Considered response to "opposition score with first shot" posters.

I took time over this response in another thread, only to find that the thread had been closed. Dang! But i feel this is a point worth making. At the risk of being strung up by the mob, I have to say that I've noticed this "opposition score with first shot" phenomenon too. It doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to lose, but quite often the oppositions very first shot on goal goes in. Now, in the interest of balance...

You know when you hear someone say a name or a word you think you've never heard before, and then later the same day you hear it again? You think, "Wow, I'd never heard that name/word before and now I've heard it twice in one day!". This probably isn't the case; you've probably heard it before, but it didn't register. My convoluted point is that it's not that unusual for a team to score with their first shot. Indeed, an early goal in a game is more than likely a first shot on goal. Once you've noticed such an occurrance, you're more likely to focus on the times when it does happen than on all the games where the oppositions first shot DIDN'T lead to a goal, because those occasions don't affect you.

In order that this thread have a purpose, how about a poll? Though I think I might be able to predict the winner.

i played man city before and was dominating the game then all of a sudden they scored half time i had around 8 shots to there 1 and it was 1-0 to them , i was gutted

I think people feel the need to focus on all the times things go against them, i have never seen a thread where someone highlights something going for them rather than against them. I can't count the number of threads about a bad referee decision going against them but i see my own team having goals allowed that are really offside and the opposition having goals disallowed when they are ligitimate. The problem is there are plenty of people who just want to rant about the game when they don't do well rather than listen to anything logical.

Norville: you've hit the nail on the head with the noticing it when it affects you thing. Its the cause of 99% of the 'bugs' posted. Its the cause of most of my frustration with football in real life too!

It does happen often in FM, at least often enough that it never surprises me when it happens.

It might well happen that often irl though, I've never found any stats on it to prove one way or the other.

Voted 'Disagree', doesn't happen in my save. Every once and again the first shot will go in but that's how it goes.

Incidentally I voted disagree. In my current save the opposition consider themselves lucky to get a shot, let alone see it go in.

It does happen often in FM, at least often enough that it never surprises me when it happens.

It might well happen that often irl though, I've never found any stats on it to prove one way or the other.

Exactly. Finding a correlation irl isn't easy, which makes topics such as this one so debatable. I'm not sure that there's a right or a wrong when people highlight issues such as this, only personal opinion and experience.

The other one is "And that's his first goal for the club!". The number of players who seem to wait until they play me before opening their accounts, but again it's hard to compare this to real-life events, so you can't necessarily complain when it happens.

Exactly. Finding a correlation irl isn't easy, which makes topics such as this one so debatable. I'm not sure that there's a right or a wrong when people highlight issues such as this, only personal opinion and experience.

The other one is "And that's his first goal for the club!". The number of players who seem to wait until they play me before opening their accounts, but again it's hard to compare this to real-life events.

Ok, now I'm with you about the '1st goal for the club' but then you think, 'how many of those don't I see?'

As for a correllation with real life, I can offer my own club Spurs. We are very much a charity club when it comes to these things: Scoring your 1st goal, ever, for the club, in 10 years, whatever it may be, we will help break that jinx. Same with losing runs, not won in 10, don't worry Spurs will have one of their off days and boom there you have it. Gotta laugh about these things.

Ha, yeah. My team, Villa, used to be similarly generous. Remember when Diego Forlan came to England? First 14 games, with not a goal to be seen. Didn't even look like scoring. Then they played us, and the bleeder scored twice in a Man-Of-The-Match performance. Shevchenko was another. Was regarded by all and sundry as a failure during his time at Chelsea, yet when we turned up and went 2-0 up at The Bridge, he pulled out his (seemingly) one and alone world-class performance for them and almost single-handedly salvaged a 4-4 draw.

The commentary bar probably doesn't help. It tends to highlight such milestones giving us, the aggrieved, reason to vent our spleens on these pages. Perhaps there could be an option in future to only mention milestones relating to our club. Sure, I might have just allowed Titus Bramble to hobble round my keeper and score his first ever goal for the club, but don't tell me about it!

It happens a fair bit, but like a lot of similar match engine issues (like 'superkeepers', or at least keepers regularly saving points almost single-handedly, which happens more often irl) it also goes both ways. When my laptop is being a little slow at processing the switch from the pitch view to split view I've both found myself a goal down and a goal up after a few mins on number of occasions.

I score with my first shot many MANY more times than the opposition.

