There was something in the air this week, something that caused more than a couple of shocks across our league nights. It’s always nice to keep things interesting…..

LEAGUE NEWS

We announced details of our SK BALLERS WORLD CUP this week, but if you missed it here’s the briefest of details:

Heats take place on Sunday’s 3rd and 10th June, with teams being assigned one of the nations from this years World Cup. Group stages and last 16 knockouts will take place over two time slots on each Sunday, with the last 8 qualifying for Finals Day which will take place on World Cup Finals day. For more details see the previous post on the website.

We are still looking at adding the elusive 5TH DIVISION to our SUNDAY EVENING LEAGUE for the new season which begins in late May. This coincides nicely with the end of the 11-a-side season, so to keep playing through the summer months, get in touch. Friendlies are available for any teams wanting to get some games under their belt before the new season starts.

We’ve secured the MUGA pitch on a Monday evening, so while teams wait for a space to come up in the 6-a-side league, 5-a-side friendlies will be available.

We are also looking at the possibility of a space coming up in our ever popular, very reliable Wednesday league. All games at 9pm, so if that time suits you and the lads, give it a go.

For more information on any of the above, get in touch.

SUNDAY LEAGUE

With Kinky Slipper’s impressive win over Duno last week, it looked like we were heading for another scenario of a straight shootout between Kinky and Insole for the Premiership title, and they would open up a 6 point gap to third placed Duno if both of them were to win this week. Part of the reason for this was because Insole were playing Duno, who had been a bit of a bogie team for them since they joined the top flight a couple of seasons ago. 11 minutes were on the clock when Regain Mannion gave Duno the lead, and goals from Calvin Alexander and Liam Watson put them three up within the next 4 minutes. That lead was quickly trimmed back to one when Aaron Campbell scored twice in the next two minutes, and in a breathless first half we were level 5 minutes before the break as Jack Atkinson scored their third in 5 minutes. The goals kept coming, as Watson scored two more in the next two minutes to give Duno a two goal lead again, but they couldn’t hold that lead for more than a minute as Atkinson got his second to make it 5-4 at the break. There was no way the second half was going to be able to maintain the same intensity as the first, but Jack Cope eased Duno two goals up again 4 minutes after the restart. There were no more goals until the final 5 minutes, and the final goal of the game also went Duno’s way as Jake Humphries completed an impressive win for Duno, who keep themselves in the fight in what’s turning into a really good top flight. This gave Kinky Slipper the chance to take control of what’s becoming a difficult league to predict, and they went up against the still fairly new Bangers & Pash in what looked like a game you’d expect them to win. It took 14 minutes for the early deadlock to be broken, and surprisingly the opening goal went to Robbie Fallon of Bangers, and they also got the second 4 minutes from the break through Chris Carroll. A third and 4th quickly followed as Matt Sheehan and Harry Kilmartin both scored to make it 4-0 in what was looking like being not just a massive upset, but also a surprisingly heavy defeat for one of the title challengers. Joe Lailey converted a penalty to get Kinky on the board in the final minute of the half, but with the expectation being that the champions would throw everything at the new boys, it was Carroll’s second 6 minutes into the second half that restored Bangers 4 goal lead. Wesley Harney had been denied on numerous occasions by Pash’ keeper Matt Fitzgerald, but eventually he bagged two in three minutes to make it 5-3 with 13 minutes to go. Rory Kelly stopped the Kinky momentum with another goal a minute later, but Harney kept Kinky in touching distance with his third in 5 minutes to make it 6-4 with 11 to play. Sheehan got his second 5 minutes from time to give Bangers a three goal lead and surely the three points, but Harney scored two more in the dying moments to mean that Bangers had to hold on for the final few seconds. They did hold on, and all of a sudden it’s all to play for again in the top division. Another week, another batch of questions from Team Tom as to how long their Premiership nightmare has to continue…… This week they took on the unpredictable Kipsta Cobras, who are looking like fighting Bangers for 4th place as it stands. Connor Harding gave them an 11th minute lead in this one with what was the only goal of the opening period as Team Tom, helped by a man of the match performance from Rob Longworth in goal, kept things tight in the first half. Harding got his second in the opening minute of the second period, but rather than the floodgates opening, things continued to remain tight going into the final 10 minutes. Matty Aked (we think) and Wayne Reeves added two in a minute before Harding grabbed his third two minutes from time to ease Kipsta to a 5-0 win, which anyone looking at the result on the website may think was a forfeit win……

