Everything seems to be going rather well! The highly anticipated Tuesday Championship started this week, spaces are filling up nicely for the new Monday Championship which starts in March, and the new Sunday league is looking good for when that starts on 4th March. Plus we only had United playing this Wednesday, which didn’t have anywhere near the impact that Valentine’s Day had last week. Whisper it, but we even saw the sun this week……

LEAGUE NEWS

The NEW TUESDAY CHAMPIONSHIP started this week, but there’s still ONE SPACE there to be had by any new team wanting to get involved.

The next full new league to start will be our ever popular SUNDAY LEAGUE, which will be kicking off on 4TH MARCH. We currently have 4 divisions, a 5th could be added to put us at absolute capacity, so SPACES ARE AVAILABLE for any new or returning teams who want to get involved. Friendlies are available on Sunday 25th February for anyone wanting to get a game under their belts before the big kick off.

We will be adding an extra division to the MONDAY LEAGUE on the 12TH MARCH, and with 4 of the 6 slots already full, we have SPACES AVAILABLE for TWO MORE TEAMS. Friendlies are available for any new teams wanting to get a few games in before it kicks off.

There are plenty of ways to get hold of us, but from here the easiest thing to do is click on the ‘Join A League’ tab on the homepage, fill in some details and we’ll be in touch!

SUNDAY LEAGUE

The first of two catch up weeks ahead of the start of the NEW SUNDAY SEASON WHICH KICKS OFF ON 4TH MARCH (we might mention this a few more times in the next couple of weeks) didn’t really see anything finalised which wasn’t already sorted. Kipsta Cobras (or the Kipsta Allstars as they should have been known this week) should have given Kinky Slipper a guard of honour onto the pitch this week, but instead they had the cheek to take an early lead through a Warren Yeo header. Kinky weren’t up for letting their season fizzle out, and they’d leveled it up before the break as Kyle, who’s surname we should really know by now, scored 8 minutes from half time. The champs were in front two minutes after the break through Rob Cresswell’s goal, and they ran away with it in the final 10 minutes as Cresswell, Wesley Harney, Joe Lailey and Jordan Hutchinson scored to ensure Kinky finished the season unbeaten.

Having slipped to a shock defeat to The McMuffin Men last week, Dench were looking to get back to winning ways against a recently improved Step Brothers. That improvement looked like it might continue into a third straight win when Chris Moore put them in front in the 4th minute, but Callum Wild’s equiliser two minutes later was added to by three more from Marc Jagger and two from Phil Carroll as Dench went into the break 6-1 in front. Tom and Dom Cioffi got the first goals of the second period to reduce the deficit to three with 12 minutes left, but Dench killed this one off in the final stages with two more Callum Wild goals and a late Jonny McAuley finish putting this one to bed. With Team Tom not playing a league game this week, the title will come down to the final week, with Dench leading the way with a considerable goal difference advantage. The McMuffin Men were looking to build on last week’s impressive win against The Veterans in what was a relegation 6 pointer. A tight first half saw just the two goals, both going the way of The McMuffin’s with Charley Eyre grabbing both. The Veterans halved that lead 6 minutes into the second half through an cracking Egg strike. Chances came and went at both ends, but it was The McMuffin’s that ran away with it in the final 13 minutes. Sam Delgado grabbed their third, before Eyre and Dustin Lizaba added two more in the final 10 minutes. Having come desperately close to gaining promotion to the Premiership last season, The Veterans look like heading the other way this season.

