As a temporary replacement for the individual match reviews at this busy time of year, we will put a little more meat on the bones of the weekly round up. We will also mix things up a little in terms of the order in which we review the leagues

LEAGUE NEWS

First things first, we’ve got our two Charity Christmas tournaments coming up:

Cup 1: Thursday 21st December, 7pm kick off, in support of Shelter

Cup 2: Thursday 28th December, 7pm kick off, in support of Stroke Information

Minimum donation of £5 per player to take part, get in touch for details.

The new Wednesday league starts NEXT WEEK, with ONE SPACE currently available.

The next new league after that will be the MONDAY LEAGUE, which kicks off on 22ND JANUARY 2018. The ideal time to get back into it after the festive period, with friendlies available in the first couple of weeks of the year. Fill in a ‘Join A League’ form on the home page to register your interest.

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

With Magpie having blown their chances to win the league by losing their last two games, Ruud van Ni-Ste-Lloyd had the chance to steal the title if they could beat Exeter Gently this week. Exeter had pulled a performance out of the bag last week in defeating Magpie, but there was to be no repeat this week as the Ruud boys went into the break 4 goals in front. They could even afford a Phil Coyne missed penalty in the second half as they completely ran away with it, eventually winning 14-0, with Jamie Longworth and Adam Porter helping themselves to 4 goals apiece. Congratulations to Ruud van Ni-Ste-Lloyd, who are the FIRST WEDNESDAY LEAGUE WINNERS! In the other game of the night, Stockport Eagles picked up a 4-2 win over Polish Army in a friendly ahead of the new season.

The NEW WEDNESDAY LEAGUE starts NEXT WEEK! We currently have ONE SPACE AVAILABLE in what has been a fantastic league this season.

TUESDAY LEAGUE

The opening night of the new, slightly restructured Tuesday league season got underway this week with three games being played despite United being at home.

New team Gangs Of Dwight Yorke were given a bit of a bonus as they went up against a Cheadle FC side who had really scrambled around for a team this week. They raced into a 6 goal half time lead, and eventually ran out 12-4 winners as Jimmy Lesson scored 5 and Connor Harding 4. Two other teams who were struggling to scrape a team together this week week were Oooze FC and Wellspring FC, who met for the second week in a row. The team changes affected Wellspring more, as Oooze picked up an 8-3 win to get their season off to a winning start with two goals each for Tom Galbraith, Phil Parker and Josh Armitage. The game of the opening night saw Championship winners Only Kruls & Horses take on Premiership winners Mirror Signal Malouda. It looked like being a one sided affair as Malouda raced into a 4 goal lead in the opening 6 minutes, Kieran Hamilton with two of them. Kruls settled into the game and two Seb Etchells goals saw them claw it back to 5-3 at the break. Kruls continued to knock at the door in the second period and got it back to 5-4 with 15 minutes to play, but a couple of breakaway goals from Jake Dean eased Malouda to a 7-4 win.

There are currently no spaces in the Tuesday league, however we will be looking to get a mini league going in January, so for further details get in touch.

MONDAY LEAGUE

Just a couple of games survived this week as the run up to Christmas begins to kick in, with the big disappointment being the cancellation of the big Premiership clash between Old Reddish FC and AC Milmanchester. Expected Toulouse maintained their position as a potential title challenger as 6 goals from Liam Mottram and 5 from Waz Akram helped them to a comfortable 13-2 win over Strikeforce. We welcomed new boys FC Rhino Ket to the Monday league this week, and though they looked good in spells against Phantom Brazilians, the more experienced side eased to a 14-4 win with Matt Barton also grabbing 6 goals, with Robin Hulme scoring 5. Hopefully back to a better turnout this week!

The NEW MONDAY LEAGUE starts on 22nd January 2018. Currently TWO SPACES AVAILABLE for any new teams looking to get involved.

SUNDAY LEAGUE

A slightly stuttering start to the Sunday Premiership saw just the one game played this week, with Duno looking to make it two wins from two at the start of their debut top flight season. Kipsta Cobras have slightly struggled for numbers of late, and the team they put out this week never really looked likely to pick up any points as Duno took an early three goal lead. They kept Kipsta at arms length throughout the first half and lead 6-2 at the break, before scoring 4 unanswered goals in the second period to make it 6 points from two games with Luke Newsham helping himself to a hat trick. Two own goals didn’t exactly help the Kipsta cause……

A couple of games in the Championship included ‘favourites’ Under Rated taking on Step Brothers and Team Tom and Dench FC getting their seasons underway. Under Rated took early control of their game by going three up in the first 10 minutes. A magic finish from the returning Chris Moore pulled one back for The Brotherhood, but Steven Batho and Colin Stelfox got their second goals of the game before half time to make it 5-1. Step Brothers grabbed the only goal of the second period, but Under Rated maintain their 100% start to the season. Another team with a 100% record is Team Tom, though that is after just one game! They won a hard fought battle with Dench 4-3 as Rob Jordan’s second of the game 7 minutes from time proved to be the difference between the two teams.

We welcomed a new team this week as Rooneytunes (name subject to change!) replaced the departing Exeter Gently. Their first half of Ballers action was a good one as they shared 6 goals with Wellspring FC, who had picked up a narrow win in week one. In the end it was a Lewis Arden penalty 11 minutes from the end that gave Wellspring a 5-4 win that sees them go top, though a goal from Wellspring ‘keeper Jack Kerton in the first half is probably worth a mention. We potentially got things a little wrong with League One last season as a couple of teams were head and shoulders above the rest, but it looks very right this time around as FC AOTS and Inter Row Z also played out a very tight game. 2-2 at half time became 6-6 at full time with neither time ever enjoying a two goal lead. Ray Donnelly scored 5 of the Inter goals, with Eoghan Scott grabbing three for AOTS. Polish Army pulled out a better performance this week as they went 4-0 up by half time against SK Dons, who are struggling to adapt to the higher level of football. The second half was tighter, but three goals from Kamil helped the Poles pick up an 8-3 win and they get their first points on the board for the season.

Old rivals Pathetico Madrid and Stockport Eagles went up against each other with both teams having won their opening game. As is often the case, this was a tight one with Pathetico edging in front 2-1 at the break. A third goal for Pathetico just after the interval was the final goal of the game as Pathetico become the only team with 6 points after two weeks. A big night for SFC Club, who pick up their first Ballers league win in a game where defences weren’t exactly on top. SFC lead 8-3 at the break, and a hat trick in each half from Phil Carroll helped them to a 13-10 win, despite 4 goals from Ryan McAndrew for Inter, who now sit bottom of the bottom division just a few seasons after being in the top flight!

The Sunday league is currently FULL, but there is always the option of adding a 5TH DIVISION as we enter 2018. Get in touch for details.