Another decent week means a nice, long review of the week’s action for everyone to get stuck into.
LEAGUE NEWS
Here’s how things are looking for any new teams wanting get involved in some Ballers action:
TUESDAY LEAGUE: Second division kicking off on Tuesday 6th February. Currently room for two more teams with trial friendlies available over the next couple of weeks
SUNDAY LEAGUE: The brand new Sunday league kicks off on 4th March. With the option of a 5th division still there we will almost definitely find room for any new teams who want to get involved. Again, friendlies are available for anyone wanting to give it a go
MONDAY LEAGUE: We’ll be looking to add a second division to the Monday league at the half way point of the current season, which drops on 12th March. Plenty of time to get some friendlies in to get the lads ready for the competitive stuff……
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANY OF THE ABOVE, COMPLETE A ‘JOIN A LEAGUE’ FORM ON THE HOMEPAGE, OR CALL OR TEXT 07809252658.
TUESDAY LEAGUE
Gangs Of Dwight Yorke are going to take some stopping in the Tuesday league, and they looked to maintain their 100% record against an Inter Row Z team who had drawn all of their games this season. The Gangs record looked to be the one that was going to remain intact as they lead 3-0 at the break thanks to a pair of Rob Brockhurst goals either side of a Connor Harding strike. Harding’s second of the game three minutes into the second period edged Gangs nearer to win number 5 of the season, but a Ray Donnelly goal a minute later kicked a bit of life into Inter. A further two goals from Ryan McAndrew reduced the deficit to one goal with 10 minutes still to play, but an Aden Jones goal a minute later burst their bubble and gave Gangs another win. After an absolute hammering from Gangs last week, Oooze FC hit the pub to do some scouting and pulled in a couple of new players this week. One of those players, Callum Bullock, scored twice in the opening 7 minutes to give them an early grip on their game with Only Kruls & Horses. Marcus Acott pulled one back for Kruls 11 minutes from the break, but another couple for Bullock gave Oooze a three goal lead. James Thornley reduced that lead to two a minute before the break, but their hopes of a second half comeback were dealt a blow by another quickfire double from Bullock. Kruls hit back with a couple of quick goals themselves from Maison Owen and Acott to get it back to 6-4 with 18 minutes still to play, but after a bit of Kruls pressure Phil Parker scored with 7 minutes left to put Oooze out of sight. Bullock grabbed his 7th for good measure, with Sean Martin’s late goal just a consolation for a Kruls teams who have struggled to get going this season. Pathetico Madrid’s first Tuesday league game looked a tough assignment against an Inter Mi Van team who’ve impressed since joining. An early Simon Royle goal for Inter looked like being the only goal of a tight first half before Mike Derbyshire added two more late in the period. Those two goals broke the Pathetico resistance, and Inter added 7 more goals without reply in the second period, Royle with 4 of them, Derbyshire with one and Lee Boshir with a couple.
WE ARE LOOKING FOR NEW TEAMS TO HELP MAKE UP A SECOND DIVISION WHICH WILL KICK OFF ON 6TH FEBRUARY. ONE OFF TRIAL FRIENDLIES ARE AVAILABLE FOR ANY TEAMS WANTING TO GIVE IT A GO.
SUNDAY LEAGUE
This week was the first week of the year when a couple of teams were unable to fulfill their fixtures. Heaven forbid. Of the games that did go ahead the standout fixture was the latest installment of the Sunday Classico as Kinky Slipper took on Insole knowing they could all but end the Champions title hopes with a win. A typically tight first half saw Insole lead at the break through Jack Atkinson’s goal. Kinky leveled early in the second half through Joe Lailey’s close range finish, but Insole were back in front within seconds through Atkinson’s second. Kyle Clarke’s goal 14 minutes from time looked to have sealed the win for Insole, but Kinky hit back in the final 10 minutes as James Radcliffe and Wes Harney scored to make it 3-3 with 6 minutes to play. Harney’s second completed the Kinky comeback to give them a 9 point lead over the seemingly soon to be dethroned Premiership champs. Duno were looking to keep up the pressure on the leaders as they took on El Caliente. A back and forth first half saw Duno lead 5-3 at the break as debutant Steve Eddy and Liam Watson scored two for the title hopefuls and Kieran Norris grabbed a double for Caliente. Duno looked like keeping Caliente at arms length as Eddy got his third to keep them two clear after Jamie Berrisford got one. Duno had suffered a narrow shock defeat to Kipsta last week, and they looked to be stumbling again as Nathaniel Odysseus-Kinglsey got his second and Berrisford another to make it 6-6 with 6 minutes left. Duno nicked all three points with Stevie Whetham’s last minute goal to remain just one point off the leaders. The run in is going to be interesting.
