Just two more full weeks until the first Ballers holiday! Must try and keep up the high quality of work that goes into these round ups…..

LEAGUE NEWS

Here’s our CURRENT LEAGUE SPACES for any teams looking for an immediate start:

MONDAY LEAGUE – ONE SPACE IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP

TUESDAY LEAGUE – ONE SPACE IN THE PREMIERSHIP

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE – ONE SPACE

We have created a team to take the space that was in the Tuesday Championship, and now we’re looking to do the same for the space in the Wednesday league. If you are an individual player, or someone who wants to play but doesn’t have enough players to form a team but could bring a friend or two, and you want a regular weekly game at 9pm on a Wednesday evening, let us know.

The NEW SUNDAY LEAGUE kicks off on 2ND SEPTEMBER, and while the league is currently full, we are looking at our options for expansion that could include a 5th division, or the addition of one or two teams to each individual division. 7 teams per division could lead us to incorporate a League Cup within the league structure. Any thoughts from existing teams on that are welcome, but if you are currently a Ballers team but want to be, fill in a Join A League form on the homepage, or call or text 07809252658.

SUNDAY LEAGUE

We’re into the final few weeks of the Sunday league, with plenty still to play for in the top division as Duno looked to take another step towards retaining their title if they could pick up a repeat win over Bangers & Pash after last week’s emphatic 10-0 win. The chances of an exact repeat lasted only three minutes as Robbie Fallon gave Bangers the lead on three minutes, and an even first half ended up all square as Jack Cope leveled on 16 minutes. Duno looked like they might have had the game won when Liam Watson and Jack Cope scored to make it 3-1 with 17 minutes to play, but Matt Sheehan looked like making them hold on for the win before Ray Donnelly scored a couple in the last couple of minutes to secure a hard fought 5-2 win. That win left Insole as the only other challengers for the title, and they needed to beat an El Caliente team who won the reverse fixture between the two earlier in the season to remain in contention. This was a much changed Insole team, and it took 12 minutes for Dylan Feast to break the deadlock and give them the lead. He added two more before the break, but Danny King reduced the arrears for El Caliente, who’s season has gone off the rails after a promising start. Insole eased to a 7-1 win as Kyle Clarke scored three in 6 minutes to go alongside an own goal to keep them in the hunt. They will need to win the double pointer with Duno this weekend and make up a goal difference disadvantage in their final couple of games to claim a 4th(?) Premiership title.

Another team needing a win to retain hopes of winning a title this season were Kipsta Cobras, who had to beat struggling Team Tom to stay in the fight in the Championship. They looked up against it as an own goal and Alex Dodgeson’s finish in the opening 10 minutes gave Team Tom a flyer. Kipsta showed the stuff of champions to claw themselves back into it before the break as Warren Yeo and Connor Harding scored in the final 5 minutes, and they looked to have the game won as Harding added two more and Wayne Reeves scored their 5th to make it 5-2 with 9 minutes left. Dodgeson scored what  looked to be nothing more than a consolation with 5 minutes left, but it was the catalyst for a remarkable and unlikely comeback as Rob Jordan and Dodgeson scored again within two minutes to make it 5-5, before James Cresswell scored a last minute winner to give Team Tom the shock win under interim manager Liam Lathom. Calls for a change of team name to Team Leemo are growing as the weeks go on……. That result confirms Stockport Eagles as Championship Winners, congratulations to them on back to back promotions after most of their previous seasons had been spent in the lower leagues.

Second place was on the line in League One as either Sevilla Lacatalent or a resurgent Inter Your Sister looked to join Ladzio in the Championship next season. Sevilla have the games in hand, so all Inter could do was try and win this one and make them play for it in the last couple of weeks, and they looked like doing that as they recovered from going behind to Jake Riley’s 6th minute opener to lead 4-1 at the break thanks to goals from Ant Williams, Dave Smythe, Brandon Byers-Wilkes and Simon Steel. They made it 5-1 through Steel’s second 5 minutes into the second half and this one looked done and dusted, but Riley and David Witter pulled a couple back with 11 minutes remaining, before a spell of 5 goals in 9 minutes gave Sevilla a remarkable comeback win. Sam Melling got the first of those 5 before Riley added the rest as Sevilla move to within two points of guaranteeing second place with three games in which to get them. The other game played this week was all about survival as the previously doomed looking FC Stront Bakken took on The McMuffin Men, who were in need of points to move away from the bottom two. They looked like doing that as Charley Eyre and Sam Delgado gave them a two goal lead in the first 18 minutes, but Ethan Kaye halved the deficit before the break. This was rapidly becoming a night of comebacks and The Bucket Boys provided another one as Declan Matthews scored the only goal of the second period to give them a narrow 3-2 win to drag themselves out of bottom spot and leave former Premiership team Step Brothers occupying that space with games running out.

