Hmmm, this probably won’t take as long as normal…… The scorching bank holiday might have been great for the majority of you, but it was a major buzz kill for our Sunday and Monday leagues as people decided to spend time with friends and family, in beer gardens and Blackpool rather than Ballers.

LEAGUE NEWS

The BRAND NEW SUNDAY LEAGUE creeps closer and closer, with the start date set for 27th May (we know, we know, that’s the next bank holiday, we’ll work around it!). 5 divisions is still our aim, so the spaces are there for any new teams wanting to get involved. If your 11’s season has just finished and you want to keep playing through the summer, give us a shout.

The SK BALLERS WORLD CUP continues to pick up teams as we look to fill the 32 spaces. 50% of all cleared takings from the event will be donated to SoccerAid, so get in touch if you want to get involved in raising some money through this event.

Minimal spaces pop up on our other nights every now and again, so always feel free to ask about those, and we can get some friendlies on on a Monday evening on a separate pitch it the lads want some games to build the fitness up.

We’ll also be unveiling a competition to give teams a chance to WIN A FREE SEASON which will be announced on the Facebook page at 6pm on Monday, so keep an eye out……

Either fill in a ‘Join A League’ form on the homepage or call or text 07809252658 for details.

SUNDAY LEAGUE

We had one of those rarest of Sunday’s where the number of games off was more than the number of games on. Anyone would think it was a sunny bank holiday weekend….. In the top division one game survived, and it gave Duno the chance to cement their place as genuine title contenders as they took on Team Tom for the first time this season. Duno needed goals if they were to try and peg back some of the goal difference advantage held by Kinky Slipper and Insole, so it was a frustrating opening 12 minutes before Liam Watson put them in front. Luke Cope doubled the lead two minutes later, but it was another 9 minutes before Watson added their third. They didn’t go into the break with a three goal lead though, as Tom Hornsby scored on the stroke of half time to make it 3-1 at the interval. Cope restored Duno’s three goal lead in the first minute of the second half, but it was another frustrating half as the Tommers dug in. Watson got his third 10 minutes from time, and Calvin Alexander and an own goal completed the scoring as Duno pick up a 7-1 win to keep them level with Kinky, with Kinky’s final game against Insole, and Duno go again against Team Tom. A win for Duno will give them the title if Kinky fail to win…..

The Championship was a washout this week, so in League One we had Stockport Eagles looking to take the step up to that level, and with Pat’s Giants not playing this week they could go 6 points clear at the top with a win over Murder On Zidane’s Floor. Just the two oals in the first half, both within three minutes of each other, as Ray Donnelly’s opener for Eagles was cancelled out by Logan Sherer’s leveler for Murder. Things opened up in the second half as Ryan McAndrew and Donnelly gave the Eagles a two goal lead in the first 6 minutes of the half. Sam Delgado quickly pulled  one back for Zidane, but Paul Waugh and Donnelly added another couple to ease the Eagles three goals clear. McAndrew and Waugh added two more inside the final 5 minutes to secure the victory, meaning Delgado’s second of the game two minutes from time was just a consolation. The Veterans were looking to avoid back to back relegations having dropped out of the Championship last season, a season after they just missed out on promotion to the Premiership. Their game with FC AOTS this week was wide open in the first half, as AOTS went two up inside the opening 14minutes through goals from Adam Duty and Eoghan Scott. The Vets turned things around, and Ryan Prestwich’s 15th minute goal was quickly followed by two from Paul Atherton as they turned the game in their favour within 4 minutes. Duty’s second of the game three minutes from half time sent us into the break all square at 3-3. The second half was much tighter, and Atherton’s third of the game 6 minutes from time looked to have won it for The Veterans, but Duty also grabbed his third a minute later to give both teams a share of the spoils

FC Stront Bakken were looking to make it a perfect 10 to complete their promotion back to League One against SK Six, and they looked set to do that as Lukas Voveris and Declan Matthews put them two up in the first 16 minutes. They held that lead until the break, and extended it through Matthews’ second goal two minutes after the restart. Henry Cooke pulled one back for SK 20 minutes from time, and remarkably they turned the game completely on it’s head with three more goals in 5 minutes as Harry Bridge scored two after Steve Blunsten had also found the net. Stront Bakken threw everything at SK in the dying minutes, but a man of the match performance from SK keeper Bernard Blicharz kept them at bay as SK pick up their second ever Ballers win!