Wellspring and Polish Army will be in different divisions next season after Wellspring made a decent fist of trying to keep up with Inter Row Z at the top of the table. They needed a ridiculously unlikely score line to give them the title, and from the start it seemed that just winning the game wouldn’t be a straightforward task as early goals from Pawel and Jay Berrisford meant we went into the break at 1-1. Pawel restored the Polish lead, but again they held that lead for barely a minute before Charlie Bridge drew Wellspring level. Grzegorz put the Army in front for a third time 16 minutes from time, but two Berrisford goals put Wellspring in front for the first time with 8 minutes left. It was their turn to let a lead go as Mateusz scored the final goal two minutes later to end an entertaining game all square at 4-4. FC AOTS promotion hopes ended last week, but they were still playing catch up and had two games this week. They hammered SK Dons just a few weeks ago, but a personnel change for the Dons has brought about an improvement in results, and they raced into a 6 goal lead at the break as Paddy Bannister scored three, Joe Marsland two and Kyle Norris one. Bannister made it 7, 7 minutes into the second period, before Adam Atherton briefly threatened a ridiculous comeback with a 6 minute hat trick. The Dons killed the game off as Marsland, Bannister and Matthew Richardson added three more to their total, before Atherton grabbed his 4th as a consolation in the final minute. They had a second chance to pick up a win this week against a Rooneytunes team who’d lost their last 4 games, but it looked like being more of the same in a bad week for AOTS as goals from Ashley Taylor, Cian Gillespie and Chris Sinclair put Rooneytunes three up in the first 17 minutes. Scott Robinson pulled one back for AOTS just before the break, and goals from Tom Dennerly and Ben Jamieson early in the second half meant we were all square at 3-3 with 20 minutes to play. Rooneytunes were the stronger side in the second half as AOTS began to feel the effects of the two games, and Sinclair grabbed two more before Jack Hodkinson added two of his own to put Rooneytunes 4 up. Adam Atherton pulled one back for AOTS but Rooneytunes finished with a flourish as Sinclair, Hodkinson, Taylor and Aiden Conway all scored in the last 5 minutes to give Rooneytunes a comfortable winning margin.

Everything was already wrapped up in League Two, with both promotion spots filled. Deportivo were missing a couple of regulars this week as they took on bottom of the table FC Stront Bakken, who were hoping for nothing more than to not finish bottom of the lot. Declan Matthews gave the Bucket Boys the lead in the 8th minute, before an otherwise tight half burst into life with two more Stront Bakken goals in the last couple of minutes through Matthews and Lukas Voveris. It obviously wasn’t Deportivo’s night, and Matthews completed his hat trick 5 minutes into the second period, before Darius (just Darius) grabbed three of his own in the final 12 minutes with Patrick Mitchell grabbing another as the Bucket Boys ended the season on a high note with an 8-0 whitewash of one of the promoted teams. Isn’t football brilliant……?! A defeat for Inter Your Sister would leave them in bottom position in the bottom division, just months after they were in the top division, and they faced a Pathetico Madrid team this week who’ve reverted back to their old ways of starting a season well before the wheels fall off towards the end. Inter’s new boy Brandon Byers-Wilkes gave them the lead in the 6th minute and Matthew Kealy doubled their advantage on 17. John Lodge pulled one back for Inter a couple of minutes later, and it was 3-2 at the break as Kealy scored his second before Adam Norton pulled one back on the stroke of half time. The pattern continued at the start of the second half as Gaz Sumner put Inter twoup again, only for Carl Reynolds to quickly pull one back again for Pathetico. A pair of quickfire goals from Kealy gave Inter a three goal advantage with 13 to play, and Byers-Wilkes grabbed another couple and Craig Johnson another as Inter raced into a 6 goal lead. Norton got his second in the 48th minute, but Inter had the final word as Dave Smythe scored their 10th to mean that Inter avoided bottom spot. They should probably stick with this exact same team going into the new season…….

We had a couple of friendlies for those teams who were without a league game this week, and Insole beat Stockport Eagles for the second week in a row by 6 goals to 2, while Inter Row Z made us consider what division they should be going in for the new season as they beat Premiership-bound Team Tom 7-2

THE NEW SUNDAY LEAGUE KICKS OFF ON 4TH MARCH. SPACES ARE AVAILABLE AS WE LOOK TO ADD A 5TH DIVISION TO OUR BIGGEST LEAGUE NIGHT. FRIENDLIES ARE AVAILABLE THIS WEEKEND FOR ANY TEAMS WANTING TO GET A GAME UNDER THEIR BELTS BEFORE THE SEASON STARTS!