Was this the week that Beercalona picked up the League Two title that’s looked set to be heading their way for the majority of the season? A recently improved FC AOTS looked like providing a fairly stiff test, and they lead 2-1 after 10 minutes as Eoghan Scott and Paul Buckley replied to Tom Ratcliffe’s opener for Beercalona. The champions-elect responded before the break and Jay Ratcliffe’s leveler was added to by Tom Ratcliffe’s second and Scott Williams’ finish. Buckley’s second early in the second half made it 4-3, and they stayed in it again at 5-4 with 8 minutes left when Adam Duty replied to Martin Bell’s goal for Beercalona. It was Beercalona who clinched this one in the end, with 5 goals in the final 7 minutes to give them a more comfortable looking victory than it was, Bell and Jay Ratcliffe with one each, and Tom Ratcliffe with three more. So that’s the League Two title also won! Deportivo Lack Of Talent finished off a consistent season knowing that second place would be theirs if they could beat The Veterans this week. A busy opening saw The Veterans make the better start as an own goal and two from Simon Grainger gave them a 3-1 lead after Brad Peet had given Deportivo the lead. Rob Parker and Ben Proctor scored to drag Deportivo level, and Peet’s second, followed by a Dean Minshull strike for The Vets meant we headed towards half time all square at 4-4. An own goal just before the break put Deportivo back in front, and Proctor added two more in the opening 10 minutes of the second half to put them in control. Peet looked to have secured the win 5 minutes from time with his third, but Ben Mercer grabbed another before Peet put one in at the wrong end to give The Vets a sniff of a chance. Deportivo did pick up the win that confirms second place as Parker got his second with the final kick to mean the promotion spots in League Two are done for the season. Rooneytunes may be looking at mounting a promotion push next season and third place was still within reach as they started this week’s game with SK Six, who’ve had player issues with holidays etc in recent weeks. The guesting Ben Mercer gave SK a three goal half time lead. We’re pretty sure you can guess how the second half went on this week of comebacks, and Rooneytunes fired back with a vengeance in the second half as they struck 8 goals without reply, 5 from Josh Borthwick, two from Dec Church and one from Jack Hodkinson put them 8-3 up, before Steve Blunsten grabbed a late reply for SK.

In friendlies, Stockport Eagles faced an interesting challenge from League One winners Ladzio, that they eventually won 10-8 with Paul Waugh scoring 4 and Callum Davies three for them, while George Cox grabbed a hat trick in reply for Ladzio. SK Dons were back for a second friendly ahead of their return for the new season, and 5 goals for a debuting Paul Russell were enough for them to edge a 15 goal thriller with Wellspring, as 4 goals from Nathan Wilkinson weren’t enough to stop the existing league team slipping to an 8-7 defeat.

WE’VE NO IDEA WHERE WE ARE UP TO WITH THE SUNDAY LEAGUE! THE NEW SEASON STARTS ON 2ND SEPTEMBER, AND WE KEEP RECEIVING APPLICATIONS AND ENQUIRIES FROM NEW TEAMS WANTING TO GET INVOLVED! AS IT STANDS WE ARE LOOKING AT OUR OPTIONS FOR EXPANSION, SO GET IN TOUCH IF YOU WANT TO GET INVOLVED

MONDAY LEAGUE

The ever changing line up for AC Milmanchester met up with a much changed line up for Ruud van Nipplerooy this week. It was pretty much a Kinky Slipper reunion for the Ruud boys, but their rustiness showed in the first 10 minutes as David Murphy scored two and Reece Nevins one as ACM took an early 3-1 lead, with Jordan Hutchinson scoring Ruud’s response. The Nips lead 5-4 at the break though as Tommy Schofield scored two, Wesley Harney and Luke Braden one each with Murphy’s third being the solitary response in the final 15 minutes of the half the Premiership champs. Van Nipplerooy secured a second straight win with further goals from Schofield, Harney, Rob Cresswell and two more from Braden, with Murphy’s 4th of the game near the end providing small consolation on a bad night for the three time Premiership winners. The Nips are two from two on their return….. Kroos Control will look to provide stiff competition for the other Monday Premiership teams, and they started their time in this league with a game against Diva Fever. Liam Watson scored 5 first half goals to help them to a 6-2 half time lead, with Calvin Alexander scoring the other and Joe Dodd scoring two for Diva in reply. Diva threatened a comeback in the second half, and got it back to 6-5 with 14 minutes to play as Dodd got his third and Bevan Southward added two of his own. Watson scored two either side of Southward’s third to leave us at 8-6 with 10 left to play, but the new team then Kroos’d clear as Watson got three more to make it 10 in total (all of them within 6 inches of the goal line…..), and Jack Cope got the last after Dodd had got his 4th for Diva. The top division looks pretty competitive.

Netsix & Chill and Phantom Brazilians couldn’t be split after last week’s 0-0 opener, and it looks like they quite like being close to each other after week 2…… Class On Fake Grass made their first appearance of the season against the only other team they’ve played on a Monday in Netsix. Things were a little different this time around as Netsix lead 2-1 at the break through Warren Yeo and Aaron Campbell goals, with Mike Cocks having grabbed Class’ goal in between. Two goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half from Wayne Reeves and Yeo edged Netsix close to the winning post, and an own goal 9 minutes from the end sealed that win as Class take their time getting back into it again. So that’s 5 goals scored and on conceded for Netsix, what could Phantom do? Well it never helps when the team organiser somehow manages to get the game time wrong while the rest of his lads were there, so Nice Buns kindly played the first half with 5 men to make it an even game, but they might have regretted that as they went into the break three down through goals from Daniel and Ryan Clayton. Restored to 6 players each, Paul Cheetham pulled one back early in the secon half for Buns, but Paul Wilkinson scored a couple of late goals to give Phantom a 5-1 lead that keep them level with Netsix on everything!

