April already?! Not as much to write about this week with Easter having had it’s usual impact (not bad, just not normal!), fingers crossed for a return to normal for next week.
LEAGUE NEWS
Spaces are starting to become a premium in our current leagues, so if you’re not currently playing but want to get started, or do currently play but fancy doubling (or trebling) up now the brighter, hopefully warmer nights are here, you best get in touch.
The BRAND NEW WEDNESDAY LEAGUE started this week, but due to a couple of surprise drop outs we were left with a couple of spaces, one of which has been filled, so we currently have ONE SPACE for an immediate start.
We are also in a position where the final space for teams for the new MONDAY LEAGUE which starts on 23rd April will probably not be available for long, with a few teams hovering around. Get your name on that space now otherwise it will be gone.
We remain determined to find a way to add a 5th division to our SUNDAY LEAGUE in May, so if you play 11’s and want to keep sharp during the summer, get involved. We’ve already potentially got 5 teams lined up and can get friendlies going for any teams while they wait for a space.
FOR MORE INFO ON ANY OF THE ABOVE, FILL IN A ‘JOIN A LEAGUE’ FORM ON THE HOMEPAGE OR CALL OR TEXT 07809252658
WEDNESDAY LEAGUE
The first week of the new Wednesday league season dropped on the same night as the first leg of Liverpool v City in the Champions League, so we were as always pleasantly surprised by the turnout of our Wednesday teams. Sadly we lost Magpie FC and Sevilla Lacatalent at the end of the previous season, so with a space still to fill we had two games on this week. Stockport Eagles, Polish Army and Exeter Gently could barely be split in the race for second place last season, and they were all looking to get the new season off to a winning start. Eagles faced Wellspring on the opening night, and it quickly became clear that they were going to get off to a winning start as Warren Yeo, Ray Donnelly and Matty Aked gave them a three goal lead in the first 10 minutes. That lead was doubled by the break as Paul Waugh, Connor Harding and Aked added to that early flurry of goals. It didn’t get any better for Wellspring in the second half as they played their 4th game in 4 nights, as Donnelly added 4 more, Yeo and Waugh two, and Harding the other as Eagles ran out 15-0 winners. The game between Exeter (fresh with their new Instagram page, go give them a follow…..) and Polish Army was always likely to be a much tighter affair, but the Poles started much the stronger as Michal opened the scoring on 5 minutes before Dominik added two more in a minute half way through the opening period. Michal’s second made it 4-0, and Marcin made it 5 after just 20 minutes. Mehrad Torkian pulled one back for Exeter before the break, and there was a glimmer of hope for an impressive comeback when Kristian Igo made it 5-2 6 minutes after the restart. Michal got his third two minutes later, and that killed off any chance of an Exeter revival, as the Army saw the game out for a 6-2 win.
ONE OF THE TWO SPACES HAS BEEN FILLED, SO ANY NEW TEAM JOINING FOR NEXT WEEK WILL STILL BE ABLE TO CATCH UP THE MISSED FIRST GAME. DO IT NOW…..!
SUNDAY LEAGUE
For an Easter Sunday, one of the days of the year where we anticipate more than a few teams having issues fielding a team, the turnout wasn’t too bad and it included the Sunday Classico as Insole desperately needed a win over Kinky Slipper to keep the title race interesting at the half way point. Joe Lailey gave Kinky the lead in the 10th minute, but two goals in three minutes in the final 5 minutes of the half from Aaron Campbell and Kyle Clarke put Insole 2-1 up approaching the break. Jordan Hutchinson made it 2-2 in the stroke of half time, but they were behind again 5 minutes into the second period when Brad Street scored. Bizarrely we then had a goal from Kinky ‘keeper Luke Braden with 10 minutes left to have us set up for a big finish, and in that final 10 it was Insole who nicked it thanks to Matthew Atkinson’s goal 4 minutes from time. Insole now lead the division by three points from Kinky and Duno, with both of those teams having a game in hand on the leaders. It’s going to be interesting……
