GW 30 – Review

Well I doubt many of you expected that! The first Ultimate Goals action of February won’t live long in the memory for most of you. The average score of 11 was the lowest recorded since October and it’s pretty obvious which results caused such trouble. Leeds Utd’s shock 1-0 home defeat to Championship strugglers Wigan Athletic let a whopping 63 of you down, while 56 of you were left disappointed by Rangers’ failure to score at home to Aberdeen, with Dundee Utd (27 picks) doing the same at Tannadice, and on Sunday Man City’s 2-0 defeat to Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium left 21 of you without any points. So with popular choices letting a lot of you down, it was a pretty low scoring week. Only six teams managed to net four or more goals, with Brentford’s impressive win away at Hull City the only 5-goal scoreline. So who should you have gone for?

Liverpool’s (87 picks) dominance in the Premier League continued with a 4-0 home win over Southampton, while Celtic (93) went seven points clear in the Scottish Premier League with a 4-1 away win at Hamilton. Elsewhere Montrose, East Fife and Peterborough United also netted 4 apiece to make up the bulk of the multiplier ladder, while any other three goal team would have seen you securing the ‘Perfect 7’ score of 146 (the lowest possible ‘Perfect 7’ since the first week of September!), and a cool £1,600! The closest anyone came this week was Jane Whitaker with her score of 92, one of the three players to choose Brentford (at x8 as well). Indeed, no one scored high enough to reach Club 100 for the first time for 6 gameweeks! Popular choices this week included West Bromwich Albion (72), Barrow (34) and Yeovil Town (43), with Cove Rangers ever-popular at 72 selections.

Liverpool were the most popular choice to get players’ multiplier ladder going at x2 with 36 picks, while West Brom dominated x4 and x5, with Celtic most popular at x6 through to x8. Most picked at x3 was Leeds Utd, the culprit preventing 44 people from reaching their higher multiplier. But some people failed to record any points at all. 31 players lost points this week with those Rangers (9), Leeds (8) & Dundee United (5) scores doing most of the damage.

However, there’s plenty of time to claw back those points and climb the Weekly Global Table. So get those selections in time for next week’s early kick offs which feature Everton v Crystal Palace in the Premier League, Wigan Athletic hosting Preston North End in a Lancashire derby, and Rangers’ trip to Hamilton Academical in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup. Good luck!

– Samuel Wilkinson