Deficits, leads, goals for and against - stats for the 2023/24 season
Tuesday, 04. June 2024, 13:00 Uhr
Just over two weeks have passed since the 2023/24 season culminated in promotion to the Bundesliga. In the fourth and final part of our series, we examine how the Boys in Brown fared in terms of points gained from losing and winning positions and when they scored and conceded. We also take a look at the stadium occupancy rate. Here's our last set of facts and figures for the season just ended.
Deficits and leads
No other team fell behind less often than the Boys in Brown did on their way to promotion. They trailed in just nine games in total, of which they came from behind to win three (2-1 at home to Karlsruhe, 3-2 at Hansa Rostock and 2-1 at Wehen Wiesbaden). The fewest deficits often translates to the most leads and that is exactly how it panned out. The Hürzeler XI went ahead 26 times, winning 20 of those games and drawing five. The 4-3 home defeat to Elversberg was they only time they emerged empty-handed, despite having led twice.
Goals for and against
The Boys in Brown scored 62 goals last term, and that total was split equally between the two round robins. They were particularly prolific in the first quarter of an hour after the interval, finding the net 13 times, a return bettered only by Hertha BSC (18). In contrast, they managed just five goals between the 76th and 90th minutes. Compare that with the six they scored in time added on, a tally matched only by crosstown rivals HSV. When it comes goals conceded, the picture is completely different. Though the Hürzeler XI shipped just ten goals in the first 45 minutes, far fewer than Kiel and Wehen Wiesbaden (both 17) in second and third place in this category, Nikola Vasilj had to pick the ball out of the net 26 times after the restart. Our total of 13 goals conceded from the 76th minute, including stoppage time, was surpassed only by Hertha BSC (15).
Front 17 v back 17
The Boys in Brown produced some magical performances in both halves of the season and thus deservedly secured promotion. In points terms, the first half of the campaign (33) and the second (36) weren't that far apart, but these totals came about in very different ways. After remaining unbeaten during the first 17 games, winning eight and drawing nine, five defeats followed after the winter break. Yet because the Hürzeler XI won all of the other 12 games, they eventually garnered more points than in the second half of the season than the first in spite of the defeats. There were no more draws in the league after the turn of the year, but there was one in the DFB Cup quarter-final, when the Boys in Brown succumbed to Fortuna Düsseldorf on penalties.
Support
The backing from the fans was outstanding once again in the 2023/24 campaign, a point made repeatedly by the players and head coach Fabian Hürzeler. The home sections at the Millerntor sold out for every game, though the away section wasn't packed to the rafters every time. A few tickets remained unsold there against Fürth, for example. Nevertheless, with a total occupancy rate of 99.8 per cent, the Millerntor topped the league rankings just ahead of Schalke's VELTINS Arena (99.3 per cent) and Osnabrück's Bremer Brücke (98.9 per cent). The Boys in Brown also enjoyed the support of a sizeable following on the road, with an average of 4,229 fans* travelling to away games. That equates to fourth place in the league behind Schalke (6,759), HSV (5,885) and Kaiserslautern (4,382).
*Source: Die falsche 9 (the number of away fans was obtained from the clubs direct)
