I’m having a lazy day today ahead of settling down to watch some football so I thought I’d do a bit of research.

Someone on Cottage Corner asked why we did so badly in March and my automatic response was “Roy won Manager of the Month for February”. But how much of a curse is this award? In the words of Harry Hill, there’s only one way to find out. So here for your delectation are the winners of the award this season and their performance in the following months’ fixtures.

August – Harry Redknapp (Tottenham)
12.09.09: Tottenham 1 – 3 Man Utd
20.09.09: Chelsea 3 – 0 Tottenham
23.09.09: Preston 1 – 5 Totttenham (Carling Cup)
26.09.09: Tottenham 5 – 0 Burnley

September – Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester Utd)
03.10.09: Man Utd 2 – 2 Sunderland
17.10.09: Man Utd 2 – 1 Bolton
21.10.09: CSKA Moscow 0 – 1 Man Utd (Champions League)
25.10.09: Liverpool 2 – 0 Man Utd
27.10.09: Barnsley 0 – 2 Man Utd (Carling Cup)
31.10.09: Man Utd 2 – 0 Blackburn

October – Roy Hodgson (Fulham)
05.11.09: Roma 2 – 1 Fulham (Europa League)
08.1109: Wigan 1 – 1 Fulham
21.11.09: Birmingham 1 – 0 Fulham
25.11.09: Fulham 3 – 0 Blackburn
28.11.09: Fulham 1 – 1 Bolton

November – Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea)
02.12.09: Blackburn 3 – 3 Chelsea (Carling Cup)
05.12.09: Man City 2 – 1 Chelsea
08.12.09: Chelsea 2 – 2 Apoel Nicosia (Champions League)
12.12.09: Chelsea 3 – 3 Everton
16.12.09: Chelsea 2 – 1 Portsmouth
20.12.09: West Ham 1 – 1 Chelsea
26.12.09: Birmingham 0 – 0 Chelsea
28.12.09: Chelsea 2 – 1 Fulham

December (Alex McLeish, Birmingham)
02.01.10: Nottm Forest 0 – 0 Birmingham (FA Cup)
09.10.10: Birmingham 1 – 1 Man Utd
12.01.10: Birmingham 1 – 0 Nott Forest (FA Cup)
23.01.10: Everton 1 – 2 Birmingham (FA Cup)
27.01.10: Chelsea 3 – 0 Birmingham
30.01.10: Birmingham 1 – 1 Tottenham

January – David Moyes (Everton)
06.02.10: Liverpool 1 – 0 Everton
10.02.10: Everton 2 – 1 Chelsea
16.02.10: Everton 2 – 1 Sporting Lisbon (Europa League)
20.02.10: Everton 3 – 1 Man Utd
25.02.10: Sporting Lisbon 3 – 0 Everton (Europa League)
28.02.10: Tottenham 2 – 1 Everton

February: Roy Hodgson (Fulham)
06.03.10: Fulham 0 – 0 Tottenham (FA Cup)
11.03.10: Juventus 3 – 1 Fulham (Europa League)
14.03.10: Man Utd 3 – 0 Fulham
18.03.10: Fulham 4 – 1 Juventus (Europa League)
21.03.10: Fulham 1 – 2 Man City
24.03.10: Tottenham 3 – 1 Fulham (FA Cup)
27.03.10: Hull 2 – 0 Fulham

March: David Moyes (Everton)
04.04.10: Everton 2 – 2 West Ham

I have to say that I’m not convinced. Look at Everton after Moyes won the award for January – they beat Chelsea and Manchester Utd. Admittedly both at home but I watched the Man Utd game on the telly and Everton really did display some quite special football.

Birmingham got through a couple rounds of the FA Cup and picked up two draws in the league after Alex McLeish was crowned MOTM for December. One of those FA Cup wins was against Everton at Goodison Park – never an easy tie.

Ancelotti’s probably the best candidate for supporting the view that the award is a curse. Two wins at home (against Fulham and Portsmouth – both “expected” wins), an away defeat to Man City and five draws, including against West Ham which most people would probably have thought Chelsea should’ve won comfortably given West Ham’s form this season. Being held to a 3-3 draw at home to Everton probably wasn’t one of Chelsea’s finest hours either. (Everton seem to be cropping up a lot in this “study” one way or another).

So, onto Fulham …. well that’s a tricky one. In November we took five league point from a possible 12 and got beaten by Roma and the refs. Not brilliant. In March we took no points from a possible nine, got beaten quite convincingly by Juventus and missed out on a trip to Wembley. All that alone would suggest to me that Roy does seem to be a victim of ‘The Curse’.

But then on 18th March this happened.

And for that reason, together with my ever-so-scientific research above, I can’t quite bring myself to buy into the curse nonsense.