At the end of the first series of 11 games in this season’s League of Ireland season, Derry City held the top spot by virtue of goal difference from Sligo Rovers. It’s generally accepted that Derry have greatly improved on their 2012 form, but the question is by how much?

If you compare how each side started the season, you can get a good idea (click on the image for full size).

But there’s a couple of complications there. Limerick are a good deal better than Monaghan were last year, so what if we removed their results? Monaghan’s were expunged anyway

But that doesn’t tell the whole story either. Due to Monaghan’s withdrawal and the change in the 2 home/1 away split between clubs, some clubs will have had 4 games away in 2012 and 6 away in 2013. So the fairest way of tracking progress between 2012 and 2013 for your team is to compare the first 10 games of this season (not including Limerick) with the 2nd series of games last season (not including Monaghan’s 3 games before they folded). It may sound a little complicated, but you’re comparing like-for-like with games.

As an example in the St Patrick’s Athletic v Drogheda United game played in 2012, Drogheda won 2-1. This season St Pats won 1-0. That sees Pats gain 3 points, and Drogheda lose 3 points. Isn’t that better than comparing it to the Drogheda home game?

Here’s how teams have changed (click on the image for full size);

You can see that Dundalk have improved by a whopping 13 points with Derry not far behind on 10. The tables above show Sligo Rovers are a point worse off after the first series compared to their start last season. By using the like-for-like corresponding fixtures, you can see that Sligo are actually 6 points better off than last year.

Interesting to see that only 4 sides have actually improved from last year. Trevor Croly’s Shamrock Rovers were 5 points worse off than Stephen Kenny’s Rovers team. You can also see why there is growing unrest among Shelbourne fans as they are 10 points worse off.

As ever without statistic, these should only be used as a talking point as there’s clearly loads of factors involved. The only statistic that matters is the end league table.