If the opposition score with their first shot, the first thing I do is pause the game, replay the goal, then go to my tactics screen. Possibly because I take more time over these games, I usually come back to win them. Not sure about the original post that got closed (I've not read it) but it was probably nonsense.

I find this happening, normally when Im on top dominating games, but this happens in real life, check out Arsenals season, we seem to conceed like this alot.

Maybe they are scoring with their first shot because of the tactics you use and their first shot happens to be a guilt edged chance, I normally find this. Or my keeper has nodded off because he hasnt had anything to do for 30 minutes lol

I went back tstudied each of my 45 games this season, looking at when and how I conceded (and scored).

The opposition scored with its first shot in one of them. The opposition scored with its first shot on target in five. Does this seem a little high? Perhaps. Does it ruin the game for me? Obviously not, since I hadn't noticed during obvious game play.

I assume those making the complaint have gathered similar data. Are those results in line with mine?

I went back tstudied each of my 45 games this season, looking at when and how I conceded (and scored).

The opposition scored with its first shot in one of them. The opposition scored with its first shot on target in five. Does this seem a little high? Perhaps. Does it ruin the game for me? Obviously not, since I hadn't noticed during obvious game play.

I assume those making the complaint have gathered similar data. Are those results in line with mine?

Have I read this correctly, first shot on target in 6 of 45 games has gone in and you think that to high?

i played man city before and was dominating the game then all of a sudden they scored half time i had around 8 shots to there 1 and it was 1-0 to them , i was gutted

ok here is a point to consider, if you have been dominating, have you perhaps been holding a lot of possession in the opposition half, defence maybe pushed up slightly? then you get hit by a ball over the top? a disciplined counter-attacking side could easily make you pay on the break like that

I would be interested to know how many people who claim that the opposition score with their first shot watch the full match or even extended highlights.

Have I read this correctly, first shot on target in 6 of 45 games has gone in and you think that to high?

No, I don't think it's high. I think it's pretty reasonable. I have David Ospina in goal and I'm in my fourth season and he has developed into arguably the best 'keeper in the league, so I expect him to save more than his share, and this seems reasonable to me.

Really, I just wanted to put the data out there and see whether others had data (as opposed to "it feels like my opponents always score") that contradicted this.

It's just not the opposition, but the first shot overall has a very high chance of going in. This really needs to be fixed.

I can't say that this is the case in my games. I recently had a save with Wolves and it was my team who would score early on.

Try conceding a 25 yarder from Zat Knight as their first shot/goal that was annoying.

But i've just learned to accept that this will happen on FM

I took time over this response in another thread, only to find that the thread had been closed. Dang! But i feel this is a point worth making. At the risk of being strung up by the mob, I have to say that I've noticed this "opposition score with first shot" phenomenon too. It doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to lose, but quite often the oppositions very first shot on goal goes in. Now, in the interest of balance...

You know when you hear someone say a name or a word you think you've never heard before, and then later the same day you hear it again? You think, "Wow, I'd never heard that name/word before and now I've heard it twice in one day!". This probably isn't the case; you've probably heard it before, but it didn't register. My convoluted point is that it's not that unusual for a team to score with their first shot. Indeed, an early goal in a game is more than likely a first shot on goal. Once you've noticed such an occurrance, you're more likely to focus on the times when it does happen than on all the games where the oppositions first shot DIDN'T lead to a goal, because those occasions don't affect you.

In order that this thread have a purpose, how about a poll? Though I think I might be able to predict the winner.

Spot on

It's something Mike7077, Ched and I have pointed out for the past few years- we tend to spot patterns that don't exist. Another good example is players getting "that's his first goal of the season!" or similar. It doesn't happen with every player, but over the course of the season it is bound to happen a few times. Then people notice those few occasions, and discard the rest.

Personally, I don't notice it, but then I'm not one to mull over the stats after the game. I'm more likely to use the analysis and see why the opposition scored, why we wasted our chances, and so on.

You make a great point there chap

So many people turn the blind eye when there first shot goes in after 30 seconds or when the referee gives your team a 'contraversial' goal. Wonder how many check the footage afterwards (I do with all contraversial decisions, for and against me) when it is in favour of them.

I have noticed it happen on the odd occasion but hey, thats football. I've scored with the first shot of the game aswell.

I did get rather frustrated the other day when I was absolutly dominating Kettering on my AFC Telford save and their first shot, a 35 yard free kick in the 60th minute, flew straight into the top corner, but I turned it around and the pressure told eventually.

Oh and its weird you mention about that name thing because i had that feeling just today