I continue to delve into the world of data visualisation and how we can tell better stories with the numbers we have available to us. It almost always starts with a simple question and usually ends with an inordinate amount of effort pulling together something that nobody except me is really that interested in. But it’s fun, so we persist.
The latest question I had in my mind was triggered by Matty Godden recently scoring his 50th goal for the club, making him our 2nd highest goal scorer since we were relegated from the Premier League back in 2001.
What struck me wasn’t that he’d hit 50 goals – we’d known about his record for quite a while – but as with all stats, comparison and context is the most important thing. With Godden’s 50th, it appeared to be the first time anyone had really mentioned where his scoring record sat in the grand scheme of Coventry City goalscorers. It felt like he’d be 2nd best in the post-PL world for a while, so I thought I’d look into that.
Naturally I then took it too far and wondered what our list of top goalscorers looked like at different points during the last 23-odd years. I haven’t done all-time scorers – I’m not completely mad.
That still meant collating the information of everyone who has ever scored a goal for us in that period and then finding a way to visualise that.
And what better way to visualise changing totals over the course of time than a good old fashioned bar chart race! Note: It’s not old fashioned; if anything it’s very much in vogue, that’s why I’m using it.
The chart’s below if you want to have a gawk.
