GW 44 – Ones to Watch

Matt: Into the final gameweek of the 2020/21 season we head, and with fixtures in our usual leagues at something of a premium, we once again turn to Germany and Spain for help in the form of The Bundesliga and La Liga. My counterpart Ally utilised these leagues to good effect last weekend, although Atletico Madrid did their best to cause him (and many of us!) heart palpitations, before finally coming good with a couple of late goals.

I’ll give it my best shot to bow out in style, after what’s been a pretty successful season in terms of tips/goals in this section. We’ll start by taking a trip into what, in my opinion, looks ‘the place to be’ in GW 44…….no, it’s not the glitz and glamour of Munich or Madrid, but England’s National League! In my opinion this division offers up a whole host of options and opportunities, indeed it’s something of dilemma to narrow it down to just a solitary pick here! After some deliberation, I’ve decided to put my faith in Stockport County in their crucial fixture against Woking. My logic for this comes in various forms (all of which will probably prove to be completely flawed come 5pm on Saturday!), but in brief; The Hatters really need the the points to ensure they retain their third place spot, thus ensuring less play-off games once the season has concluded. They are the league’s second top scorers on 67 and have scored 13 times in their previous five games at Edgeley Park. They won the reverse fixture 4-1. They are on comfortably the longest unbeaten run in the league – 16 games and counting. They are playing a Woking side who have totally fallen off a cliff – TEN (10) consecutive defeats and 13 losses in their previous 14 matches! There’s more, but I’m content with that as my rationale! Simply put, this is a must win game for Stockport and I’m extremely confident that The Hatters will produce the goods in front of goal against The Cardinals……..it will certainly be a cardinal sin if they don’t!! Good luck to you all and I hope you’ve enjoyed playing TUG this season!

Ally: Like Matt, I’m also going to sign off for this season with a domestic fixture, and it’s the National League game between Wrexham and King’s Lynn that has caught my eye. After a slow start to the season the Red Dragons have now got themselves right in the thick of the race for the play-off quarter finals. They currently occupy 6th place, a point ahead of both Chesterfield and Bromley, with the trio effectively fighting it out for two remaining spots, and this game offers an ideal opportunity to steal a march on their rivals with the visit of a King’s Lynn outfit in freefall. Indeed the Linnets have lost 8 of the last 10 matches, and have won just 2 of the last 20. They also concede goals at an alarming rate, shipping 48 in those 20 matches, and 12 in their last 3 away games alone. Incredibly they don’t even have the worst defence in the league, with that dubious honour falling to Wealdstone who have conceded 93 to King’s Lynn’s 88! Fortunately for them, there is no relegation this season. Wrexham gained plenty of headlines earlier this season when they were the subject of a takeover by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and the new owners will no doubt be keen to see an instant return on their investment should the north Wales side achieve promotion to the Football League. Wrexham have been in decent form of late with a 7 match unbeaten run that was ended on Tuesday evening by play off rivals Notts County, and they managed to bag an impressive 18 goals in that time and I fully expect them to add a few more to the ‘Goals For’ column on Saturday. Good luck with your final selections of the season!