Real Maskid will be expecting to be part of the mix up in the top flight next season, and they looked to continue their stroll towards the Premiership with a win over a Wellspring side who may have been a little the worse for wear following their escapades of the previous evening. Either way there’s not much point dwelling too much on this one, as 8 goals from Darren McConnell, 6 from Jack McConnell and Kieran O’Connell, three from Jake Morrey and two from Jordon Connell were just about enough to see off the goals from Mike Devitt, Jake Hamilton and Chris Murray. That’s 25-3 for those of you who didn’t have access to a calculator. The battle already seems to be for second place, with just two points separating second and bottom before this week’s games kicked off, and unsurprisingly both of them were closer than the Maskid one. A fast start in the Inter Row Z v McMuffin Men game saw three goals in 4 minutes from Brandon Byers-Wilkes (2) and Ray Donnelly put Inter 3-1 up by the 10 minute mark after Sam Delgado had given McMuffin Men an early lead. It was 3-2 at the break as Ryan Bradley pulled one back half way through the opening period, and they turned the game back in their favour when Mark Bailey and Jack Searle scored in the first 6 minutes of the second period. Donnelly’s second 14 minutes from time sent us into the final 10 minutes at 4-4, and his third with 6 minutes left was enough to give Inter a hard fought win. The Championship had a full house of games this week, and El Caliente were looking to bounce back from last week’s heavy defeat against a Step Brothers team who went into this week’s games in second spot. Danny Robinshaw gave Caliente the lead in the 7th minute, and despite Chris Moore producing a moment of magic to put the Brothers level halfway through the period, Caliente lead 3-1 at the break as Nathaniel Odysseus-Kingsley and Ross Grealey scored in the last 10 minutes of the half. After some half decent form of late this was a bad night for the Brotherhood, and two more goals from Fidelis Eberegbe and Grealey in the final 10 minutes put the cap on an impressive win for Caliente, who join Inter on 7 points at the half way point of the season. Point of note, every game in the Championship has been played in the opening 5 weeks of the season, with 8 of the 15 games played ending with two goals or less between the teams. Maskid are runing everything in this division……
On the flip side there were no League One games played this week……
A couple of games survived in League Two this week, including struggling Deportivo Lack Of Talent taking the drop down for the remainder of the campaign to help them get through with injuries etc causing them issues. Top of the table FC Stront Bakken were up against SK Six this week as they looked to keep their promotion campaign on track. They didn’t get off to the ideal start as Steve Blunsten gave SK the lead in the 10th minute, but they quickly turned it round with two goals from Declan Matthews in the next 4 minutes. Blunsten got a second 9 minutes from half time to make it Desmond, but the Bucket Boys had a two goal lead at the break as Matthews and Shaun Jemison scored in the final 5 minutes. SK remained well in this one, and Max Blunsten pulled one back for them three minutes after the restart, before Steve made it 4-4 with his third with 16 minutes left to play. Matty Aked scored the 9th and final goal of the game for Stront Bakken two minutes later as the leaders make it 5 out of 5 in the first half of the season. Deportivo’s first game back at this level was against a Rooneytunes team who had threatened to leave us in the last few weeks, but couldn’t resist the urge to get their weekly Ballers fix. They lead 2-1 at the break thanks to goals from Cian Gillespie and Connor Atkinson, with Ben Proctor scoring a debut goal for Deportivo in response. Rooneytunes held onto their lead into the final quarter of an hour before Proctor’s second of the game made it 2-2. Deportivo took control in the final 10 minutes, and goals from Brad Peet, Ashley Ellwood and Rhys Moult were enough to see Deportivo’s return to league action end with a win.
Kipsta Cobras took on Stockport Eagles in a friendly this week with both teams fielding patched up sides. Kipsta ran out 6-3 winners in a competitive game, with one of their ‘guests’ Phil Carroll scoring three.
THE REGULAR SUNDAY LEAGUE IS FULL, BUT WE ARE STILL LOOKING TO ADD A 5TH DIVISION IN FROM MAY, SO GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS.