Real Maskid seem to be playing out the season in full knowledge that they will be joining a very competitive top division next season. In the meantime they had three more games to negotiate, the first of which was against El Caliente, and this one got off to a quick start. Jack McConnell put Maskid in front in the second minute, but Fidelis Eberegbe leveled up a minute later, before an own goal put Real back in front on 7 minutes. Caliente didn’t really do themselves any favours, as they conceded another own goal in the 11th minute to give Maskid a 3-1 lead, which Darren McConnell made 4 three minutes later. Caliente showed a bit of fight, and a goal from Danny King and another from unnamed player brought them back to within a goal 7 minutes from the end of the first half. The deficit at the break was three as Kieran O’Connell grabbed a double in the final 5 minutes of the half, and he added his third a minute after the restart as Maskid edged 4 goals clear. Jack McConnell grabbed 4 more in the final 10 minutes to make it another double figure score for Maskid, with King’s second of the game in the dying seconds nothing more than a consolation for Caliente. The last time Inter Row Z and Step Brothers faced off it ended up as a highly competitive 6-6 draw, one of a host of draws in this division this season. This one didn’t look like ending up as a draw as Inter roared into a 4-0 lead in the first 4 minutes as Ryan McAndrew and Ray Donnelly grabbed a goal each, and Callum Jones a double to put them in immediate control. Step Brothers got a grip as the half went on, and Rob Sheldon pulled one back for them on 15 minutes, but it was 5-1 at the break as Paul Waugh scored three minutes before the interval. The Brothers chances of a second half comeback ended in the opening 7 minutes of the second half as McAndrew and Donnelly added to the Inter total, and though Tom Cioffi pulled one back with 16 to play, Inter fired in another 4 goals in 4 minutes, two from McAndrew and one each from Jack McDonagh and Donnelly. Dom Cioffi grabbed the Brotherhood’s third of the game 6 minutes from the end, but this one was long over and Waugh made it 12-3 to Inter in the final minute to send Inter three points clear in second place. The McMuffin Men went looking for their first win of the season at the 8th attempt against Wellspring FC, despite sitting on 4 points after drawing 4 of their 7 games so far this season! Wellspring hit the front through Jay Berrisford’s 4th minute goal, but Tom Collins put McMuffin Men in the familiar position of being level a minute later. Callum Wilkinson restored the Wellspring lead in the 8th minute, and goals from Lewis Arden and Collins meant it was 3-2 Wellspring after just 10 minutes. Berrisford and Mark Bailey both scored in the space of 60 seconds to keep the Wellspring lead at one, but Bailey, Collins and Charley Eyre scored in the space of 60 seconds to put McMuffin’s in front for the first time at 6-4. That lead was 8-4 at the break as Sam Delgado and Calan Sherer scored in the final 5 minutes of the half, but Mike Devitt pulled one back for Wellspring two minutes into the second half. Eyre edged McMuffin 4 goals up again, before Jack Kerton scored two and Berrisford another to bring it back to a one goal deficit. McMuffin Men ended the stronger though as they went in search of that elusive first win, and goals from Delgado, unnamed scorer and two more from Collins gave them the ‘W’ for the first time this season.

Pat’s Giants have settled into Ballers life very well in their first season, and went into this week’s game against FC AOTS on top of the League One table. AOTS are one of those teams who can be good one week, not so good the following week, and after going two down to goals from Jack Emmerson and Fred Winterbottom, they hit back with two of their own from Eoghan Scott and Adam Duty. Paddy Bannister quickly put the Giants back in front, but that lead also didn’t last long as Duty made it 3-3 5 minutes before half time. The Giants had the lead at the break again as Emmerson grabbed his second, and they were back in control of the game as Bannister and Winterbottom added two in the first 5 minutes of the second period. The game drifted away from AOTS as Bannister, Emmerson and Danny Brookes added three more to make it 9-3 heading into the final 10 minutes. Winterbottom added two more, Emmerson joined him on 4 for the game by adding another and Joe Marsland got his name on the score sheet, while Duty and Carl Buckley grabbed a couple of late consolation goals for AOTS, who had one of their bad weeks. Stockport Eagles looked to keep pace with the Giants as they took on a patched up Veterans side. The Eagles quickly took advantage of the weakened Vets team as Michael Winn and Lee Bridge(?) put them two up in the opening 5 minutes, before Paul Waugh put them three up 8 minutes from the break. Andy Carrington pulled one back for The Vets two minutes later, but Waugh’s second of the game made it 4-1 before half time. His third and 4th, either side of goals from Ray Donnelly and Ryan McAndrew in the first 8 minutes of the second half pulled Eagles clear, and though Simon Grainger pulled one back for The Vets they were never going to produce any kind of comeback as two more from Waugh and two more from McAndrew gave the Eagles a more than comfortable victory.

