Review – GW 26

Well folks, after a short stint without a weekly review we’re back up and running! Covid proved to be a worthy adversary for the footballing calendar with plenty of fixtures called off over the festive period, making definitive team selecting a minefield of a task. Thankfully, the worst seems to be behind us and we’ve had a near full bill of fixtures over the past couple of weekends, so let’s kick these reviews off once more.

Let us begin by taking a look towards the top of the Weekly Global League Table and Chris Watterson’s admirable score of 124. Paul Rawson came closest to unseating the table-topper with 117 points, but was just missing a goal or two from one of his sides to really challenge for that top spot. Chris’ impressive multiplier matrix boasted two 5 goal sides in the shape of Solihull Moors (25 selections) on x5 and Hearts (57) on x8, who clearly raked in the bulk of his points, as Dover Athletic and Auchinleck Talbot were easily brushed aside by their opponents. 3 goal sides (plus 2 goal Celtic) padded out the remaining multipliers and carried Chris to 1st place glory, not to mention a seat at the head of the table in Club 100!

In total, 18 players joined Chris in the illustrious club in what was a very productive week (for some!), despite an apparent drop-off in goals from the previous two gameweeks. Play-off hopefuls Huddersfield Town (just one pick) were the only side to join Solihull Moors and Hearts in naming themselves in the Perfect 7 matrix, after defeating Reading in a 4-3 thriller. Some comical defending from both sides meant that SIX goals were scored before halftime, making this the ‘bonkers’ game of the round! So the P7 is still yet to be matched and that £7,777 jackpot prize won. It’s not for the want of trying though, as Mr. Watterson’s high score was 88% of the way to perfection – the closest a player has come all season! At a relatively low 141, the Perfect score was there for the taking! 

It wasn’t meant to be, however plenty of players made the most of what was a tasty week on paper, but not quite so easy to navigate! Manchester City (68 selections) failed to produce more than a single goal at Southampton (The Saints backed by 0 players unsurprisingly), while derby day in London dissuaded most players from Chelsea or Tottenham Hotspur, with the fixture attracting just six selections in total. After scoring 19 goals in the space of a week, Fulham only pulled in 15 backers for their clash with Stoke City (1 pick), which ended 3-2, while West Brom (27)  scored three times late on to sink Peterborough Utd. Wigan Athletic, backed strongly with 67 picks, also secured a 3-2 win, while in Scotland Aberdeen (57 picks) and Arbroath (47) each had strong support in TUG and both repaid that faith with 3-0 victories in the Scottish Cup Fourth Round. 

Sixteen of you did have a weekend to forget though, with Arsenal, Bournemouth and MK Dons all fairly popular and all culpable in dishing out some unwanted pain! All of this resulted in an average tally of 36, not bad considering the slump in goalmouth action. Celtic faced off against Alloa Athletic in The Scottish Cup, which obviously helped make them the clear favourites of the gameweek, The Bhoys the most chosen side of the weekend (81 picks), also a very popular choice to score big as the most picked side on both x7 and x8. Manchester City were most popular as the ‘banker’ side on x2, whilst Wigan Athletic made up the most popular x3, x4 and x5 positions. Aberdeen rounded things off as the most picked side on x6.

That’s all for another week. With no Premier League action in GW 27, the round’s early kick-off is limited to Rangers’ trip to Ross County, which I suspect may attract rather a lot of attention! You know what they say about the early games though…..make those selections wisely! 

 Sam Brooke-Wilkinson