There’s still a chance it might be coming home at the time of writing, but purely from a Ballers point of view we need this glorious summer and the World Cup to ease off a bit so more people can actually think about PLAYING the game instead of having barbeques, drinking beer and watching the games. Surely none of it can last too much longer……
LEAGUE NEWS
The NEW TUESDAY LEAGUE starts next week after the delay this week for the England game, and while the ‘other’ World Cup semi final will be taking place this week, we will be getting started with whichever teams can field a side. If you want to be one of them, get in touch and get your team registered.
We still maintain a hope of adding a 5th division to our Sunday league when the new league starts in August, and have the option for any new teams to come in and play some friendlies while we wait for spaces to open up.
FOR ANY INFORMATION ON OUR LEAGUES OR TO REGISTER A TEAM, FILL IN A JOIN A LEAGUE FORM ON THE HOMEPAGE AND WE’LL BE IN TOUCH!
SUNDAY LEAGUE
Another Sunday where the scorching weather and the World Cup made barbeque’s and beers a more attractive proposition for some of our teams, but enough games for us to make the review worthwhile. Imagine the scenes if England are in the final on the 15th…… The scenes on Sunday saw just the one top division game played as Insole and Real Maskid looked to kick start their seasons. Former champions Insole actually went into the game bottom of the table, but having only played two games they still have time to make up ground and they started well with two goals in the opening 6 minutes from Jack Atkinson and Jordan Cunningham. They were three up when Cunningham added his second 8 minutes from the break, and even though Jake Morrey pulled one back 5 minutes later, Insole’s lead at the break was back to three when Cunningham scored just before the whistle. He got another two minutes into the second half to make it 5-1, before Morrey kept Maskid in touch with his second with 20 to play. The game was just about done when Cunningham got his 5th half way through the second half, and as Maskid’s heads dropped Insole added three more in the final 5 minutes through Liam Atkinson, Aaron Campbell and Cunningham. Insole remain in the drop zone, but it’s Maskid who replace them at the foot of the table.
A few teams struggling in the Championship too at the minute, so Stockport Eagles had an immediate chance to avenge last week’s defeat to Kipsta Cobras, and they started well with Ray Donnelly and Ryan McAndrew scoring in the first 4 minutes. In a rapid start, within two minutes Kipsta were level as Wayne Reeves and ‘un-named scored’ grabbed their goals. By the break Kipsta were in front as Matt Aked put them in front on 16 minutes, and they had a two goal lead for all of a minute when Warren Yeo’s goal three minutes into the second half was met with an immediate response from Paul Waugh. Kipsta looked to have the game won when Connor Harding and mystery player scored to make it 6-3 with 15 minutes left, but Donnelly struck 4 goals in those final 15, the last one in the final minute, to give the Eagles a remarkable victory.
Ladzio were looking to bounce back from last week’s shock hammering against The McMuffin Men when they took on win-less FC Stront Bakken. They looked like continuing that search for a first win as Ladzio lead 2-0 at the break through George Cox and Lewis Findlow’s goals, and Findlow got his second a minute after the break to put them firmly in control. Ethan Kaye pulled one back for the Bucket Boys with 19 minutes left, but Kai Lawless restored Ladzio’s three goal lead 4 minutes later. Despite Declan Matthews pulling another back for Stront Bakken, the game was just about done when Lawless and Cox added their second goal each in the final 10 minutes. Matthews got two more goals late on as Stront Bakken briefly looked to make Ladzio sweat to see this one through, but Cox got his third in the final minute to ease them to a 7-4 win. Step Brothers are a strange team. A former Premiership side who’s slide has mirrored that of this week’s opposition Inter Your Sister, who seem to be on the mend after promotion last season. Inter were without a win this season, but they were in comfortable control at the break as two goals each for Chris Murray and Steve Johnson, and another from Gaz Sumner, against the solitary reply from Chris Moore, saw them 5-1 up at the break. Craig Johnson extended their lead a minute after the restart, and though Moore got his second a minute later, that was as close as the Brotherhood got this week. Another goal from Craig Johnson and three more from Murray in the final 10 minutes saw Inter pick up that first win, with both teams seemingly just looking at survival as a target for the remainder of the season.
Despite the recent defeat to Beercalona, Deportivo remained top going into this week’s round of games, and they faced the new ‘7th’ team in the bottom division, Droylsden’s Finest. Having picked up a first win last week, the Finest held their own in the first half and went in level at the break as Rob Parker and Ben Proctor’s goals were leveled out by Nathan Daly and Liam Ackers. Two more from Parker and one from Brad Peet looked to have put Deportivo in control in the first 11 minutes of the second period, but Dylan Eaton and Daly made it a one goal game again with 10 minutes still to go. Deportivo eased clear in the final stages as Rhys Moult and Parker grabbed a goal each to keep them top of the table for another week. FC AOTS have struggled for numbers recently, but they were back this week and had the heat and an in form Beercalona to deal with. They went behind to Jay Ratcliffe’s third minute goal, but were level through Scott Robinson’s 9th minute strike. Three more Ratcliffe goals edged Beercalona into a three goal lead at the break, and they looked unlikely to let up as he added two more to go alongside a Martin Bell goal before Robinson pulled one back for AOTS. Beercalona eased to a comfortable win as Ratcliffe, Bell and Tom Ratcliffe added three more in the final 8 minutes. The Veterans needed to pick up a win against Rooneytunes this week to keep in touch with the top two, and defences were hardly on top in the first half as we went in level at 5-5 at the break. Jack Hodkinson and Harry Noon scored two each for Rooneytunes with Cameron Higginbottom getting the other, while The Veterans replied through two from Paul Atherton, an own goal, and one each from Ryan Prestwich and Dean Minshull. Atherton and Noon both scored in the opening 10 minutes of the second half to keep us level. Josh Borthwick edged Rooneytunes in front with 14 to play, but Simon Grainger leveled things up again as we headed into the final 5 minutes. There was a winner, and it came from Hodkinson to give Rooneytunes a win that has to go down as a minor shock.
