The Daily Mirror's Pools 'expert' Longsight had an article in the paper on April 8th, 1964 with the headline "Draws all come out in the long run", noting "the tendency for clubs to draw several matches after ending a long run without a draw."
Further examples were given including Aston Villa (6 in 11 after a run of 16), Wolverhampton Wanderers (8 in 16 after 13), Huddersfield Town (6 in 12 after 15), Plymouth Argyle (5 in 8 after 11), Bristol City (4 in 7 after 10), Colchester United (5 in 12 after 11), Hull City (6 in 12 after 12), Shrewsbury Town (6 in 13 after 13), Gillingham (5 in 6 after 18) and Oxford United (5 in 12 after 10).
And then the reason is explained:
The explanation is, of course, that the general average of draws is about one in five games.
Clubs which run up long sequences without a draw can be expected to restore the balance to some degree once the run is ended.
So now we know, and it's all been out there in the public domain for more than 56 years! I can't wait to put this into practice next season.
'of course'.
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