WE HAVE ONE SPACE IN THE MONDAY CHAMPIONSHIP. ANY NEW OR RETURNING TEAMS WHO MIGHT BE LOOKING TO GET INVOLVED SHOULD GET IN TOUCH ASAP!

TUESDAY LEAGUE

Gangs Of Dwight Yorke are looking to make it another unbeaten season in the Tuesday Premiership, and went up against a Stroke Titty team who were coming off the back of their first top division win last week. A repeat looked unlikely as Gangs went into the break 4 goals to the good as Jake Dean got two either side of goals from Josh Morrissey and Connor Harding. The second half didn’t get much better as three from Callum Jones and one each from Harding and Morrissey made it 9-0 with 8 minutes left. They could even afford to have their ‘keeper Ash Cobban miss a penalty, but it was a great save from Jack Tetlow in the Stroke goal. A bad few minutes for Cobban got worse when he lost his chance of a clean sheet as Aaron Collins finally got Stroke on the board with 5 to play. Morrissey and Harding added another each either side of Collins second for Stroke to see the champions and leaders to a third win from three. Total Bala were looking to take second spot if they could beat a pointless and much changed Shaka team, but Jake Tyler took advantage of an early mix up to give them a lead in the opening seconds. Lee Manion marked his first appearance since Total’s recall to the league with the leveler 6 minutes later, and he put them in front at the break with his second in the 21st minute. Rick Kelly and John Wood stretched the Bala lead in the early stages of the second period, but Danny Harwood kept Shaka in touch with a quick response. Kelly and Manion looked to have put the result out of doubt with 10 minutes left, and Wood restored the 4 goal lead after Liam Paull had pulled another back. Mark Brookes gave Shaka a glimmer of hope with 4 minutes left, but Manion grabbed the final goal of the game to give Bala their second win ahead of the game with Gangs next week.

In the Championship, Wellspring were the only team with a 100% record going into this weeks round of games, but their squad was a little short this week as they took on a Beercalona team who’s only defeat had come when they themselves were short. Lewis Arden gave Wellspring the lead, but things quickly turned sour for them as Craig Scanlon scored 4, Jay and Tom Ratcliffe two each as Beercalona went into half time with an 8-1 lead. They added 5 more after the break through Martin Bell, two more for Jay, one more for Tom and a final goal for Ste Bowler, with Arden grabbing his second to provide scant consolation for Wellspring, who lose top spot. The newly formed Team Randommer pulled players from all over to fill the space we had previously had, and took on Europeans who were back after missing out last week. Having tasted heavy defeats in their first couple of games, Europeans found themselves level at 2-2 inside the opening 10 minutes as a Mike Pinder own goal, and one from Mohammed matched up to Mikey Freeburn’s and Andy Carrington’s. We remained level at 3-3 at the break as Freeburn and Sufyan struck for each team. Pinder scored at the right end twice in three minutes to give the Randoms a two goal lead with 13 to play, but Europeans looked like they might nick a first point when Sufyan and Saad scored to make it 5-5 with 5 minutes left. Carrington got his second in the final minute to give Randoms a debut win, while Europeans will go looking for that first point next week.

Stockport Eagles were down this week and they raced out of the blocks into a 5 goal lead against Michu At De Gea Ba in the opening 11 minutes. Ryan McAndrew scored three, Ray Donnelly and Callum Davies the others. Matt Barton quickly pulled one back for Michu, and there was only two in it at the break as Michael Jennison and Barton both struck in the final 6 minutes of the half. Three goals in 7 second half minutes from Adam Porter edged Michu in front, and they were the only goals of the second half as Michu held on for an incredible comeback win.

WE HAVE ONE SPACE IN THE TOP DIVISION OF OUR TUESDAY LEAGUE FOR ANY NEW TEAMS LOOKING TO GET INVOLVED. GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS 

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

The Wednesday league needs a little repair work after the two new teams who joined for this season didn’t really work out, plus Magpie were unavailable this week….. So the only game that took place this week at a lonely Ballers Wednesday was Stockport Eagles (again) against Exeter Gently. It was a good one though, and after Kristian Igo had given Exeter a third minute lead, 5 goals in 6 minutes half way through the period saw us level at 3-3 with 9 minutes of the first half to go, Paul Waugh with two and Ray Donnelly the other for Eagles, Tom Harrison and Mike Belshaw for Exeter. It was Exeter that lead at the break as Igo finished the half the way he started it by putting Exeter in front, but Ben Waugh brought us level again 5 minutes after the restart. Michael Winn, Donnelly and Ben Waugh looked to have taken the game away from Exeter with three quick goals, but James Magnani and Igo reduced the deficit to one again with 5 minutes left. Donnelly got the final goal of the game to secure a win for Eagles against the team that took points off Ajax Treesdown last week.