The Team Tom v Under Rated game went down this week, meaning Dench had the chance to move into second place if they could keep up their good recent run of form. The Veterans may have been missing a couple of their regular players, but Dench were ruthless in the way they took advantage. Marc Jagger got 6 and Phil Carroll 4 as Dench romped to a 13-1 win and are very much in the shake up for promotion to the top flight. A pair of strugglers faced each other in the other game of the evening as The McMuffin Men went looking for their first points of the campaign against a Step Brothers side who only had three points on the board, and that was from the last encounter between these two teams. The pointless McMuffins started the better and two Mark Bailey goals gave them an early advantage, but the Brothers hit back to lead at the break thanks to goals from Rob Sheldon, Gaz Fay and Chris Simpson. Sheldon’s second, 6 minutes after the break, gave them a two goal lead as they looked set to double their points tally for the season, but Jack Searle halved the deficit two minutes later. Charley Eyre gave us the potential for a grandstand finish when he leveled things up 5 minutes from time, and it was the McMuffin’s who completed their comeback with Calan Sherer’s winner two minutes from time.
Only one game survived this week in League One, and it saw Inter Row Z take another step towards an inevitable promotion as they hammered SK Dons 17-3. Ryan McAndrew got 7 while Ray Donnelly helped himself to 5, before the game came to an ‘abrupt’ end. Inter are now 6 points clear at the top of the table, and a whopping 13 points clear of third placed Polish Army.
Things are less clear in League Two, as it looked like being any two from three for promotion this season. Two of those teams faced each other as Pathetico Madrid looked to bounce back having picked up just one point from their previous two games, as they went up against Stockport Eagles who had won three on the bounce. The Eagles soared into a two goal half time lead through a pair of Ryan McAndrew strikes, and Ben Waugh looked to have put the game to bed with their third three minutes after the break. Two goals in three minutes threatened to turn this game on his head as Carl Reynolds and James Norton made it 3-2 with 15 minutes still to play, but it was the Eagles who finished the stronger as Waugh and Alecs Pattinson killed the game off before Michael Winn scored two late goals to put a gloss on the final scoreline. Deportivo Lack Of Talent had the chance to leapfrog Pathetico into second place if they could beat struggling Stront Bakken. It took 20 minutes before an own goal broke the deadlock for Deportivo, but Declan Matthews drew the Bucket Boys level two minutes later. Rob Parker grabbed a late goal to send Deportivo into the break with a lead, and a second own goal in the second period clinched a hard fought win for Deportivo as they look for a return to League One. In what could prove to be SFC Club’s final game with us, a team consisting of several irregular players picked up an 8-0 win over Inter Your Sister.
WE ARE APPROACHING THE END OF ANOTHER SUNDAY LEAGUE SEASON, WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF THAT 5TH DIVISION STILL THERE. FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO REGISTER A TEAM, GET IN TOUCH.
MONDAY LEAGUE
A full house of games in the Monday league this week as the new season settles down nicely. The game of the night saw last season’s winners take on last season’s third placed team as AC Milmanchester took on Phantom Brazilians. ACM started like a house on fire and scored three in three minutes as Martin Gordon got two and Kiarno Samms the other to give them an early 3-0 lead. Matt Barton pulled one back for Phantom, but it was 4-1 at the break as Samms got his second. Paul Wilkinson pulled another back early in the second half, but the game looked over as Singleton’s Chris and Jason scored to make it 6-1, before Jason made it 7 with 13 minutes remaining. Phantom didn’t want to give this one up easily, as Barton and Matt Holbrook quickly pulled two back, and as we headed into the final 5 minutes Wilkinson made it 7-4. Samms eased any AC worries with his third three minutes from time, but Phantom got within two as Barton and Wilkinson both completed their hat tricks. Jason Singleton and Simon Hackney scored very late on to ease Milmanchester to a 10-7 win to make it two wins from two at the start of their title defence. Expected Toulouse look set to be ACM’s nearest challengers again, but they faced a Not A Chance side who ran ACM close last week. A lively opening 10 minutes saw Toulouse go 3-1 up as Liam Mottram opened the scoring before Jordan Milne added two more. Waz Akram made it 4-1 before Phil Carroll pulled another back for the Chancers, before they saw their hopes dashed as Callum Wild had to go in goal after picking up an injury while they only had the 6 players available this week. Two more goals for Milne just before the break effectively ended this one as a contest, before Mottram, Milne, Akram and Jack Grundy added goals in the second half to complete a fairly comfortable 10-4 win.