Wellspring took on Inter Your Sister in a friendly which ended up being 5v5 as only 4 Inter players turned up. Jay Berrisford of Wellspring made the shift over and scored 4 goals against his parent club, but Wellspring were the winners as Lewis Arden and Mike Devitt both scored 4 each to help them to a 12-9 win.

THE NEW SUNDAY SEASON STARTS ON 27TH MAY – WE HAVE SPACES AVAILABLE FOR NEW TEAMS AS WE LOOK TO GET UP TO 5 DIVISIONS FOR THE SUMMER 

MONDAY LEAGUE

Only a couple of Championship games survived this week, and with Migg FC only involved in a friendly this week it gave those teams behind them the chance to close the gap at the top. Netsix were pre-season favourites for the Championship crown, but they went into this week’s game with Pathetico Madrid looking for their first win of the season. Granted it was only their second game, but goals in the opening 5 minutes from Mike Pinder and Warren Yeo looked to be putting them on their way to a win. Pathetico got on the board through Liam Needham’s 15th minute strike, but Matty Aked restored the two goal lead almost immediately before Connor Harding made it 4-1 at the break. Pinder got their 5th two minutes after the restart, but Needham pulled another back for Pathetico two minutes later. The result was never really in doubt though, and Pinder and Harding eased Netsix into a 7-2 lead with 14 to play. Needham completed his hat trick as Pathetico refused to lie down and accept the result, but Aaron Campbell grabbed two and Pinder his 4th in the final 10 minutes to give Netsix a comfortable win. Nice Buns had two points on the board after a pair of 5-5 draws from their opening two games, and faced league debutants Diva Fever this week as they looked for a first win of the campaign. A topsy turvy first half started with Jimmy Williamson giving Buns a 7th minute lead, but John Brookes drew Diva level 6 minutes later. Williamson got his second a minute later to restore the Buns lead, but the Diva’s scored two in a minute through Brookes and an own goal to go in front 5 minutes before half time. 5 minutes was still time for another twist as Williamson and Tom Dempsey scored in those final 5 to send Buns into the interval with a 4-3 lead. With 15 minutes to play a repeat of Buns opening two games looked on as Brookes third of the game made it 4-4, but the same player added two more in a minute to make it 6-4 with 10 to play. Paul Cheetham quickly pulled a goal back for Buns, but they couldn’t find a 6th of their own and slip to their first defeat of the season.

Migg took on an Inter Row Z / Stockport Eagles mish mash in a friendly this week, and the Eagles shard the goals around as 6 different scorers helped them to a surprisingly comfortable 9-3 victory.

THE MONDAY LEAGUE REMAINS FULL, BUT WE HAVE THE OPTION OF USING THE MUGA TO GET FRIENDLIES ON FOR ANY TEAMS WAITING FOR A SPACE. GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS. 

TUESDAY LEAGUE

With bank holiday out of the way the Tuesday was back to it’s normal decent turnout, with all 5 games passing by without any real incidents of note…… Gangs Of Dwight Yorke had picked up a pair of wins in their attempts to defend their title, but the games were proving to be a lot closer this time around, and they fell behind to a 7th minute Gary Wood goal against Inter Mi Van this week. Within 8 minutes Gangs had turned things around to take the lead through a pair of Callum Jones goals, and the score remained 2-1 at the break. Wood’s second of the game three minutes after the restart meant that we headed into the final 15 minutes all square at 2-2, but as they have a tendency to do Gangs stepped up a gear and two more goals from Jones, one from Chris Singleton and another from Aden Jones eased them to another hard fought win. Oooze had become the latest team to run Gangs close as they fell to a narrow defeat in their delayed Premiership debut last week, and they faced another tough game as Oooze FC looked to match Gangs on three wins out of three. Adam Corr gave Oooze the lead in the second minute, but Ryan Green drew Shaka level with 11 minutes of the half to go. An own goal in the 21st minute looked like sending Oooze into the break in front, but Mark Brookes ensured we went into the break all square at two apiece. Shaka went in front for the first time 5 minutes into the second half through James Holden’s finish, and they increased their lead another 5 minutes later when Liam Paull found a finish. The same player gave them a three goal lead that Oooze never looked likely to recover from, but they will hope to bounce back next week as some of their players return from their 11-a-side commitments. Their start might have been delayed, but Shaka look set to hold their own at this level for the season.

