So, here it is. Merry Christmas. And ain’t everyone havin’ fun? Well, shall we see what spot in history that December 2025 is taking as far as Boro’ is concerned. As we hurtle into 2026, this last calendar month of the year saw us complete six League One. That’s not far off being one quarter of our matches played so far this season. Mad stuff. Anyway, let’s not muck around – time to crack on and see how we compare at this stage.
One thing we can’t ignore is how eventful Decembers have been over the years. It’s a bit of a crunch time in the season. We enter 2026 – our 50th as a club no less – in a very nice setting as far as the table goes. Even if our record across the festive period hasn’t been great. But it isn’t as if we’ve always been perfect in Decembers gone by. Indeed, it’s been an awful month in some seasons. Luckily, this was not one of them.
League One comparison at this stage
Now, the whole Points Per Game (PPG)/Goals Per Game (GPG) thing will again be part of this – given the disparity in fixtures completed. Let’s take the 2023-4 season, for example. That is technically top of the pile in our League One comparison at the end of December; ending the year that was 2023 on 43 points. But those points come from three extra fixtures, which then works out at 1.79 points per game. By contrast, this year’s PPG on 31 December is XXX.
FACT:
The 2012-3 season had started so well. The drop off in form, however, really did take a toll in December 2012. That campaign now slips behind 2011-2 in the comparison stakes. It’s mainly due to being a point worse off on 31 December 2012 than 31 December 2011. But there is also an unfavourable goal difference at play… which is because December 2012 was the month in which our goal difference that season turned negative.
Meanwhile, we’d gone unbeaten in December 12 months beforehand: three wins and a draw.
| Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | GD |
| 2023-4 | 24 | 12 | 7 | 5 | 36 | 23 | 43 | 13 |
| 2011-2 | 23 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 33 | 20 | 38 | 13 |
| 2012-3 | 23 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 31 | 32 | 37 | -1 |
| 2025-6 | 21 | 10 | 6 | 5 | 25 | 17 | 36 | 8 |
| 2024-5 | 21 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 18 | 20 | 29 | -2 |
| 2013-4 | 19 | 5 | 4 | 14 | 22 | 42 | 19 | -20 |
Are there any lookalike seasons?
There are a handful of campaigns in which we had completed 21 league games by the end of December. There’s little point comparing with the 1993-4 season, where we went in 1994 with 47 points on the board at an average of 2.24 per game. Interestingly enough, however, we did not have a good December 1993. We started the month with just one defeat to our name. So, to end with four defeats shows that maybe one too many mince pies were consumed.
We’ll also have a word about 1988-9. After relegation that year, our life back in Vauxhall Opel League Division Two North was going fairly well. Too many draws, maybe, but three losses is not bad at all. And our December 1988 was very productive. Five matches delivered a total of four wins and a draw, with Boro’ scoring 13 and conceding three across them. Sadly, it would fail to push us to an instant return to Division One as we eventually fell five points short.
| Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | GD |
| 1993-4 | 21 | 15 | 2 | 4 | 49 | 27 | 47 | 22 |
| 1996-7 | 21 | 12 | 4 | 5 | 41 | 26 | 40 | 15 |
| 1988-9 | 21 | 10 | 8 | 3 | 45 | 29 | 38 | 16 |
| 2005-6 | 21 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 35 | 27 | 35 | 8 |
The best and the worst at the end of December
| Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | GD |
| 1990-1 | 23 | 19 | 3 | 1 | 67 | 15 | 60 | 52 |
| 2009-10 | 26 | 15 | 9 | 2 | 43 | 18 | 54 | 25 |
| 2022-3 | 24 | 14 | 6 | 4 | 34 | 20 | 48 | 14 |
| 2007-8 | 23 | 14 | 4 | 5 | 49 | 24 | 46 | 25 |
So, you thought December 1988 was good? Ah, well the class of 1990-1 would like a word. It was a record-breaking season, which means there are no surprises here. But the incredible nature of our December 1990 needs sharing. We played six times, we won six times, and we scored 16 times doing so – conceding, wait for it, just once! By whichever metric you use to compare the seasons, nothing comes close to that one.
Not shown above is the 1980-1 season. If it was three points for a win back then, we’d have ended December 1980 on 44 points – just shy of the 2007-8 total. But that is a campaign in which we had the second highest PPG by the start of 1 January (2.41).
| Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | GD |
| 1981-2 | 15 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 15 | 15 | 15* | 0 |
| 2020-1 | 19 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 13 | 21 | 17 | -8 |
| 2019-20 | 23 | 2 | 11 | 10 | 15 | 29 | 17 | -14 |
The 1981-2 season is unfairly included here, but that’s the nature of the beast. An equivalent of 15 points from 15 games isn’t brilliant. But it’s far from the worst. In fact, there are maybe half a dozen other seasons not seen above that had a worse PPG at the end of December. It almost doesn’t matter, however, when you have the dross that we got in 2019 and 2020. That said, December 2019 was winless – but delivered three draws in five outings.
December 2025 vs. Averages
It’s a look at average numbers at the end of December 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: 22 (-1)
Games Won: 8 (+1)
Goals Scored: 19 (-8)
Goals Against: 11 (-11)
Points Won: 31 (+4)
Main photo: Jim Steele/Stevenage FC