MONDAY LEAGUE
A couple of Championship games and a friendly survived the Bank Holiday, with FC Rhino Ket looking to continue their mission to be part of next season’s top division against a Nice Buns team who were short of a couple of regulars this week. They fell behind to Charlie Williamson’s early goal, but swiftly hit back with goals from Jake Shaw, two from Jack Needham and another from Louis Moore before we’d reached the halfway point of the opening period. Buns hit back though and three goals in 4 minutes, two from Jimmy Williamson, the other from Charlie had us level at 4-4 heading into the break. Rhino Ket tried to make the break again at the start of the second period as Shaw and Moore scored in the opening three minutes of the half, but Paul Cheetham kept Buns in contention with a goal a minute later. Further Shaw and Needham goals sent Rhino into the final 10 minutes with a three goal lead, and they finished the stronger side as Needham and Moore added another couple each before Jimmy of the Williamson clan scored a late consolation. Pique Blinders were playing just their second league game but were hoping to make it two wins from two as they took on struggling Pathetico Madrid. Pathetico looked up for the fight this week, and James Littlewood and Craig Moss gave them a two goal lead in the opening 14 minutes, before Emmanuelle pulled one back for Pique before the break. Liam Needham eased Pathetico two goals in front again 7 minutes into the second half, but Emmanuelle and Kieran Norris drew Pique level with 12 minutes to play. John Peneveyre (we really hope that’s how it’s spelt…..) restored Pathetico’s lead two minutes later, but Pique looked to have nicked a win when Nathaniel Kingsley leveled things up before Ross Grealey put them in front for the first time with just three minutes left. Pathetico picked up their first point in a little while when Littlewood grabbed the 10th and final goal of the game a minute from time, now they just need a little consistency in their player availability to try and build on this unlikely point. Wellspring rocked up again for a friendly this week with Netsix & Chill, and they were involved in a competitive game where a narrow 2-0 half time lead for Netsix turned into a 6-2 full time win for the Chillers as Mike Pinder helped himself to three of the 6.
THERE IS ONE, REPEAT, ONE SPACE LEFT FOR A NEW TEAM AHEAD OF THE START OF THE NEW MONDAY SEASON IN A FEW WEEKS TIME……
TUESDAY LEAGUE
The collective Easter hangover rolled onto Tuesday, with 4 friendlies played on what should have been the catch up week, meaning second place was dictated by forfeit results. Second place is first loser anyway…… In the equivalent of the Tuesday Community Shield Premiership winners Gangs Of Dwight Yorke took on new Championship winners Shaka in a game between two unbeaten teams. The first half was a good competitive game, with Mark Brookes leveling up for Shaka after Aden Jones had given Gangs a second minute lead. Jones quickly restored the Gangs lead, and Warren Yeo made it 3-1 half way through the half, and despite several chances at either end that remained the score at the break. Yeo and Jones added to the lead in the first 7 minutes of the second half, and they restored their 4 goal lead when Connor Harding scored a minute after Brookes had got his second of the game. Brad Street pulled another back for Shaka, but the Premiership winners finished the stronger as Callum Jones grabbed two, Aden Jones his 4th and Yeo his third to seal a 10-3 win. Black Jack took on Inter Row Z as we try to work out what division everyone should go in next season given that the Championship was a brand new league. Black Jack pulled it back to 2-2 after 7 minutes as Jack Roberts and Ryan Alderson turned things around after Joe Fletcher and Callum Donnelly had given Inter a two goal lead inside the first 4 minutes. Inter regained control and goals from Donnelly, Calvin Alexander and Fletcher saw Inter into the break 5-2 up. Alderson got the first goal of the second period to reduce the arrears, but two more from Callum Donnelly and another from namesake Ray meant that Roberts second of the game two minutes from time was just a consolation. It looks a little early for these two teams to be swapping places……. Con Dog have decided to have a name change and go with the wonderful title of Stroke Titty going forward, and they had a very tight game with Turkish Delight this week. Mohannad gave Turkish the lead in the 11th minute, but Sam Tattersall scored just before the break to make it 1-1 at half time. Tattersall put Titty in front two minutes into the second half, but Jake leveled things up again at 2-2 with 18 to play. Despite both teams best efforts this was the final goal of the game, and maybe we need to try and get hold of some of Turkish Delight’s lads surnames…. Beercalona’s latest chance to pick up a first win came against Wellspring and they got off to a great start when Scott Williams put them in front in the opening minute. Chris Murray drew Wellspring level on 7 minutes, but three more Williams goals with an own goal in Wellspring’s favour sandwiched inbetween saw Beercalona go into the break 4-2 up. Callum Wilkinson pulled one back two minutes into the second half, before Beercalona collapsed by conceding 5 goals in 6 minutes to go 8-4 down with 15 minutes still to play, Mike Devitt and Murray with two each, and a second own goal adding to their misery. Nathan Wilkinson, Murray and Devitt added further goals in the latter stages to condemn Beercalona to another defeat, but the signs of improvement are there.
THERE’S NO SPACES TO BE HAD IN THE TUESDAY LEAGUE WHEN THE NEW SEASON STARTS NEXT WEEK, SO CAST YOUR EYES ELSEWHERE