GW 7 – Review

Back with a bang! After a hectic international week, The Ultimate Goals reintroduced the usual leagues to the mix in GW 7 and boy did they return in incredible style! There was definitely no shortage of goals throughout the divisions, which meant there were plenty of points to go around!

The plethora of high scoring teams/games were there to be taken advantage of, so congratulations to Chris Watterson who did just that and topped this week’s table. Smart selections of in-form and highly chosen Cove Rangers (58 picks) and East Fife (24 picks) on x6 and x7 returned a combined 45 points, with the almost always reliable choices of Manchester City and Liverpool getting Chris’ party started on x2 and x3. However his highest points return came at the New York Stadium as Rotherham hit 6 against a sorry Bolton Wanderers, who continue to suffer heavy defeats on a regular basis. The Millers alone boosted Chris’ score by 48 to a monumental 124, with 2-goal choices of Woking and Leeds making up the difference in his middle order.

Hot on Chris’ tail was Ally Jessop, who now finds himself top of the Global League after another hefty points accrual. Just two points behind this week’s top scorer, Ally touted Peterborough United and Raith Rovers to deliver the goals in TUG’s Ones to Watch section last week, and deliver they did! The Posh hammered Rochdale 6-0 at the London Road Stadium, while Rovers hit 4 against Peterhead in the Scottish League One. Throw in the popular Glasgow Rangers and Cove Rangers, along with the usual suspects Liverpool and Man City, and you’ve got a very impressive 122 points, with only Celtic failing to impress. Chris and Ally joined no less than 19 others in Club 100 this week, a vast improvement on GW 6 where not a single player managed to book a table there. Well done to you all!

A handful of notable BIG scorelines meant that a whopping 53% of you scored above this week’s high average of 49. Whether it was Tottenham (39 picks) smashing Crystal Palace 4-0, Chelsea (just the 12!) hitting 5 to sour Wolves’ 130 year anniversary party at Molineux, or Rotherham, Peterborough and Clyde who all hit 6 this weekend, the goals were flying in! Slightly more surprising results in GW 7 included Barrow comfortably seeing off a rapidly sliding Solihull Moors 3-0 at Holker Street and Wycombe Wanderers failing to find the net at inconsistent Gillingham. Surely the biggest shock of the season so far came at Carrow Road though, where Norwich upset Premier League Champions Manchester City with a 3-2 victory. Whilst the majority of you who picked City will be reasonable satisfied with a 2-goal return, I have to mention that The Canaries got NO picks this week, despite being the surprise package of the Premier League this season. Food for thought!

Inevitably a few of you got it disastrously wrong this week. Minus scores are a near cert on any given week, but it feels like an epidemic of them recently! A shed load of -20s, 4 horrible -40s and 1 miserable -60, condemned 22 of you to the foot of this week’s table, with many of the minus scorers picking out plenty of high scoring teams but making the schoolboy error of failing to lock in a reliable team on x2 and x3………and in Alistair Derrick’s Case x4! Better luck next time Alistair!

So what do you do at the end of a cracking weekend of goal scoring, drama and upsets? Prepare for the next one of course! There are plenty of very tasty fixtures to come next week so get those selections locked in! Enjoy!

– Samuel Wilkinson