GW 18 (Boxing Day Bonus) – Review

As usual, we were spoiled with a banger of a Boxing Day here at TUG! I hope you had a great Christmas, but if you’re anything like me then I bet you couldn’t wait for the feast of football served up on the 26th! Let’s get into the analysis of this year’s bumper Boxing Day Bonus…

This season’s BD table-topper was Alan Ball who served up an incredible 140 points, accrued from some tremendous selections. 5 goal Raith Rovers (just two selections) and Lincoln City (35) on x4 and x8 raked in 60 points, while x6 side Torquay Utd (20) hit Yeovil Town for maximum in cricket! Stenhousemuir (60 picks) bagged another four on Alan’s x7, as the goals just kept on flowing…….although all this work would have quickly been undone had Everton not scored fairly late in the day at Sheffield Utd, a slightly risky but ultimately worthwhile x2 pick there. He may have topped the Global Weekly League table, but Alan’s score was only enough to secure 79% of the Perfect 7 total for GW 18. Stranraer (40) and Hearts (35) joined Raith Rovers and Lincoln City in hitting five to fill x4 through to x7, with Torquay Utd occupying x8. Any 4 goal team on x2 and x3 would have brought you to the grand total of 178 and that sweet £7,777 jackpot prize! You could have gone for Maindenhead Utd (0 picks), or Airdrieonians (0 again!) Elgin City (74), Stenhousemuir and Tranent Juniors (yet another 0 picks) from the Scottish Cup fixtures available.

Individual accolades aside, there were some great stats across the board that reflect a large deal of fantastic selection making. Our second highest average score of the season (by just a single point!) reached 74 points, with a massive 60% of you beating that total, and 57 of you bagging triple digit scores (that’s 45% of players!) With only nine of you recording minus scores, this probably has to go down as the best gameweek of the season so far with so many points being scored!

As the selections stats prove, the Scottish Cup fixtures were highly popular and highly rewarding. Edinburgh City were the most chosen side on x3 and x6, while Elgin City were most popular on x5 and x7, as Celtic took x8 spot on the ‘most selected’ matrix – no Rangers to be found with an unusually low 63 selections! Manchester City joined Celtic as the most selected side overall, with 82 picks, and were most chosen as both a banker x2 choice and also as a gateway to those higher multipliers on x4. Interestingly, there were 50 selections of Scottish Cup sides hailing from leagues outside of the ‘normal’ ones available, with Brora Rangers (15 picks) and Kelty Hearts (16) the most selected clubs from that range of teams.

Unfortunately, the number of cancelled fixtures across our featured leagues means we have had to postpone GW 19, which was due to be played on Sunday 27th and Monday 28th of December. With many clubs now reporting confirmed cases of coronavirus and Storm Bella raging across the UK, our fixture list has been dramatically depleted. The good news is we’re almost immediately back in action with our ‘New Year’s Special’ on the 29th and 30th, with an extended deadline of 19:40 on Tuesday evening, so get those selections in early and good luck to you all!

-Sam Brooke-Wilkinson