THE SUNDAY LEAGUE IS FULL, BUT WE ARE LOOKING TO ADD A MINI LEAGUE WHICH WILL BECOME DIVISION 5 / LEAGUE 3 FOR THE NEW SEASON IN AUGUST. GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS.
MONDAY LEAGUE
With the Monday league back up to capacity, it was only a couple of cancellations that meant we had a pair of games in each division, but the top two in the Premiership were in action as the title race continues to hot up. Not A Chance went into this week as leaders, and they were up against a Phantom Brazilians team who are struggling with injuries at the moment. The Chancers took their early chances as Chris Priestley, Matthew Lynwood and Jack Halsall put them three up in the first 16 minutes. Ethan Kaye pulled one back for Phantom 6 minutes before half time, but goals from Tom Usher, Priestley and Halsall saw Not A Chance lead 6-1 with 19 minutes remaining. Kaye got his second a minute later but the comeback was never really on, and further goals from Usher’s Mark, Ryan and Tom meant that Ryan Clayton’s goal 4 minutes from the end was just a consolation. J Stands Barmy Army made their Monday debut as they will play out the second half of the season to keep things nice and fair. AC MIlmanchester needed the win to stay on the Chancers coat tails, but they fell behind to Jamie Stokes opening minute goal before Anthony Pugh turned things back their way with two goals in a minute before we’d reached the 10 minute mark. Stokes second leveled things up again half way through the period, and they seemed to have taken control with two goals in the last two minutes of the half through Reece Nuttall and Stokes. Nuttall and Dave Murphy both scored early in the second half to keep the deficit at two, before Jason Singleton reduced it to one with 19 minutes left. Stokes 4th of the game had us looking at the real possibility of a shock defeat for Milmanchester with just 12 minutes left, but they finished strongly with 6 goals in the final 9 minutes, two from Singleton, two from Martin Gordon and one each for Pugh and Chris Singleton, and they remain hot on Not A Chance’s heels.
With Jeremy Cheadle not in action this week, Diva Fever had the chance to close in on the leaders as they faced the inconsistent Netsix & Chill. This was looking like being one of Netsix’ good weeks as they lead 2-0 at the break through goals from Ray Donnelly and Wayne Reeves, but Evan Farrell got the first goal of the second half to get Diva back in this one. Warren Yeo restored the Netsix two goal lead with 10 minutes left to play, and they finished this one off with a couple of late goals from Aaron Campbell and Liam Atkinson to close the gap on second place Diva to just three points but with games running out. Pathetico Madrid were able to field a side for just the 4th time this season, but the Championship strugglers got off to a flying start as Liam Needham, James Littlewood and Ethan Kaye gave them a 3-0 lead against Nice Buns in the first 6 minutes. Buns hit back before the break as Jimmy Williamson and Tom Dempsey made the half time score 3-2, but Pathetico started the second half in the same manner as they started the first, with three goals in 7 minutes, all from the same three players who scored their first three! Buns weren’t for giving this one up without a bit of fight, and Williamson pulled another two back to make it 6-4 with 12 minutes left. Littlewood got his third three minutes from time as Buns pushed forward, meaning Williamson’s 4th in the final minute was just a consolation.
THE MONDAY LEAGUE IS CURRENTLY FULL. HAVE A LOOK AT SUNDAY OR TUESDAY IF YOU MIGHT BE LOOKING TO GET A TEAM STARTED!
TUESDAY LEAGUE
Ha, yeah, like we were ever going to get any games played this Tuesday. On you go……
WEDNESDAY LEAGUE
Stockport Eagles are looking to right the wrongs of last season and got off to a flyer last week ahead of this week’s meeting with Exeter Gently. IT was Exeter that got off to the flyer here as Mehrad Torkian put them in front on 4 minutes, but that was as good as the first half got for them as Ray Donnelly and Callum Davies struck two each for the Eagles to see them soar into a 4-1 half time lead. Davies effectively ended the contest with his third three minutes into the second half, before a Liam Watson double and a goal each for Ben Waugh and Michael Winn, with Torkian’s second sandwiched in there somewhere, concluded a second comfortable win for the Eagles. Ajax Treesdown also got off to a winning start last week, but nowhere near as comfortably as the Eagles, but they looked good for an easier night of it here as Sam Cawthra got two and Daniel Kitchingham another as they went three up against Wellspring in the opening 9 minutes. Mike Devitt pulled one back for Wellspring half way through the period, but it was 5-1 at the break as Jordan Hardman and Evan Farrell added further goals. Wellspring got the first two goals of the second half to keep them in the contest at 5-3, Devitt and Lewis Arden the scorers, but Hardman got his second 15 minutes from time to open up a three goal lead again. In the final 10 minutes Hardman, Farrell and Kitchingham all grabbed another and Cawthra got two more, meaning George Quayle’s two late goals did nothing more than make the scoreline look a little more respectable.
THE WEDNESDAY LEAGUE IS CURRENTLY FULL, BUT THE NEW TUESDAY LEAGUE STARTS NEXT WEEK AND WE HAVE SPACES THERE (IF WE HAVEN’T MENTIONED THAT ENOUGH ALREADY)