GW 34 – Review

The final week of February ended what was a fairly solid month for many of you here on TUG. Gameweek 34 threw up a phenomenon the likes of which has not been seen all season – back-to-back rounds without a single player making it to the 100 point mark! That’s right, another vacant table in Club 100 this week, but it was so close for Callum Pearch, who was just a solitary point away from the magic triple-digit landmark. His score of 99 included this week’s most prolific side, Dover Athletic (just two selections!) who saw off Fylde 5-1. Any place higher than x6 in his multiplier ladder and Callum would be sitting pretty in Club 100! No such luck this week, but who else netted handsomely at the weekend?

Well East Fife (23 picks) and Chesterfield (2) each saw off opposition at home by margins of 4-2 and 4-0, but the most dramatic score line came at Cappielow Park where Greenock Morton hosted Alloa Athletic, with the score there incredibly ending 4-4, although neither was selected by any of you! Any of these sides at the high end of your multipliers, with any 3-goal team in at x2 and x3 and you’re looking at a fantastic ‘Perfect 7’ score of 143! That means the cash prize, (now worth £1,700!) rolls over to March. So the goals were out there, but who did you back to do the business? Cove Rangers (32), Raith Rovers (44) and Glasgow Rangers (47) were ever-popular with a total of 123 selections, but they failed to dazzle as they have done on so many occasions this season, netting just 5 goals between them. The same went for Crewe Alexandra who scored only twice at home for the 65 of you who chose The Railwaymen. Celtic and Sunderland each found the net 3 times to benefit the 92 of you who chose The Bhoys and the 40 who backed The Black Cats. All this was reflected in the weekly scoring, with a strong but unexceptional average score of 31 (incredibly the third time this month the average has been 31!)

We had 13 players recording minus scores this week, 5 fewer than last, although Tom Roome will be rueing that minus 60 thanks to goalless trio Clyde, Edinburgh City (63 selections!) and Reading failing to score at his x2, x3 and x4. Once again Celtic bookended the matrix for the most popular sides at each multiplier. Crewe Alexandra were picked most at x3 and x4 while Raith Rovers occupied x5. Goalless Edinburgh City were most selected at x6 and x7, going some way to explaining why no-one bagged a triple-digit score!

That’s your fill for this week’s review. Don’t forget to get those selections in early to take full advantage of the early kick-offs taking place on Saturday. Brighton host Crystal Palace in the M23 derby while Leeds travel to Hull City in their push for automatic promotion from the Championship. Good luck for gameweek 35!

– Samuel Wilkinson