GWs 27 & 28 – Review

Well, the second midweek round of 2021 got off to an awful start – and it didn’t get much better as it went on! There really weren’t too many positives to talk over in all honesty, so I’ll try to keep it short and sweet!

Ella Norman overcame the odds to make it to the top of the Weekly Global League table for the second time this season. Astonishingly, she managed this with both Inverness Caledonian Thistle (31 selections) and Livingston (42) on x3 and x5 both having their matches postponed! Celtic (57) and Oxford City (21) each bagged 4 goals and were wisely chosen as Ella’s x7 and x8, to yield a fantastic 60 points, the bulk of her final total of 82. Ella bested this terrible gameweek’s average 10 times over, with 47% of players also surpassing the lowly average of just 8 points! Although that’s 8 points more than many of you scored……

A sickening 33 minus scores answers for that abysmal average and included nine minus 40s and two minus 60s!! 14 of those negative scores came from picks of Manchester Utd (54 total selections) on x2, who annoyingly waited until extra time to score against West Ham. Too little, too late springs to mind! We should all know by now that ET counts for nothing in this game! Another five minuses came by way of a preposterous Newport County (49 total) 0-1 home defeat to relegation-threatened Southend Utd, arguably the shock result of the round.

As for the Perfect 7, Salford City (0 selections) and MK Dons (just the five) were the other teams to net 4 goals, as well as both Everton and Tottenham Hotspur (only a combined 10 selections!) in that topsy-turvey Merseyside FA Cup tie, with the Toffees fifth and winning goal not counting here as it came in ET. So it was all 4 goal teams for the midweek P7, apart from x2 where any 3 goal side was enough. At 138, the P7 total was the lowest its been for many a week!

As for the most selected sides in the midweek round, it was Manchester City (92 total picks) who dominated the scene, being most popular on x2, x7 and x8. Rivals Man Utd stopped many of your scores in their tracks, being the most picked x3 side, while Portsmouth occupied x4 and x5, with Torquay Utd at x6……a 92nd minute equaliser against Wealdstone saving the day for some of you there!

Fast forward a few day and the weekend’s Ultimate Goals action was very reminiscent of many players’ midweek misery. We had a fifth gameweek in a row with no one reaching Club 100, quite astounding! Let’s get into the analysis……

We’ll kick off with Ian Mee’s table-topping score of 90 points, an impressive haul in testing circumstances! Most of Ian’s score came from his x3 and x4 slots, where 6 goal Watford (27 selections) and 5 goal Dorking Wanderers (25 picks) reeled in a collective 38 points. A smattering of 1, 2 and 3 goal sides made up the rest of Ian’s matrix, which could so easily have been topside of 100 considering both of the named Perfect 7 sides feature in his lineup!

The top scorer’s tally only made up 55% of the deceivingly difficult Perfect 7, which topped-out at 163 at the weekend, thanks to a plethora of teams bagging 4 goals. You could have gone for Hamilton Academical (just 2 picks), Norwich City (13), Sunderland (4), Oxford City (only 3 selections) and Arsenal (13). A relatively low amount of picks for these sides, combined with some unexpected scorelines, left the average score at another disappointing total of 12 points. 53 of you backed Cambridge Utd, but were let down by their goalless draw with…….yep, relegation-threatened Southend Utd!! The very same team who caused no shortage of misery in the midweek round! But surely the biggest shock of all came in west London, with Brentford’s (63 picks) 2-0 home defeat at the hands of Barnsley (a single selection). That result gave us 9 minus scores straightaway, alongside those five who put Cambridge Utd at x2.

There were a total of 32 scores in the red in GW 28, with seven minus 40s and two nasty minus 60s for the second gameweek running, which really brought that average down. As for the most picked matrix its a fairly familiar sight. Manchester City (88 picks) only occupy the x2 spot this time, with Manchester Utd (84) on x3, x6 and x7 and Rangers on x8, the most picked side overall. Oxford Utd (70) were most popular on x5, while Brentford’s Barnsley bruising caused havoc, with the Bees being most picked on x4 and stopping 15 of you from reaching your higher multipliers.

That’s your fill this week, it has been a busy one with two gameweeks to report on. Remember there are always early kick-offs to choose from, so get your selections in well before the Saturday deadline if you want to take full advantage, and always check your fixtures haven’t been postponed! This weekend Chelsea travel to Southampton and Brentford look to put things right at Coventry City, while Gillingham host Bristol Rovers early in League One and Exeter City entertain Grimsby Town in League Two. Good luck!

-Sam Brooke-Wilkinson