FC Stront Bakken’s promotion push this season has been based on solid defence as they they had conceded just 11 goals in 7 games ahead of this weeks game with Deportivo Lack Of Talent, who’ve picked up two wins from three games since dropping back into the Ballers Sunday basement. This one always looked like being tight as we approached half time with just Declan Matthews 15th minute goal separating the teams. Lukas Voveris struck their second on the stroke of half time to double their lead with what was remarkably the final goal of the game, as the Bucket Boys move onto 8 wins from 8, with ‘keeper Benjamin Dean picking up his second clean sheet of the season. SK Six may not quite have had the results to back up their improvements since returning to Ballers, but they went again this week against Inter Your Sister who are looking to secure second spot and a return to League One for next season. SK went in front through Henry Cooke’s 10th minute goal, but we were level at the break as Max Liversedge drew Inter level 6 minutes later. Harry Bridge restored SK’s lead inside the opening minute of the second period, but within three minutes they were behind for the first time as Aaron Crook and Gaz Sumner gave Inter a 3-2 lead. Crook grabbed his second 4 minutes later, and there was no way back for an SK team who don’t always find goals easy to come by. Liversedge got his second three minutes from time to seal the win for Inter, who sit three points clear in second place, but they won’t be catching the leaders any time soon.

Rooneytunes and Wellspring stepped foot inside the cage for a 5’s friendly with the main pitch being full, and it was Rooneytunes who ran out 6-4 winners, Chris Sinclair and Ashley Taylor with two each for them.

THE SUNDAY LEAGUE REMAINS FULL, BUT THAT DIVISION 5 WILL BE HOPEFULLY MORE THAN JUST A PIPE DREAM AS THE 11’S SEASON’S HEAD TOWARDS THEIR CONCLUSION.

MONDAY LEAGUE

The opening night of the new Monday league season saw two new teams join the Premiership and some new faces in the Championship as we got ourselves back to the two full divisions. Expected Toulouse picked up a perfect 10 on their way to their first Monday Premiership title last season, including a pair of wins over this week’s opponents Not A Chance. The Chancers were hammered in their final match of last season but they got off to a flyer here as James, Callum Wild and Phil Carroll all scored in the opening 10 minutes to put them three up. Any expectation that this would fire Toulouse into life didn’t surface, and Carroll and James added two more before the quarter hour mark. Waz Akram did eventually get Toulouse on the board a minute later, but an own goal two minutes before half time sent Not A Chance into the interval with their 5 goal lead back. The first goal of the second half took 11 minutes to arrive, and when it did it went to Dom Andrew to put the Chancers 7-1 up with 14 to play. Expected finally sprung into life as Niall Hillen, Jack Grundy and Akram grabbed three quick goals to make it 7-4 with 6 minutes left. We looked set for a big finish, but all we got was Not A Chance seeing the game out to claim a massive win on the opening week. AC Milmanchester had the chance to steal an early march on Toulouse if they could see off a team they had also beaten twice last campaign, Phantom Brazilians. Phantom had given Toulouse a run for their money last week, but they went behind to Jason Singleton’s third minute goal, before they hit back with three of their own, two from Matt Barton and another from Robin Hulme. A Simon Hackney strike for ACM and a ‘ghost goal’ that’s not noted on the score sheet saw us level at 3-3 as we headed into the final 15 minutes before Ballers debutant Matt Haley scored his first Ballers goal to put Phantom back in front. Barton’s third of the game in the dying minutes secured an impressive win for Phantom as the final league table from last season was turned on it’s head on opening night!