MONDAY LEAGUE

City’s final action of the FA Cup for this season affected the turnout this week, but the top two were in action and we welcomed another new team to the Ballers family this week. Expected Toulouse are in the box seat in terms of having a 100% record, but it was AC MIlmanchester who went into this weeks fixtures top of the table as a result of having played more games, and they were first up against a Murder On Zidane’s Floor team who were still pointless. In terms of having no points, rather than there being no point to them. It seemed unlikely, even before kick off, that they would get anything from this one, and when Jason Singleton put ACM in front in the second minute it looked like being a long night. They held on in there and nearly made it to the break just the one behind, but Martin Gordon doubled the AC advantage just before half time. Kiarno Samms made it 3-0 5 minutes into the second half, but Murder tried to keep going and had chances of their own. Samms grabbed another two to make it 5 with 7 minutes left, and Simon Hackney and Samms finished off the win with goals in the last couple of minutes. Given the two teams respective records so far this season, it could have been worse…… Strikeforce had all kinds of trouble putting a team out this week, as they beg, stole and borrowed players from anywhere and everywhere, so Expected Toulouse were probably expected to pick up a sizable win to continue their quest for a first Monday Premiership title. The first half didn’t exactly go with the form book as Jay Berrisford put Strikeforce in front in the 6th minute, but Jordan Milne scored two in a minute to turn things back in Expected’s favour. Phil Carroll leveled things up again for Strikeforce, but Toulouse eased two goals in front as Liam Mottram and Wasim Akram found the net. It was back to one at the break as Berrisford got his second, but the second half was a completely different story. Milne and Akram scored to put Toulouse three up, and Milne grabbed three more, Akram and Mottram two more, Jack Grundy a second half hat trick and Niall Hillen just the one, as they ran riot with just a Carroll goal for Strikeforce in return. For those who couldn’t be bothered adding all them up, that’s a final score of 17-4. We welcomed Nice Buns to the Ballers Monday league, and their opening game was a friendly against Team Randommer. The new team took a little time to adjust to the Ballers game, and after they fell behind early, three goals from Tom Dempsey and one apiece from Jimmy Williamson and Paul Cheetham were enough to see them pick up a 5-3 opening night win. Always good to start with a win……

THE NEW MONDAY CHAMPIONSHIP KICKS OFF ON 19TH MARCH. CURRENTLY THERE ARE TWO SPACES AVAILABLE FOR NEW TEAMS, WITH FRIENDLIES AVAILABLE FOR ANY NEW TEAMS WANTING TO GIVE IT A GO OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS. GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS.

TUESDAY LEAGUE

And then there was two! As planned, the Championship returned to the Tuesday league this week, with a couple of games played. First up the Premiership continued with leaders Gangs Of Dwight Yorke taking on a recently improved Only Kruls & Horses. It looked like being business as normal when Gangs went into half time three goals up as Jimmy Leeson added two goals to Callum Jones’ opener. Kruls started the second half strongly and pulled a couple back in the first 5 minutes of the half through Shane Zammit’s two goals. Leeson’s third eased Gangs two clear again, and Connor Harding’s goal 7 minutes from time looked to have finihed this one off. Sean Martin gave Kruls brief hope of staging a late comeback, but Jones got his second a minute later to make it 8 wins from 8 for Gangs this season. Inter Row Z and Inter Mi Van had the chance to overtake Kruls if either of them could pick up the win from their game this week, and it looked like being Row Z when they went two up in the first 6 minutes through Michael Win and Harry Shipton goals. When Callum Donnelly made it three on 16 minutes they looked well on their way towards the win, but Gary Wood pulled two back for Mi Van in quick succession to make it 3-2 heading into the break. The second half was tight, and we headed well into the final 10 minutes with the score line remaining the same, but it was Row Z that completed the win as Blazej Serwski and Shipton scored in the final few minutes to complete a hard fought win.