Stroke Titty look Premiership bound for the new season, and would have been expecting another three points against a hit and miss Black Jack this week. It took 11 minutes for them to break the deadlock through Ross Graham’s goal, but after that Graham, Craig Gould and Ryan Stevens added further goals to send them into half time with a 4-0 lead. Black Jack pulled one back two minutes into the second period through Harri Budd’s finish, and things started to look interesting when Joe Dear grabbed another three minutes later to make it 4-2 with 20 minutes still to play. The comeback stalled at this point, and the only other goal of the game came from Graham who completed his hat trick in the final minute to ease Stroke to a 5th straight win. The wheels had fallen off in the past couple of weeks for Turkish Delight as they suffered a second defeat in a row last week after a positive start to the season, and they faced LQ FC this week who had given a good account of themselves in defeat to Stroke in their first game of the season last week. After Rajat had given Turkish the lead in the 4th minute the remainder of the opening half was incredibly tight as we went into the break at 1-0. Volkan doubled the Turkish lead 8 minutes after the restart, and the game was as good as over when Deigo made it 3-0 with 11 minutes to go. Morgan finished this one off with their 4th of the game two minutes from time, a result that sees the Turks get back to winning ways and back into second spot in the table. Wellspring had impressed in last week’s win over Turkish and were looking to build some momentum against winless Beercalona this week. They had to come from behind twice in the opening 19 minutes though, as Craig Scanlon’s double for Beercalona was matched by the same from Mike Devitt of Wellspring. Jamie Berrisford ensured that Wellspring edged things at the break, and things exploded into life early in the second half as Devitt’s third goal to put Wellspring two up was quickly matched by a goal apiece from Tom Ratcliffe and Scanlon to make it 4-4 on 29 minutes. A minute later Devitt grabbed another to restore the Wellspring lead, before Berrisford and Ratcliffe exchanged goals within second of each other to keep Wellspring a goal in front. Scanlon drew Beercalona level again with 13 minutes still to play and this game was anyone’s to win. Ratcliffe and Berrisford repeated their earlier trick of scoring in the same minute and we sat at 7-7 with 12 to go. Wellspring finally made the decisive move as Callum Clarke got on the score sheet and Berrisford added two more to give them a three goal lead and some breathing space with just 5 minutes left. Ste Bowler did pull one back for Beercalona in the final minute, but Wellspring held on for a two goal victory that sees them stay level on points with Turkish Delight in the race for second place.

TECHNICALLY WE HAVE A SPACE IN THE TOP DIVISION OF THE TUESDAY LEAGUE, BUT WE HAVE A TEAM LOOKING AT MAKING A MOVE. IF YOU WANT THE SPOT YOU BEST GET IN QUICK!

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

With a new team set to join us next week, we’ll hopefully be back to the regular full house of Wednesday games. Unless Michu move to the Tuesday league…… Stockport Eagles were looking to retain their position at the top of the table as they took on a Magpie team that has been competitive since it rejoined, but haven’t picked up many points. The tightness of the Wednesday league this season was shown in the fact that it took 23 minutes for the deadlock to be broken, as Ray Donnelly gave Eagles a narrow half time lead. In a more open second half it was the Eagles who took their chances as Donnelly and Ryan McAndrew helped them open up a three goal lead in the first 10 minutes of the half. Donnelly made it 4-0 with 12 minutes to play, but Milosz Zawila scored a minute from time to ruin Eagles ‘keeper Lee Bridge’s birthday by denying him a birthday clean sheet. McAndrew finished the game off in the final seconds to give Eagles a 5-1 win which would ensure they stayed top regardless of the other results. Michu At De Gea Ba took on familiar foes Polish Army as they looked to cling onto Eagles coat tails, but they didn’t get off to a good start as two goals from Julian and another from Michal put the Army 3-1 up in the opening 17 minutes after Adam Porter had initially pulled a goal back for Michu. Ian Davies scored two minutes from half time to reduce the deficit back to one at the break, and when Matt Barton scored two in three minutes early in the second half they were in front for the first time. Nathan Brammer and Adam Porter added to the Michu lead to seemingly kill the game off, but the Poles kept things interesting as Julian and new boy Dan pulled a couple back to make it 6-5 with 6 minutes still to play. Despite pushing hard there was to be no leveler for the Army as Michu continue their quest for a third straight title. Unless they move nights…..

THE WEDNESDAY LEAGUE IS NOW BACK TO BEING FULL, SO UNLESS MICHU SHIFT NIGHTS YOU MIGHT BE BEST LOOKING ELSEWHERE……