GW 27 – Review

Wowzer! Another week, another record broken. In fact make that two! You lot have been in truly inspired form since the turn of the New Year. We’ve had some jaw-dropping scores and figures over the last few weeks and gameweek 27 very much continued that trend.

There’s no other place to start than at the top of the Global League, where GW 27’s top scorer sits with a new record to his name. Huge congratulations to Zak Mitchell, whose seven selections were absolutely inspired! Only one of Zak’s selections failed to score 3 or more goals, that being Edinburgh City with a solitary goal on x3. Cheltenham Town secured 15 points for this week’s League leader on x5, while Yeovil Town (52 picks), AFC Fylde and Dundee Utd (26) each netted 4 on x2, x4 and x6 respectively to give Zak a healthy 48 points. But it was Manchester City (just the 91 picks!) and AFC Barrow (49) who really did the business for him; x8 City’s 6-1 drubbing of Aston Villa yet again proving why they’ve been such a popular choice this season, while Barrow on x7 took their imperious form at the top of the National League into the Second Round of The FA Trophy, spanking FC United of Manchester 7-0 – that’s consecutive weeks the The Bluebirds have smashed 7 past their opponents! All this boosted Zak’s score to a truly colossal 163 points, the highest weekly return this season and the second time he’s topped the weekly standings.

It was nearly double glory for Zak too, with his fantastic total just 15 points shy of the ever-elusive ‘Perfect 7’! That’s the closest anyone has been to the jackpot this season, but that £1,500 goes begging for another week.

In remarkable scenes, Club 100 was even more crowded than last week as a spectacular 50 of you bagged a triple figure score – another new record for the 2019/20 season! Oliver Norman’s tally of 151 was the closest to evicting Zak at the summit of this week’s table, but the top scorer was already wheeling away in celebration before anything could be done. Here’s where your major points came/could have come from this week…….

……Manchester Utd saw off a lacklustre Norwich City 4-0 at Old Trafford to the delight of 55 of you, while Chelsea and Watford each picked up 3-0 wins. But naturally it was Manchester City’s 6-1 demolition of Aston Villa that was the most notable score from the weekend’s Premier League action. 16 of you backed Brentford, the highest scoring Champonship side, in a West London derby with QPR and were rewarded with 3 goals, whilst in Leagues One and Two Ipswich Town (just 5 picks), Sunderland (6) and Forest Green Rovers each scored 4 – including two injury time strikes for The Green Devils!

Up in Scotland, Dundee Utd and Elgin City both hit 4 away from home, at Partick Thistle and Annan Athletic, but it was the FA Trophy that really helped a lot of players towards a big return, as the likes of Barrow, AFC Fylde, Yeovil Town and Chelmsford City went goal crazy! With this in mind, it’s little surprise that the average score for gameweek 27 was 73, which would have been the best this season if you hadn’t already topped that last week by averaging 76 points!

Some of you were, however, let down by one or two surprising results at the weekend; Leicester may have scored but their 2-1 loss to a resurgent Southampton would have been underwhelming for many of you who selected them (although a perfect x2 pick of course!) And 24 of you were left hugely disappointed by a surprise 2-0 home defeat for a Leeds Utd side that seems to be faltering again at this point in the season – a seemingly annual occurrence!

Despite this we had just 7 minus scores in GW 27, made up of 5 minus 20s and 2 minus 40s. Just like last weekend, this was certainly not a good week to go backwards, given the plethora of goals on offer in so many fixtures.

So what will happen in GW 28? Will we have a third consecutive week with a notably high average score? Will the ‘Perfect 7’ jackpot finally be won? Get those selections in and it could be you! Remember, the early kick-offs see Watford host Tottenham Hotspur and Leeds Utd travel to QPR should any of those teams take your fancy. Let us know how you did in the comments below and happy scoring!

– Samuel Wilkinson