Well, that’s that as far as October 2025 is concerned for Boro’; the clocks are now back and we stay in a decent enough place. So, what of the month just gone? Well, we had one more hole punched in the middle by another international break. That restricted us to just three league outings. The question we’re here to ask, obviously, is how does it all compare to the seasons gone by now that we’re three months down.
League One comparison at this stage
At 12 fixtures completed, we’re now more than a quarter of a way through the season. Just. But that pales in comparison to previous League One campaigns. Indeed, we’d already got ourselves to at least 14 fixtures in our other five seasons at this level. In the case of 2012-3, we were on 15 matches by the end of October. And it’s a big reason why, at this stage, Gary Smith‘s men were better off by three points.
FACT:
OK, so we’re at least two games down on past League One seasons – but Boro’ are still well off at the end of October. We’ve the best goal difference, lowest goals conceded, and joint-highest amount of wins. Oh, and by the same measure, the joint-lowest amount of defeats.
| Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | GD |
| 2012-3 | 15 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 20 | 16 | 29 | 4 |
| 2025-6 | 12 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 18 | 10 | 26 | 8 |
| 2023-4 | 16 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 22 | 17 | 26 | 5 |
| 2011-2 | 16 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 22 | 17 | 23 | 5 |
| 2024-5 | 14 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 15 | 17 | -5 |
| 2013-4 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 15 | 21 | 14 | -6 |
Are there any lookalike seasons?
In the grand scheme of things, there are few seasons in which we’d only amassed 12 league games by the end of October. Even fewer where we were on a lower count. Our current form puts us in generally good company. We’re only three points down on 1985-6; a season where we won the title. And we’re just two points down on another title-winning effort (1991-2).
Not wanting to tempt any sort of fate, but we were on 12 completed games come the end of October in 1995. We went on to win the Conference title (for the first time) that season – but we were two points down on where we are now. For the sake of completeness, 1987-8 wasn’t a good season for us and our record at the end of October reflected that.
| Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | GD |
| 1985-6 | 12 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 27 | 10 | 29 | 17 |
| 1991-2 | 12 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 25 | 15 | 28 | 10 |
| 1995-6 | 12 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 27 | 15 | 24 | 12 |
| 1987-8 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 13 | 19 | 12 | -6 |
The best and the worst at the end of October
| Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | GD |
| 2022-3 | 17 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 24 | 15 | 36 | 9 |
| 2009-10 | 18 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 28 | 12 | 35 | 16 |
| 1990-1 | 14 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 37 | 12 | 33 | 25 |
| 2007-8 | 17 | 10 | 3 | 4 | 35 | 18 | 33 | 17 |
| 1993-4 | 13 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 28 | 13 | 32 | 15 |
The top five points hauls at the end of October in years gone by have all led to league title success, unsurprisingly. Well, except one – the 2007-8 Blue Square Premier campaign. That feels like something we need to have a real inquest into; the outrageously strong start that we enjoyed under Stimmo; soon replaced by a real implosion led by Peter Taylor. But let us divert our attention to the sensation of just one defeat to our name in 1990, 1993, and 2009.
| Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | GD |
| 1994-5 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 16 | 18 | 12 | -2 |
| 2019-20 | 16 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 12 | 21 | 12 | -9 |
| 1981-2 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 10* | -4 |
| 2020-1 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 8 | 3 |
This one is an interesting one. If you like that sort of thing. An opening day victory in 1994-5 quickly faded into the memory as our debut Conference campaign became a real struggle. A return of 12 points from 13 matches was not promising. And yet, we ended up sorting things as the season progressed. Meanwhile, we were still playing catch up in 2020 after a delayed start to the behind-closed-doors season that hauled us through Covid.
And the most interesting point? The 2019-20 season saw us win twice during October. That’s more than we managed this season! Yeah – that 2019-20 season.
October 2025 vs. Averages
It’s a look at average numbers at the end of October over the years: games played, goals scored, points won. That kind of thing. Boro’s +/- for 2025-6 is seen in brackets and all values are rounded up/down.
Games Played: 14 (-2)
Games Won: 6 (+2)
Goals Scored: 21 (-3)
Goals Against: 17 (-7)
Points Won: 22 (+4)
Main photo: Stevenage FC