WE HAVE A COUPLE OF SPACES TO FILL, WITH ONE LIKELY TO BE FILLED BY A TEAM OF INDIVIDUAL PLAYERS FROM NEXT WEEK. IF YOU HAVE A TEAM WANTING TO START, OR YOU’RE A PLAYER WHO FANCIES A REGULAR WEEKLY GAME, GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS.

So, the World Cup finishes, we have a couple of fairly clear weeks, everything starts to pick back up nicely, and along comes the Premier League season again. Very exciting, but not great for business…….

LEAGUE NEWS

Here’s the current league spaces we have for an immediate start:

MONDAY LEAGUE – CHAMPIONSHIP – ONE SPACE

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE – ONE SPACE 

The NEW SUNDAY LEAGUE kicks off on 2nd September, and while the 4 divisions are currently full, we are still inviting applications from new teams as we look at our options for adding to our biggest league night. We could add a 5th division, we could make each current division 7/8 teams, all of these decisions can be made once we know how many teams we’ve got! Friendlies are available for any new or returning teams over the next three weeks, so to book in a one off trial game, get in touch.

We’ve got our FANTASY FOOTBALL LEAGUE on the go for the 2018/19 season, so to get involved head over to https://fantasy.premierleague.com and either register your team or renew it for the season, then join the league using the code 399157-84853. We had 104 teams last season, and we’re already up to 91 for this season with a week still to go, so we should be beating last season’s total. A free weekly game for the individual who gets the highest weekly score, and a prize at the end of the season for the overall winner, all for NOTHING!

After nearly two straight years of running leagues, at the end of August we are having a break. We will be having one week off, where no games will be played, with the last games being played on Wednesday 22nd August, and returning for the start of the Sunday league on 2nd September. We hope you understand that after two solid years of doing this week in and week out, we just need a little break to refresh ourselves to go again.

For any information on any of our league nights, head to the homepage and fill in a ‘Join A League’ form, or call or text 07809252658.

SUNDAY LEAGUE

The summer still has quite a tight grip on one or two teams, but this was a much better week in the Sunday league than we’ve seen recently. Not so much in the top division, where Kinky Slipper, Insole and El Caliente were absent for another week, leaving Duno and Bangers & Pash as the only Premiership representatives this week. After an impressive win last week, Bangers might have fancied themselves to give the leaders a difficult evening, but three first half Liam Watson goals saw the champs into the break with a 3-0 lead. It didn’t get any better for Bangers in the second period as they went 4 behind early on through Calvin Alexander’s goal, and as the half wore on the champs tightened their grip, as Watson and Alexander scored two more each, with Ray Donnelly and an own goal finishing things off on a convincing night for the team who are looking to retain their title.

After a Championship season that can best be described as ‘frustrating,’ with previously reliable teams enduring a season of struggle, we had a FULL HOUSE OF GAMES this week! New team Murder On Zidane’s Floor’s first purpose was to try and derail the Stockport Eagles title charge, and they held their own in a first half that saw the leaders go into the break one up through Ryan McAndrew’s 5th minute goal. They doubled the lead through Ray Donnelly’s penalty three minutes into the second half, as the Eagles ‘keeper looked to have the honour of being (probably) the first ‘keeper to score a goal and keep a clean sheet! Dan Evans scored Murder’s first Ballers goal 15 minutes from time to ruin that plan, but an own goal and Paul Waugh’s finish half way through the period ensured Eagles finished their 10 game season with 9 wins. It now falls to Kipsta Cobras to see if they can overhaul Eagles on goal difference by winning their last three games, the first of which was against Wellspring this week. They were comfortable at the break as Warren Yeo’s opener was added to by a pair of Connor Harding strikes, and even more comfortable by the end as Harding added 4 more to his personal tally in the second period, with no Wellspring goals to write about. After running the team since he was three years old, Tom of Team Tom is facing a power struggle to maintain the good Tom name, as the reins have been handed over to Liam to sort the side out in recent weeks. They even picked up a win this week in a ridiculously tight game against the returning Pat’s Giants, who have had their struggles this season. Sam Collicott and Scott Doherty scored the only goals of the game in the first half to help them pick up their first actual competitive win this season.

A win for Ladzio over second placed Inter Your Sister this week would be enough to give them the League One title with a couple of games to spare, and it looked like an inevitability at the break as three from George Cox and a rocket (just missed by the camera) from Jack Shepherd saw them lead 4-0 at the break. Inter were better in the second half, and had chances to get back into it before Cox added three more to make it 7-0 with 17 minutes still to play. Craig Johnson got Inter on the board a couple of minutes later, and when he got his second just after Simon Steel had scored a goal on his return, there was an outside chance they could launch an incredible comeback. There were no more goals though, and Ladzio become the first team to secure one of the 4 Sunday titles for the season! The McMuffin Men and Step Brothers are another couple of teams who have struggled for numbers throughout this season, and they ended up playing 5 on 5 this week after McMuffin’s were let down late by one of their players at the last minute. In a game that was mostly about League One survival, we McMuffin’s lead 4-3 at the break as three goals from Joe Murphy and one from Logan Sherer helped McMuffin Men recover after Dom Cioffi had scored two and Chris Murray one for the Brotherhood. The second half was similarly close, but three goals in close succession saw both teams leave with a point. Charley Eyre’s goal, sandwiched in between goals from Tom Cioffi and Murray, meant we ended up all square at 5-5.