The Championship kicked off with a couple of games featuring new and returning teams. Despite doing pretty well since signing up, we took the decision to put Blake’s 7 in this division and they faced a Shaka side who’d lost their two friendlies in the run up to the big kick off. This one started off slowly, but when Shaka hit the front 7 minutes from half time through Liam Paull’s goal, they added to it three more times before the break as Andrew Cadwallader, Krisstian Ebanks-Perrin and Mark Brookes looked to have taken the game away with 25 still to play. Paull got his second a minute into the second half and it was well and truly over when Matthew Pownall made it 6 with 18 minutes left. They were in with a sniff of a clean sheet, but an own goal 15 minutes from the end ended those hopes, but Shaka still pick up an impressive first win when it counts. Black Jack were back for their second game following their debut friendly last week, and were taking on the returning LQ FC on the opening night. LQ started the stronger, with Danny Atherden and Matthew Brierley giving them an early two goal lead, but Black Jack pulled one back a couple of minutes later. George Springer restored LQ’s two goal lead in the 9th minute, but Black Jack hit back with two James Davies goals to make it 3-3 on 20 minutes. Brierley nudged LQ back in front but that lead lasted barely a minute as Davies got his third of the half to make it 4-4 at half time. Atherden put LQ in front again a minute into the second half, but again the lead didn’t last long as Harri Budd leveled it up again. Alex Heggie and Ryan Alderson scored scored for each side in the space of a few seconds and it was 6-6 with 20 minutes still left to play. Black Jack finished the stronger, and after Davies put them in front 13 minutes from time, they killed it off with further goals from Budd and two for Jack Roberts to end a highly entertaining opening night from these two teams.

THERE’S A RUMOUR GOING AROUND THAT THE TUESDAY LEAGUE, NEW CHAMPIONSHIP AND ALL, MIGHT BE FULL! YOU CAN ASK US IF YOU WANT TO JOIN, BUT WE MIGHT BE NUDGING YOU TOWARDS SUNDAY OR MONDAY FOR THE TIME BEING!

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

United being in Champions League action didn’t affect any of the Wednesday teams this week, and having seen their performance we’re sure everyone was happy they played! Michu At De Gea Ba already have the title wrapped up for a second season, but Stockport Eagles gave them a decent game first time around. It looked unlikely that they would be able to repeat that after Adam Porter and Paul Rice put Michu two up in the first 4 minutes, and even more unlikely after Matt Barton made it three and Ian Davies added two more just before the break. Jamie Longworth made it 6-0 7 minutes into the second half, and as we went into the final 15 minutes we looked like adding the unlikely name of Michael Jennison to our Golden Gloves leader board. Ben Waugh’s goal 14 minutes from time ended that chance, but Davies, Porter and Longworth completed the scoring in a comfortable win for the leaders. The only thing to fight for in the Wednesday league now is second place, and Exeter Gently found themselves in the extremely unlikely position of being able to challenge for this, especially if they could beat the team currently holding that position, Polish Army. Coming off the back of three straight wins, Exeter went in front on 6 minutes through Mike Lavin’s goal, but Pawel drew the Poles level on 13. Brad Robison restored Exeter’s lead two minutes later, and they were 3-1 up when Mehrad Torkian scored three minutes from the break. IN a game we expected to be tight, it was back to one before the break as Marcin scored a minute later, but Exeter looked to have made the decisive move early in the second period as Tom Harrison and Torkian scored in the opening 6 minutes to give them a three goal advantage. Marcin got his second with 11 minutes to play, and when Grzegorz scored with 4 minutes left we were in for a big finish, but Exeter held on to go level on points with this week’s opponents in third place, despite their -19 goal difference! On a night where one Sevilla failed to pick up a win, our own Sevilla Lacatalent went looking for their first Ballers win against Magpie FC, who have had a dip in form of late. They gave themselves a good chance of making that happen in the opening 25, as goals from Mike Witter, Darius Forbes, David Witter and an own goal saw them go into the break 4 goals up. Magpie needed to get the first goal of the second period to have any chance of getting something from this one, and they did as Milosz Zawila scored two minutes after the break, but Jake Riley got Sevilla’s 5th three minutes later. Radoslaw Leszczak sent us into the last 12 minutes at 5-2, but Sevilla finished stronger as goals from Riley and two from Ryan Wall gave Sevilla that long awaited first win.

THE WEDNESDAY LEAGUE REMAINS FULL. THERE AREN’T MANY SPACES TO BE HAD ACROSS THE 4 LEAGUE NIGHTS, SO IF YOU WANT TO TAKE ONE YOU BEST NOT MESS AROUND!