GW 28 – Review

January has been a very productive month for many of you and gameweek 28 was no different. The number of people notching big scores may have dwindled slightly, but that’s not to say some of you weren’t on top form once more. In fact, if it wasn’t for the last couple of weeks producing the best statistics of the season, GW 28 would have been considered an extremely good week of Ultimate Goals action. So let’s get going……

We’ll begin at the summit of the Weekly Global Table, where Russell Sexton makes his first appearance at the top of the pile. Russell’s combination of ever-reliable Manchester City, Liverpool (34 selections) and Celtic (93) got his race to the top going on his early multipliers, with each team netting twice, although it has to be pointed out that City left a whopping 112 of you waiting for Sergio Aguero’s 82 minute strike! Another familiar face was 3 goal Cove Rangers (55 picks) on Russell’s x5 spot, while Aberdeen (68) rather disappointed with just a scored a solitary goal on x6. The bulk of Russell’s points clearly came from 6 goal Kilmarnock (35 picks) and 5 goal Heart of Midlothian (16) on his top two multipliers – this 82 point boost gave him a total of 121 points and a ticket to Club 100. Congratulations Russell!

Speaking of Kilmarnock, they don’t often appear in the list of highest scoring teams, but that’s exactly what they were last weekend, sitting in the ‘Perfect 7’ x8 spot as a result. The Scottish Cup proved to be quite the source of goals in fact; aside from Killie, there were 5-0 home wins for Hamilton Academical (12 picks) and Hearts against Edinburgh City and Aidrieonians, plus solid 3 goal returns for reasonably popular and fellow Scottish Premiership sides Livingston, St Johnstone and St Mirren. Arguably the shock result of the weekend came in the English Championship, where Blackburn Rovers travelled over The Pennines to Yorkshire, hammering 5 past 10-man Sheffield Wednesday. None of you saw that coming as Rovers weren’t backed by a single player! The final 5 goal team was National League outfit Halifax Town, who secured a 5-2 victory over Maidenhead Utd, with any 4 goal team being enough to fill the other spots on the P7 multiplier ladder. This gave us a best possible score of 178, substantially higher than anybody managed to accumulate.

Other notable scorers that could have helped you to a decent tally were Stevenage and Northampton Town, who each put 4 goals past Cambridge Utd and Morecambe in League Two. There was a 3-2 comeback win for one of the surprise packages of the season in Wolverhampton Wanderers, while Nottingham Forest (23 picks) and Plymouth Argyle each bagged 3-1 home wins. There was also an average of 2.75 goals per game in the National League, so no shortage of goalmouth action there.

With all these goals on offer it’s no wonder the average points tally was an excellent 58 points, with 26 of you swaggering into Club 100. Both would be normally be very impressive statistics if you lot hadn’t smashed it over the last couple of weeks!

Unfortunately 12 of you had more disappointing weekends, as eight minus 20s and four minus 40s were recorded at the foot of the Weekly Global Table. This would have been much, much worse if not for Manchester City and Aberdeen’s late goals at home to Crystal Palace and Dumbarton. But do not despair! There’s still plenty of gameweeks to make up those lost points!

That’s it from me this week. Next week’s round will feature the Fourth Round FA Cup fixtures, with the early kick off seeing a stumbling Leicester City travel to a free-scoring Brentford side who have suffered only one defeat in their last nine. Will this Premiership v Championship clash be of interest to you? Remember to get those selections in and enjoy the weekend’s footballing action!

– Samuel Wilkinson