Beercalona are on the brink of becoming another first time league winner, and took on League Two ‘spare’ team Droylsden’s Finest this week (this 7th team in a league thing has worked really well, we might roll it out across the board for the new season…..). Liam Mercer gave the newer boys the lead, but by the time Owen Shemeld scored again on 16 minutes that goal was only to reduce the deficit as Ste Bowler, Craig Scanlon and Martin Bell had all scored for Beercalona in the meantime. Bell scored again to make it 4-2 at the break, and the leaders took control in the second period as Scanlon scored three, Bell, Dave Watson and Scott Williams one each to give them a 10-3 win with Nathan Daly grabbing Droylsden’s only second half goal. A defeat for Deportivo Lack Of Talent against the recently improved FC AOTS would hand Beercalona the title, and it looked like a possibility at half time as we went into the break at 3-3. Rob Parker, Brad Peet and debutant Alex Babcock helped Deportivo recover after Eoghan Scott had scored two and Adam Duty the other for AOTS. AOTS were back in front with 15 minutes left as Scott got his third, but Babcock quickly leveled up again for Deportivo, before the same player scored the winner 6 minutes from time.

SK Dons returned with a friendly this week against potential opposition for next season in the shape of Rooneytunes. It might take a little while for them to get back up to speed, as a 4-2 half time deficit turned into a 14-2 defeat, with Ashley Taylor getting 4, Jack Hodkinson and Josh Borthwick three each.

THE SUNDAY LEAGUE IS CURRENTLY FULLER THAN FULL! WE ARE LOOKING AT OPTIONS FOR THE NEW SEASON WHICH KICKS OFF ON 2ND SEPTEMBER, SO IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN SIGNING UP, GET IN TOUCH, AND MAYBE EVEN BOOK YOURSELVES A ONE OFF FRIENDLY IN THE MEANTIME!

MONDAY LEAGUE

There was a tingle of excitement in the air as a new Ballers Monday night league kicked off with a couple of games in each division, and a lot of change in the top flight. AC Milmanchester started off their title defence with a game against J Stands Barmy Army who came in late last season, and the only previous game between the two teams was a cracker. Jason Singleton gave the champs the lead on 3 minutes, and Chris Singleton restored their lead on 10 minutes after Aaron Collins had leveled up for J Stands. Jason gave ACM a two goal lead on the stroke of half time, and the game looked over when Reece Nevins added two more in the earl stages of the second period. Ben Rose pulled one back for the Army with his first Ballers goal on debut, but any thoughts of a recovery were ended by two Jimmy Leeson goals and another from Jason Singleton. J Stands did end strongly though, and goals from Reece Nuttall, Jamie Stokes, Jay Willingham and Rose in the final few minutes made us wonder what could have happened if they’d had 5 more minutes. Ruud van Nipplerooy are back in the Ballers top flight, and started against promoted Diva Fever. Inside the opening 12 minutes, Diva were three up through three John Brookes goals, but a couple of own goals got The Nips back into it before Rob Cresswell made it 3-3 at the break. Jordan Hutchinson put Nipplerooy ahead for the first time three minutes after the break, but we looked set for a draw when Brookes got his 4th 5 minutes from time. We were only level for a minute though, as Hutchinson grabbed the winner to give The Nips a successful first league game since rejoining.

Pathetico Madrid had ended the season much more encouragingly than they started it, and went up against a Nice Buns team that had a solid first full Ballers season. Buns hit the front early through two Paul Cheetham goals in the opening 5 minutes, but Pathetico turned this one on it’s head in the final 15 minutes of the half as Liam Needham scored three, Ethan Kaye and Nathan Thomson one each to give them a 5-2 half time lead. Needham got the first goal of the second half to increase their lead, but Cheetham kept Buns in the contest by halving the deficit with 19 minutes to play. Pathetico killed the game off though as Kaye added two more, meaning Cheetham’s 4th of the game was only a consolation. Could Pathetico be on for a return to the top flight next season……?! Ok, so where do we start with this next game? It has it’s positives, it was a highly competitive game, between two decent teams in Netsix & Chill and Phantom Brazilians, two teams who can expect to be amongst the promotion fight come the end of the season, but the key thing is that both teams goalkeepers ended the night with their names on the Golden Gloves board after our first ever 0-0 draw!

WE HAVE ONE SPACE IN OUR MONDAY LEAGUE, IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP. IF YOU SIGN UP THIS WEEK YOU WILL BE ABLE TO CATCH UP THE FIRST MISSED GAME, SO GET ONTO US FOR DETAILS!

