So here it is. Merry christmas. And isn’t everyone having fun? Well, we’ll see what place in history December 2025 takes as far as Boro is concerned. As we barrel into 2026, we saw six complete League One in this final calendar month of the year. That’s not far off a quarter of our games played so far this season. Crazy things. Anyway, let’s not mess around – time to move on and see how we’re doing at this stage.
One thing we can’t ignore is how eventful December has been in recent years. It’s a bit of a tricky time in the season. We enter 2026 – our 50th as a club no less – in a very nice setting as far as the table is concerned. Even though our record over the holidays wasn’t great. But it is not the case that we have always been perfect in the past December months. It has indeed been a terrible month in some seasons. Luckily this wasn’t one of them.
League One comparison at this stage
Now the whole Points Per Game (PPG)/Goals Per Game (GPG) thing will be part of this again – given the disparity in completed matches. Let’s take the 2023-204 season for example. That’s technically top of the pile in our League One comparison at the end of December; the year 2023 ended with 43 points. But those points come from three additional games, which amounts to 1.79 points per game. This year’s PPG on December 31, on the other hand, is XXX.
FACT:
The 2012-203 season had started so well. However, the decline in form really took its toll in December 2012. That campaign now lags behind 2011-2 in the comparison stakes. This is mainly because we were one point worse off on December 31, 2012 than on December 31, 2011. But there is also an unfavorable goal difference… and that is because December 2012 was the month in which our goal difference became negative that season.
Meanwhile, we had remained undefeated twelve months earlier in December: three wins and a draw.
| Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | Ptn | 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 similar seasons?
There are a handful of campaigns where we had played 21 league games by the end of December. It makes little sense to compare with the 1993/94 season, when we scored 47 points in 1994, at an average of 2.24 per game. Interestingly enough, however, we did not have a good December 1993. We started the month with only one defeat to our name. So if we end up with four defeats, it turns out that perhaps one too many cakes have been consumed.
We will also say something about 1988-1989. After relegation that year, life in the Vauxhall Opel League Division Two North was going quite well. Too many draws perhaps, but three defeats is not bad at all. And our December 1988 was very productive. Five matches produced a total of four wins and a draw, with Boro’ scoring thirteen and conceding three. Unfortunately, this would not force us into an immediate return to Division One as we ultimately fell five points short.
| Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | Ptn | 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 | Ptn | 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 to say something. It was a record season, which means there are no surprises here. But the incredible nature of December 1990 must be shared. We played six times, won six times and scored sixteen times. We only had to admit once: just wait! Whatever metric you use to compare the seasons, nothing comes close.
Not shown above is the 1980-1 season. If it had been three points for a win at the time, we would have finished on 44 points in December 1980 – just shy of the 2007-08 total. But that’s a campaign where we had the second-highest PPG at the start of January 1 (2.41).
| Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | Ptn | 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 has been wrongly included here, but that is the nature of the beast. An equivalent of 15 points from 15 games is not brilliant. But it’s far from the worst. In fact, there are perhaps half a dozen other seasons not seen above that had worse PPG at the end of December. However, it almost doesn’t matter when you have the junk we got in 2019 and 2020. That said, December 2019 was winless – but yielded three draws in five games.
December 2025 versus averages
It is a look at the average figures at the end of December over the years: matches played, goals scored, points won. That kind of thing. Boro’s +/- for 2025-6 is in brackets and all values have been 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
#phase #December #BoroGuide