There have been just enough matches played for the shot numbers to start settling down, so I thought I’d give a first airing of the season to the three scatter graphics I track for each division. These are explained here if you haven’t seen them before.

Shot dominance

First of all, here is how the number of shots taken by each club compares with those they face in return. The average number of shots taken per match is on the horizontal and the average number faced is on the vertical, so bottom right (take plenty, allow few in return) is good while top left (take few, allow plenty) is bad:

Grimsby have been the division’s most dominant side overall, taking the most shots and allowing fewer in return than anyone except Eastleigh, whose defence has been exceptional at restricting chances (but not in keeping them out, as we’ll see later).

Southport have struggled the most at controlling games overall, although Altrincham have allowed opponents the most chances and newcomers Boreham Wood have had the most difficulty in getting shots away.

Attacking effectiveness

Now let’s look at attacking alone. The horizontal axis stays the same as in the graphic above, but now the vertical shows the average number of shots needed to score each league goal. Therefore bottom right is good (taking lots of shots and needing fewer efforts to convert) and top left is bad:

It doesn’t look good for Southport‘s attack so far, which has created the second fewest chances and has been the most wasteful in the division. While Boreham Wood have taken fewer shots, they’ve been over twice as efficient at dispatching them.

Dover have been energetic up front, with only Grimsby firing in more chances, but have needed far more attempts on average to put the ball in the net.

Defensive effectiveness

Finally let’s look at the defensive situation – basically take the above chart and replace the word “taken” for “faced” on both axes. Now top left is good – facing fewer shots and able to soak up more per goal conceded – and bottom right is bad:

Despite their exceptional 100% record from nine matches, we haven’t talked about Forest Green so far. While they’ve been in the right quadrants in the other two charts, it’s here that the secret of their success becomes clear: it’s really, really hard to score against them.

I mentioned Eastleigh earlier and you can see that their ability to stop opponents from shooting – while impressive – is just about compensating for their inability to stop them from scoring. They found themselves in similar circumstances last season, so they may be camped in that corner for a while yet.