TUESDAY LEAGUE

The two teams with 100% records went head to head in the Premiership as Michu At De Gea Ba looked to make it three out of three against Gangs Of Dwight Yorke, who were only playing their second game.The deadlock was broken on 10 minutes as Paul Mazzitelli gave Michu the lead, and they doubled that when Matt Barton scored two minutes later. Gangs hit back, and after Jake Dean scored two in a minute to bring us level, Jason Singleton, Josh Morrissey and Chris Singleton all scored after Barton had restored the Michu lead, to give Gangs a 5-3 lead at the break. Dean’s third gave them a three goal lead, but Barton quickly reduced that, and he did the same again after Morrissey had grabbed his second. Gangs finished the stronger, and Jason Singleton added two more, Chris Singleton and Callum Jones one each to give them the win, with an Michael Jennison grabbing a late consolation for Michu. Both Stroke Titty and Shaka were looking for their first league win, and Stroke struck early with Jay Willingham’s first minute goal. He grabbed a second before Andrew Cadwallader pulled one back for Shaka, and Tom Hannan did the same a minute after Joe Lailey had increased Stroke’s lead again. Willingham’s second made it 4-2 at the break, but Shaka wouldn’t be shaken off, and Krisstian Ebanks-Perrin made it a one goal game again early in the second period. Lailey and Cadwallader scored in quick succession and it was as you were, before Stroke pulled clear with two goals from Sam Tattersall, two more from Lailey and one from Conor Dolan secured the win with Hannan’s second in the final minute doing nothing to help Shaka’s cause.

The only league game in the Championship this week took place between Wellspring and Black Jack, with Wellspring looking to make it two wins from two. Jack Roberts gave Black Jack the lead on 4 minutes, but Jay Berrisford struck two goals to give them lead 9 minutes before the break. Roberts second of the game sent us into the break all square, and Harri Budd put them back in front with 20 minutes left, but Wellspring finished the game strongly and once Berrisford and Mike Devitt had scored in the space of a minute with 10 minutes left they ran away with it. Berrisford and George Qyuale added another two for Wellspring to give them a victory that looks much more comfortable than it actually was.

A couple of friendlies took place too, with Total Bala picking up a comfortable 9-3 win over Championship side Rooneytunes with Paul Thornton scoring three, and Kelly’s Matt and Rick scoring two apiece, while Cameron Higginbottom scored all three of Rooneytunes late replies. New boys Europeans seem to be a little unsure as to the cancellation period, but fortunately most Gangs Of Dwight Yorke were able to get down early to give Beercalona a game. The top division side won a fairly competitive game 8-4 with Callum Jones scoring three of their goals.

THE TUESDAY LEAGUE MIGHT JUST BE FULL YOU KNOW! FROM WAKING UP ON WEDNESDAY MORNING THINKING WE MIGHT HAVE THREE SPACES TO FILL, IT LOOKS LIKE WE’VE FILLED THEM! IN CASE WE HAVEN’T, FEEL FREE TO ASK…..

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

With a couple of teams parting company with us over the past few days, we had the two games on this week, but they were both good ones! Ajax Treesdown were heavy favourites to maintain their 100% record in the league against a pointless Exeter Gently (as in, they have no points…..). The match ref has had a minor ‘mare with the scorecard on this one, as the times of the goals seem a little skew-wiff, but a close match went into the latter stages of the game with Ajax leading 5-4, with Sam Cawthra having got three and Daniel Kitchingham two of their goals, the Exeter goals coming from Tom Harrison, Mo Torkian, Mehrad Torkian and Mike Belshaw. Exeter looked to have turned things in their favour with quickfire goals from Mehrad and Harrison in the final couple of minutes, but they couldn’t hold on as Kitchingham ensured a share of the points with a goal just seconds later. That gave Stockport Eagles the chance to close the gap at the top of the table to just a point if they could beat Magpie, but Magpie started the better, going two up in the first 16 minutes as David and Grzesiek Tkaczyk got their goals. In those final 9 minutes of the half the Eagles turned things around, with Liam Watson adding two goals to Ray Warburton’s opener. They edged clear in the second period as Watson, Donnelly and Michael Winn added to their tally, with a goal from Marcin 5 minutes from time the only response from Magpie in the second half.

WE CURRENTLY HAVE A SPACE IN OUR WEDNESDAY LEAGUE FOR ANY NEW TEAMS. GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS  

Now the World Cup is done, and enthusiasm for the national team and the national game is back at a high level, if you’re not currently active in a football capacity, now might be the time to get involved! Here’s where we can get teams started:

MONDAY LEAGUE

Our NEW MONDAY LEAGUE starts on 30th July, but if you’re reading this after that date it might not be too late! As the season starts, we currently have two spaces, one in each division. If you sign up within the first two weeks you will still be able to play all of your games as we add a couple of weeks to the end of each season to catch up any games missed in the ‘regular’ season. Games kick off at 8pm and 9pm.

TUESDAY LEAGUE

The Tuesday league is two weeks in, and we have the one space in our bottom division. If you sign up soon enough you will be able to catch up those first two missed games, which will mean that you won’t be to far behind if you miss any other games. Like Monday, games kick off at 8pm and 9pm.

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

Our ‘late night’ league is one division of 6 teams, with all games kicking off at 9pm. There is a question mark over one of the teams at the moment, so if Wednesday is your night of choice, and 9pm games every week make things easy for you, let us know you’re interested!

SUNDAY LEAGUE

Our biggest league night, with 4 divisions, is heading into the final couple of weeks of the season, with the new league set to kick off on 2nd September. The 4 divisions are currently full, but we are looking at our options for expansion and could either add an extra division, or add extra teams to our existing divisions. We already have a couple more teams than we need…… Earliest kick off time is 4.30pm, the latest is 8.30pm.