Strikeforce made their first appearance of the season against an FC Rhino Ket side who may have fancied their chances of getting points on the board this week. An entertaining first half saw us go in at the break all square at 3-3 with Louis Moore grabbing two and Jack Needham the other for Rhino Ket, Matthew Ricketts, Matt Pinder and Warren Yeo netting for Strikeforce. It was Strikeforce who struck first in the second half with Craig Oliver adding to an own goal to give them a two goal lead. Needham got a second to keep Rhino Ket in the mix, but two late goals from Pinder and Yeo gave Strikeforce the win. Murder On Zidane’s Floor had a tough opening night against Phantom Brazilians last week, but a good start against Pathetico Madrid saw two goals from Sam Delgado and one each from Ellis Stelfox and ‘Mitch’ give them a 4-0 lead inside the opening 22 minutes. John Peneveyre pulled one back before the break to give Pathetico a bit of hope, and the same player (with the correct spelling) scored a second three minutes into the second period. When Delgado completed his hat trick with 10 minutes remaining this one looked done. Pathetico burst into life in those final 10 though, and a goal from ‘Dale’ followed by two more from Peneveyre in a 4 minute spell made it 5-5. Peneveyre grabbed his 5th two minutes later and Pathetico had claimed the most unlikely of victories to get their season off and running.
WE ARE TWO WEEKS INTO THE NEW MONDAY LEAGUE, AND BY WEEK 7 WE WILL BE LOOKING TO ADD ANOTHER 4 TEAMS IN TO MAKE UP A SECOND DIVISION. GET IN TOUCH TO REGISTER, FRIENDLY GAMES ARE AVAILABLE IN THE MEANTIME.
WEDNESDAY LEAGUE
It felt really good to have a full turnout on a Wednesday again, but some things don’t change. Michu At De Gea Ba (formerly Ruud van Ni-Ste-Lloyd) picked up their trophies from last season and look set to retain their title as they went into this week’s game with Exeter Gently with a 6 point lead at the top of the table. They ensured that that would be the least their lead would be with a dominant display from the opening whistle as they shared the goals around with Paul Rice scoring 4, Adam Porter, Jamie Longworth and Ian Davies with three, Matt Barton with two and Michael Jennison the other as they ran out 16-1 winners. Magpie returned to Ballers action with a win last week against new team New Team, but this wee’s game with Stockport Eagles looked like a good one on paper. After a goal in the opening minute from Ben Waugh gave Eagles the lead, the only other goal of the half came from Ryan McAndrew to double that lead 6 minutes before the break. His second a minute after the restart meant it was a long way back for Magpie, and Connor Harding made it an impossible task with another couple to make it 5-0 with 14 minutes to play. Magpie kept going and managed to pull a couple of goals back in the final 10 minutes to make the scoreline a little more respectable, but the Eagles pick up a win that sees them stay second in the table. Polish Army were back in town after missing a week due to injuries and gave New Team their second Ballers game. It looked like being two defeats from two for the new boys after Mateusz, Michal and Marcin gave the Poles a 3-0 lead, but Jake Riley did pull one back 4 minutes from the end of the first period. Mateusz second two minutes later restored the three goal lead at the break, but New Teamfired back with a pair of Sam Melling goals in the first 4 minutes of the second period. It was all to play for when Daniel McDonald leveled things up 13 minutes from time, but as with last week the new boys ran out of steam in the latter stages, and three goals from Michal meant that Polish Army edged this one 7-4.
THE WEDNESDAY LEAGUE REMAINS FULL! FORTUNATELY WE HAVE THREE OTHER NIGHTS YOU CAN LOOK AT IF YOU WANT TO REGISTER A TEAM!