GW 7 – Ones to Watch
Matt: Well, well, who would have predicted that?!! Two of the game’s ‘biggest hitters’ both failing miserably and both backed heavily, causing absolute carnage across the leaderboard! Now I did say last week that I do know of a small number of players who have previously employed a tactic whereby they refuse to pick any team who has played a European midweek fixture leading into the weekend……..well what a gameweek this would have been to adhere to that! Manchester City and Celtic (who between them had a ridiculous 182 picks, proving so many of our players had complete faith in them!) combined to throw the game into disarray and reinforce the message that there is no such thing as a banker in The Ultimate Goals! Gameweek 7 has some serious making up to do!
- Leyton Orient v Mansfield Town. The east London side have had a cracking start to their League Two campaign, currently sitting in second place after 8 games with an impressive 15 points, four behind early pace-setters Forest Green. The Brisbane Road side have also been among the goals too, particularly on home turf where they have beaten highly fancied Exeter City (3-0) and Bradford City (2-0), before sweeping aside Oldham Athletic 4-0 a fortnight ago. The only blot on the home copybook is a 2-0 reverse against another recent former National League side in Harrogate Town. Indeed, this is the only occasion so far that Kenny Jackett’s side have failed to trouble the scorers, and to their credit took Championship high flyers QPR to a penalty shoot out in the first round of the EFL Cup after the allotted 90 minutes finished as a 1-1 draw. Opponents Mansfield are bottom of the form table with just one point from their last 5 league matches, and Nigel Clough’s side are yet to keep a clean sheet this season in any competition, and I don’t see The Stags changing that statistic this weekend either, particularly as The O’s have not failed to score in the last 11 previous head to head matches against Saturday’s visitors.
- Queen’s Park v Peterhead. The ambitious Glasgow side have made an excellent start to life in Scottish League One after winning the League Two championship in 2020/21. The past couple of years have been something of a whirlwind for The Spiders since turning professional at the end of 2019, thus ending 152 years of being an amateur team. They may also be helped by no longer playing home games at the cavernous national team stadium Hampden Park in front of about 50 people each week, as they currently play at Falkirk’s Firhill Stadium while their new more purposeful Lesser Hampden stadium, in the shadows of their fomer home is completed. The switch is working well so far as they sit top of the league after home wins against fellow high flyers Cove Rangers (2-0) and more recently Dumbarton (3-0), with the only blot on the copybook being a 0-0 draw with Airdrie last time out. Visitors Peterhead have found life in League One more difficult since their promotion in the 2018/19 season, particularly away from their Balmoor home. Three defeats out of three on the road this season, with 6 goals conceded is just a continuation of the away day jitters that have plagued the Blue Toon since their return to the third tier, and I can only see one result here on Saturday. Good luck to you all.