GENERAL INFORMATION

All of our league games are 50 minutes in length, and all are priced at £5 per player.

We try and offer as much flexibility as possible, with each team being permitted two postponements per season (provided adequate notice is given), and we will try and work with teams as much as possible with regards to kick off time requests.

We DO NOT MAKE TEAMS SIGN CONTRACTS, as our belief is that if we don’t do enough to make you happy enough to play in our league, or you physically cannot field a team for whatever reason, you should be allowed to leave. If a team leaves on good terms we would hope that when they were ready to, they would come straight back to us!

We are always happy to offer up a FIRST GAME FREE* for any new teams who want to come and give us a go before they commit to joining a league.

We try and do as much with our social media pages as we can, so we regularly film games and post edited highlights, live stream some sections of our league nights, run goal of the month competitions, a fantasy football league etc etc to try and give teams the ultimate small sided football experience

For more information or to sign up for a first game, fill in a ‘Join A League’ form on the homepage, call or text 07809252658, or email [email protected]

*T’s and C’s apply, brand new teams only.

For various reasons it was a late start on the write up this week, so we’re looking at a slightly less detailed review than usual. Normal service will be resumed next week.

LEAGUE NEWS

The only league that we currently have spaces for an immediate start is our TUESDAY LEAGUE, which is two weeks in. Sign up now and we can catch those games up……

The NEW MONDAY LEAGUE starts this week, but as we stand it’s currently full. Our SUNDAY LEAGUE is also currently full, but we have the option of trying to add more to this night for the new season at the start of September, so if you’re interested, get in touch and we’ll get you some games.

And finally, nearly two years into Ballers life, we have a small change to announce. Going forward, in an attempt to maintain a level of sanity at Ballers HQ, there will be three weeks per year where there will be no games played as we try and give ourselves a bit of time off. We’ll try and be sensible about when we take these weeks, and the first will be over the August bank holiday weekend, with the last games being played on Wednesday 22nd August, and returning on Sunday 2nd September with what could be the start of the new Sunday season!

SUNDAY LEAGUE

Duno were looking to hold onto their lead at the top of the Premiership as they took on struggling Real Maskid, but they held their own in a goal-less first half. Calvin Alexander broke the deadlock with 15 minutes to play for the leaders, and they quickly doubled that lead through Cade McKenna’s goal two minutes later. Liam Watson wrapped up the points with 5 minutes left, but Maskid did get on the board through Jack McConnell’s late goal to end what was a really good game. Insole were looking to cling onto second place as they faced old foes Kinky Slipper. It looked like they were going to slip further behind the leaders as Sam Jones’ two debut goals for Kinky put them two up two minutes into the second period, but they stayed in touch when Kyle Clarke pulled one back two minutes later. We were all square again with 7 minutes to play when Clarke scored his second, and Insole won it thanks to Jack Atkinson’s penalty two minutes later to remain as Duno’s nearest challengers. Bangers & Pash have some catching up to do in the last few week’s of the season, and they made light work of El Caliente, who looked like being the Premiership surprise package until the last couple of weeks. They lead 5-0 at the break through two goals from Chris Carroll, and one each from Harry Kilmartin, Joel Farnan and Matt Toft. Caliente tried to put up a fight in the second half, and at one point got the score back to 8-4 as Jay Berrisford scored two and Kyle Sparkes and Nathaniel Odysseus-Kingsley  grabbed the others. Bangers were always in control though, and Rory Kelly grabbed three, Robbie Fallon two, Kilmartin and Carroll the others as Bangers ran out 12-4 winners.

It was a much changed Team Tom side that faced Championship leaders Stockport Eagles this week in the only Championship game this week, and they didn’t start badly as James Cresswell scored twice to bring them level at 2-2 inside 8 minutes after Ray Donnelly and Ben Waugh had given the Eagles an early two goal lead. Eagles regained their lead before the break as Lee Bridge(?) got their third 10 minutes from half time. We remained at 3-2 heading into the final 10 minutes before Eagles ran away with things with 5 more goals, two from Michael Winn and three from Donnelly. Eagles are Premiership bound for the new season.

Ladzio were back after a few week’s of struggle, and faced off against the only team who’ve taken points off them this season in The McMuffin Men. It looked like being a cruise for Ladzio early on as three goals from debutant Max Greenhalgh and one each from Jack Shepherd and Owen McNally saw them in comfortable control approaching the break. Charley Eyre and Mark Bailey pulled a couple back to keep McMuffin’s in it at the interval, but Ladzio struck 4 unanswered second half goals, two each from Lewis Findlow and McNally, to see them open up a 6 point lead at the top of the table. After a bad start to the season, Inter Your Sister have suddenly thrown themselves back into the promotion hunt recently, and took on the still struggling FC Stront Bakken this week. We were level at the break as Lukas Voveris 18th minute goal was wiped out by Brandon Byers-Wilkes leveler on the stroke of half time. Max Liversedge edged Inter in front early in the secon period, but we were level again with 11 minutes left as Declan Matthews got on the score sheet. Inter grabbed the winner 4 minutes later as Dave Smythe got the goal that sends Inter into second place in the table, having played a game more than Sevilla Lacatalent, who didn’t play this week.

