GW 15 – Review

With 15 weeks of the season already gone, it’s safe to say we’ve seen our fair share of controversy, goals, surprises, goals, upsets and, of course, GOALS! There was so much to consider going into last weekend’s footballing action; would there be a Europa League hangover from popular choices Celtic and Rangers, the battle of the two most popular selections Liverpool and Manchester City, FA Cup First Round fixtures, the drama of two inportant Midlands derbies to sink your teeth into…….TUG had a familiarly challenging and exciting look to it.

As is tradition we will begin at the top. Congratulations to Tony Rawson for topping the GW 15 Global table. 4 goal Forest Green Rovers started Tony off on x2, while Mansfield Town (40 selections) and AFC Fylde did just enough to get our top scorer to his higher multipliers, scoring a goal apiece on x3 and x4. Queen of the South and Raith Rovers (37 picks) each scored 3 on x6 and x7 to add a healthy 39 points, with two late goals from 10 man Walsall on x8. However, the best of Tony’s selections was Solihull Moors (just 3 picks!) who netted 5 times on x5, giving Tony an impressive and winning total of 95. Well done that man!

So, for the fourth time this season Club 100 remained empty, with no players making it to three figures. Things could have been very different for one or two players though, not least Jamie Marson. Just 2 points off top spot, Jamie’s selections of 4 goal FGR and 5 goal Queen’s Park were somewhat wasted on lower multipliers, with x6 and x8 sides Leyton Orient and Cove Rangers only managing a single goal each. That was actually a pretty common theme throughout the leaderboard, with many players scoring right through from x2 to x8, but not racking up particularly big totals due to an abundance of 1 goal teams on the higher multipliers. However, a ‘Perfect 7’ score of 161 was up for grabs this week, as well as that £1,300 jackpot, proving that the goals were out there! Hearts, Solihull Moors and Queen’s Park each netted 5, which would have secured 105 points alone on x6, x7 and x8!

The average points tally is generally an indication of how a gameweek has panned out and here it was an impressive 51, a total we’ve not seen since the last gameweek of September (GW 9). 64% of you were upside of this figure, well done to you! Some of the more familiar faces being widely picked and doing the business effectively, if not spectacularly, clearly contributed to this; Celtic (77 selections) and Rangers (56) each netted 2 against Motherwell and Livingston respectively, with Raith Rovers (37) finding the net 3 times. Frank Lampard’s impressive young Chelsea side scored twice against Crystal Palace to the delight of the majority of the 55 of you who chose them, but in a dramatic twist 17 times chosen Liverpool beat Manchester City (a mere 10 selections!) in a match embroiled with VAR controversy. That’s right, just 27 picks between the pair! The most popular choice was Scottish League Two side Cove Rangers (87 picks), with a late Mitchell Megginson penalty coming to the rescue for all those players who picked the Wee Rangers on their lower multipliers.

Time for the bad news and I’ll keep it short, rather like the list of minus scores recorded! Just 6 minus 20s and a single minus 40 meant that a season low of seven red scores appeared in the Global League. A marked improvement, let’s see how long it lasts!!

So gameweek 15 may not have produced any members of Club 100 but a record low figure for minus points is just as noteworthy, maybe even more so. Throw in a splendid average score of 51, achieved under intense Ultimate Goals conditions, and you have to say the week’s action proved to be a productive one for many of our players. However, attention has to immediately turn to gameweek 16, which will be an always fascinating ‘international week’ here in TUG, with the addition of the National North and South Leagues, as well the quarter-finals of the Scottish Challenge Cup adding a bit of extra spice to the mix. Good luck for next week!

– Samuel Wilkinson