Netsix & Chill fought hard to not have to go into the Premiership for the new season, so immediately started the new Monday season as potential favourites to win the Championship title. The newly renamed Migg FC were playing their first Ballers league game, having also joined the Championship when they could have been going straight into the top flight, and they started strongly when Josh Meehan and Matty Gillings put them two up in the opening 10 minutes. Joe McDonald added a third on 12 minutes, before Meehan added two more to make it 5-0 a couple of minutes before the end of a very one sided first half. Matty Aked pulled one back for Netsix just before the break, but Meehan’s 4th of the game two minutes into the second half effectively ended this one as a contest. Aked got his second 4 minutes from time, but it was just a consolation as we start the conversation with Migg FC as to whether we’ve put them in the wrong division……. Jeremy Cheadle won the three games they played in the Championship last season, but the couple of games they missed being the reason they remain in the Championship, while Nice Buns had a solid start with a couple of wins from their three games. Charlie Williamson gave Buns the lead in the third minute, and last (half) season’s top scorer Jimmy Williamson doubled that lead on 10 minutes. The first half was an end to end affair, and Phil Monaghan pulled one back for Cheadle two minutes later, and while chances came and went at either end Nice Buns ended the half with a three goal burst, one each from Tom Hall, Paul Cheetham and Jimmy Williamson to give them a 5-1 half time lead. The second half was much more one way traffic as Buns didn’t seem to know whether to stick or twist, and Monaghan got his second 4 minutes after the restart. Alex Whelan pulled another back with 17 to play, and it was a one goal game when Monaghan got his third a minute later. Buns were holding on and continued to hold on into the final 5 minutes, but as time looked to be running out for Cheadle Whelan got his second three minutes from time to make it 5-5, which is how it stayed as both teams start the season with a point apiece.

In the one friendly of the evening, Diva Fever celebrated taking Pique Blinders league space by winning their first Ballers game 5-3 against a scrambled Stockport Eagles team. They spread the goals around as Craig Madden, Bevan Southward, Des Savage, James Gandy and Kev McCreavey all got on the mark ahead of their league debut next week.

THE MONDAY 6-A-SIDE LEAGUE IS CURRENTLY FULL, BUT WE HAVE SECURED THE MUGA PITCH TO ALLOW US TO GET FRIENDLY 5-A-SIDE GAMES ON FOR ANYONE WAITING TO JOIN A LEAGUE. GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS!

TUESDAY LEAGUE

The conclusion of the 11’s season both in the pro and amateur game has meant midweek games are currently a thing, and this is causing some of our teams problems. We did eventually get 4 league games and a friendly on this week as team scrambled around for players, two of which were Oooze FC and Only Kruls & Horses, who went up against each other. Brad Gilman gave Kruls the lead in the first minute, and Jack Mulhern doubled that lead with only 4 minutes on the clock, but Oooze had turned this one around before the break as Jago Stackhouse, Adam Corr and Phil Parker scored in a 15 minute spell to send them into half time 3-2 up. Parker’s second in the first minute of the second half, and Tom Galbraith’s goal 6 minutes in put Oooze 5-2 up, and it was 6 with 15 minutes to go as Corr got his second of the game. Seb Etchell’s pulled one back for Kruls with 10 minutes still to play, but there was to be no late comeback for them as Oooze made it two wins from two while Kruls continue to look for their first point. Gangs Of Dwight Yorke started their title defence at the third attempt against another of the teams who’d had to scramble for players this week in Inter Row Z. Their scrambling still left them with a pretty strong looking team, but that team went behind when Wez Barker scored in the second minute. Inter controlled most of the rest of the half and they scored 4 in a 6 minutes spell before we’d reached the 10 minute mark, two each from Callum Donnelly and Kyle Clarke. The teams shared 4 goals in the final 6 minutes of the half, as Chris and Jason Singleton both scored for Gangs, with Jack Cope and Steven Whetham responding each time to keep Inter three clear at the break. Connor Harding’s goal in the opening minute of the second period looked set to fire Gangs into life, but Donnelly’s third of the game a minute later restored Inter’s three goal lead again. Jason Singleton pulled one back again with 20 minutes to play, and this time Gangs did put their foot down as within 4 minutes they were in front as Harding and Jason Singleton added to an own goal to give Gangs an 8-7 lead, and despite numerous chances at either end there were no more goals as Gangs get their defence off to the narrowest of winning starts.

