GW 33 – Review

As midweek rounds go, gameweek 33 did not dazzle like we hoped it would…….a common theme for this season’s ‘midweekers’. I correctly predicted in the last review that the Club 100 curse would come back to haunt me and was dealt a sorry minus 20 before Wednesday’s fixtures had even kicked off. This game perfectly summed in a nutshell! Let’s see what hand the round dealt you.

Kicking off in usual fashion at the top of the table, with Julie Murray’s strong score of 87 points. Julie found herself top of the pile for the second time this season, thanks to a consistent lineup of well chosen sides. 4 goal Watford (39 picks) and 3 goal Barnsley (38) stood out as the table-toppers’ most prolific teams, while 2 goal sides filled out the rest of an impressive set of selections.

Predictably, Manchester City were the most picked side with 96 selections and whenever the Champions League comes into play Bayern Munich rarely fail to draw in the numbers, with 91 players plumping for the Bavarians, who were also the most popular x8 side. ‘Sure-to-score’ City were most picked on x2 and x3, while 2 goal Stockport County (70 in total) were highly picked on x4, x6 and x7 and Dundee’s (44 picks) solitary goal kept many scores going as the most picked x5 side.

The midweek Perfect 7 left much to be desired, with only Watford and Maidenhead Utd (just one selection!) bagging four times. The rest of the matrix was filled with 3 goal sides to take the P7 to a season low of 120 points. The most picked ‘3-goalers’ included Real Madrid (32 selections) and Barnsley (38), with plenty of 2 goal sides strongly backed as well. However, a howler at home for Cheltenham Town left 30 players (including myself) ruing their decision to back the Robins and gave us four minus scores, with another two coming from Salford City backers. In total there were a disappointing, but not too tragic, 20 minus scores, most of them minus 20s, albeit Simon Foster and Graham Fraser will curse their minus 40s! All this led to an average score of just 18, which 38% of you managed to beat.

That’s all to report from the midweek round of TUG action. It wasn’t one to stick in the memory that’s for sure! The new gameweek is already open for business with one of the early kick-offs featuring Bournemouth v Southampton in the FA Cup, while in the Championship Brentford host Nottingham Forest. Portsmouth take on Ipswich Town in the early League One KO, with Newport County v Leyton Orient and Stevenage v Carlisle getting going at 1 pm in League Two. Let’s hope the weekend brings more goals and more points! Good luck!

-Sam Brooke-Wilkinson