GW 5 Review

Ally: Now that’s a bit more like it!! After four weeks of above average point scoring we’ve finally had a weekend where some of the fancied big-hitters failed to hit the net and the gameweek leaderboard has taken on a more familiar look, with a much bigger range of scores including a large number of the dreaded minuses!

In the Scottish Challenge Cup, a few of the more popular picks didn’t really deliver the expected returns, with TNS only scoring 2 and Coleraine just 1, whilst Salford City of the National League were another of the fancied teams to only return a disappointing 1 goal. However, this was offset by Exeter City, Ross County and Chorley getting 5 goals each, with Bath City and Queen of the South scoring 4 apiece. The problem most players had was actually getting the goals these teams scored to count towards weekly points total!

Undoubtedly, the team causing most frustration by some distance was Lincoln City, who suffered their first league defeat of the season thanks to a shock 1-0 home loss against managerless Crawley Town. This was even more galling for me given that I picked the Imps as one of my two ‘Ones to Watch’ for the weekend……..and proceeded to select them as my x2 banker!! Oh dear!

A glance at the gameweek leaderboard shows that I wasn’t alone in that choice, as Lincoln were significant contributors to the season high total of 45 minus scores (36 x -20 and 9 x -40’s), not to mention the raft of positive scores under 30. It should come as no surprise that the GW 5 average score of just 20 points is comfortably the lowest of the season so far.

It wasn’t all bad news though, as we saw a welcome return to ‘Club 100’ with 4 players making it to triple figures. Top scorer for the week was Karl Norman, who registered a superb 114 points. A look at his selections shows that he got his order spot on, with his x2 and x3 teams getting a goal apiece, and his other five teams hitting a further 18 between them.

Good luck with your gameweek 6 selections, as the English Premier League & Championship and Scottish Premiership make a welcome return to action after the international break.

Matt: Disaster has struck! I did say in last week’s articles that these ‘international weeks’ have often been renowned for inflicting serious damage on players (me very much included!)….well lo and behold it’s happened again! Thank you very much Lincoln City, what a time to record your first league defeat of the season – but worse still the first time you’ve failed to score this season in any competition!! As soon as Lee Frecklington was sent off, you just knew it was going to be one of those days……..this game is truly evil at times!

It looks as though Ally has already given you a brief breakdown of the mischief caused mainly by The Imps (we’ll not mention that they were his top tip for the weekend eh!), but GW 5 was easily the worst weekend of the current season. It seems to have only served to reinforce the notion that having leagues and competitions available that are considerably less well known is a recipe for disaster, albeit it definitely brings a lot of fun as the chance to pick sides like Billericay Town and Sligo Rovers is just too tempting to resist for many!!

A look at the Global League shows us that the overall table is starting to take shape now (although somewhat worryingly four players have already broken the 400 point barrier whilst i’m busy scoring -20 and dropping another 20 or so places!), but if you are struggling at the wrong end of it then remind yourself we’re only five weeks into a 45 week season. The league can’t be won in August or September, although some of us are certainly doing our best to lose it!! There’s a long, long way to go and many a twist and turn between now and May.

I don’t think too many players will be shedding a tear at the return of the top leagues in England and Scotland this coming weekend, but on first glance it’s far from the easiest set of fixtures I’ve ever seen. Could we be in for more of the same in GW 6, or will the many players stung by Lincoln and co. simply play it as safe as possible by banging in Manchester City on x2 and then taking it from there? Whatever your tactics, i wish you the best of luck………..some of us are already in need of a great deal of that after a very iffy past couple of weeks!