise this isn't the same thing, but if your stat is based on only home teams, I 'd say that the 84% figure looks plausable. For the aways incidently, the figure is 66%.