Both Turkish Delight and Stroke Titty had looked impressive last week as they showed their promotion credentials, and having drawn 2-2 in a tight friendly at the end of last season we were expecting another close one this week. Sam Tattersall gave Stroke the lead in the first minute, and an otherwise tight first half saw just an own goal give Stroke a two goal half time lead. Goals from Ryan Stevens and Jay Willingham in the opening 8 minutes of the half eased Stroke 4 goals clear and set for a third straight win, and Willingham went on to add three more in the final 15 minutes to absolutely kill this one off as Stroke go 6 points clear at the top of the early Championship table. Both Black Jack and Wellspring were looking to pick up their first points of the season, granted it was only at the second attempt for both sides! We were level at 1-1 just three minutes in as Joe Dear cancelled out Nathan Wilkinson’s opener, but a quieter middle spell of the first half followed before it all went off again in the final 10 minutes of the half. James Davies grabbed two in two minutes, Wilkinson pulled one back another minute later, but the final three minutes of the half were enough time for Black Jack to add three more as Davies got another two and Jack Roberts the final goal of the half as Black Jack went in with an unlikely looking 6-2 lead. Another one from Davies followed a minute after the break, and though Wellspring quickly pulled two back through Wilkinson and an own goal, Pat Bradshaw nicked another goal for Black Jack before a second own goal kept Wellspring just about in it at 8-5. Black Jack were able to secure a first win of the campaign as Dear and Roberts scored in the final 11 minutes to give them a 10-5 win which sees them go into second place for now.

The only two teams without a league game, Inter Mi Van and Beercalona, played out a friendly that went the way the form book would suggest as Inter Mi Van shared the goals about with Karl Robins, Ryan Andres, Simon Royle and Ross Gaskell all scoring two each to put them 10-0 up going into the final 5 minutes, before Tom Ratcliffe scored a late hat trick to at least mean that Beercalona weren’t white washed!

THE TUESDAY EVENING LEAGUE REMAINS FULL. SUNDAY AND MONDAY ARE YOUR BEST BETS FOR A FAIRLY IMMEDIATE START! 

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

It would appear that Duno came in, caused havoc, then left within two weeks, the little pests, so just a couple of games took place this week. Michu At De Gea Ba were 10 from 10 on their way to a second straight title success last season, but squad numbers have been an issue so far this season so their game with Stockport Eagles looked like a tough one to call. A manic first 6 minutes saw 4 goals fly in, two for each team as Ryan McAndrew scored two for Eagles in between Michael Jennison and Matt Barton grabbing one each for Michu. Somehow after that start the score remained the same at the break, but Warren Yeo put the Eagles in front 4 minutes after the break and Ray Donnelly gave them a two goal with 16 minutes to play. McAndrew’s third of the game 8 minutes from time looked to have ended this one, but the champs hit back with two Nathan Brammer goals to make it 5-4 with a couple of minutes still to play. The Eagles just about held on pick up the win and go top of the table, while Michu suffer their first defeat for as long as any of us can remember. A few weeks ago we thought the Polish Derby was consigned to the history books as Mapgie attempted to escape the Ballers grip, but they are back again and the Polish Classico continues. As per the last games between these two Polish Army looked to be well in control at 3-0 with a couple of minutes of the first half to go as Michal’s opener was added to be two Bania goals, but Milosz Zawila ensured that Magpie did something that they couldn’t manage in their last meeting, scoring a goal just before half time. Mateusz struck first for the Army 4 minutes into the second half, and the game looked over at 5-1 15 minutes from time as Michal got his second. Adrian Hulicki quickly pulled one back for Magpie from the penalty spot, and Karol’s goal 4 minutes from time meant they trailed by just two, but Michal grabbed his third a minute later to put the result beyond doubt. Mariusz Koszla did grab a late consolation for Magpie, but it’s good to at least see them being competitive again after a miserable second half to last season.

WHISPER IT, BUT WE MAY HAVE A SPACE IN OUR WEDNESDAY EVENING LEAGUE. FIRST ONE IN GETS IT!