Deportivo Lack Of Talent had been clinging onto top spot in recent weeks with Beercalona sat in second and with games in hand. Beercalona could take top spot this week if they could win the game between the two, and by leading 4-0 at the break that very much looked how it was going to be as Scott williams scored two, Martin Bell and Tom Ratcliffe the others. There wasn’t a huge amount in the second period, but Beercalona finished the game with a goal that to the naked eye would lead people to believe this was a forfeit win if you just look at the results! Williams got the final goal to complete his hat trick as Beercalona look to have a promotion spot in their hands as a minimum. Only a win would do for The Veterans against SK Six would keep them in the promotion race, and they held a narrow 1-0 half time lead through Simon Grainger’s 16th minute goal. They pulled clear in the second half as Paul Atherton and Dean Minshull scored three each before SK finally got on the board through Harry Bridge’s goal 4 minutes from time. Atherton got his 4th before Steve Blunsten got the final goal for SK to leave The Veterans 4 points off the promotion places with three games to play. FC AOTS found it easier to get a team out this week off the back of their first win in a while the previous week against The Vets, and a first half that saw the ball hit the net 7 times saw them lead Rooneytunes 4-3 at the break. Eoghan Scott got two, Zac Jamieson and Adam Duty the others, while Chris Sinclair grabbed two and Jack Hodkinson the other for Rooneys. AOTS confirmed back to back wins for the first time in an age as Paul Buckley got two more, Duty, Jamieson and Adam Atherton further goals to give them a 9-6 win, with Sinclair, Hodkinson and Saul Heavyside grabbing the three second half Rooneytunes goals.

We hurriedly rushed Beercalona into stopping on to give Wellspring a friendly at the end of the night, and the Beercalona lads weren’t thanking us when it came to Tuesday…… Wellspring shared the goals (and the players) around as they won 9-4, Jamie Berrisford with 4, George Quayle and Mike Devitt with two each.

THE SUNDAY LEAGUE HAD A COUPLE OF SPACES, BUT JUST LIKE THAT IT’S FULL AGAIN! WE WOULD CONSIDER ADDING MORE TEAMS FOR THE NEW SEASON WHICH STARTS AT THE END OF AUGUST, SO FOR A COUPLE OF FRIENDLIES TO GET THE LADS INVOLVED, GET IN TOUCH! 

MONDAY LEAGUE

First things first, it’s a fond farewell to Expected Toulouse, last season’s Premiership champions, who left us this week (hopefully temporarily) after a few weeks of struggle with holidays, pre-seasons etc. They’ve been with us from very near the start, so it’s shame to lose them, but we appreciate that without those teams who were here at the start we wouldn’t have a business!

Just one league game took place this week as we had the final catch up night of the Monday league season. The game itself meant very little to the Championship league table as Diva Fever already had second place in the bag, but Pathetico Madrid would have been looking to build on their recently improved form. To be fair, clinical finishing was the difference between these two teams as chances were created at either end throughout, but Diva lead 8-0 at the break as Joe Dodd scored 6, with James Gandy and John Brookes adding the others. Dodd also got the first of the second period, but as they were starting to think of the idea of a clean sheet Liam Needham finally took one of Pathetico’s chances. Dodd added three more before the end of the game, which meant that his 10 goals were the difference between the teams as John Peneveyre grabbed Pathetico’s second in the last few minutes.

In friendly action, Premiership winners AC Milmanchester and Championship third placed Netsix & Chill had a game that showed the overall strength of the Monday league. Netsix lead at the break through Brad Street’s 12th minute goal, but the match ended all square as Reece Nevins leveled up for ACM 5 minutes after the break. Ruud van Nipplerooy’s return to the Monday league saw them face Wellspring in a friendly ahead of the start of the new season. They picked up a first win as three goals each from Jordan Hutchinson and Mikey Freeburn helped them to an 8-3 win. Phantom Brazilians will be playing a first season outside the top flight since they joined us, and they lost 6-5 to one of next season’s opposition in Nice Buns as three goals from Daniel Clayton and two from Andrew Shaw weren’t enough for a share of the spoils as doubles from Tom Hall, Paul Cheetham and Charlie Williamson gave Buns the victory.

THE NEW MONDAY LEAGUE STARTS NEXT WEEK. AS WE TYPE THERE IS ONE SPACE AVAILABLE FOR NEW OR RETURNING TEAMS. GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS!

TUESDAY LEAGUE

Michu At De Gea Ba and Total Bala went head to head with both teams on three points after opening week wins, and a tight first half saw Michu lead 2-1 at the break with two Matt Barton goals and a reply from Rick Kelly. Michu stretched their lead throughout the second period as Michael Jennison, Alex Brady and Barton all grabbed a goal, and Fidelis Eberegbe scored two. Kelly pulled a couple back late on for Bala, but Paul Mazzitelli rounded off the Michu win. Champions Gangs Of Dwight Yorke were back after a few weeks off, but hit their stride early with a first minute goal from Jake Dean against Shaka. He grabbed another couple in the first half, and Callum Jones ensured they went in 4-3 up at the break after Krisstian Ebanks-Perrin scored two and Mark Brookes another for Shaka. Shaka scored three in as many minutes early in the second half through Ebanks-Perrin, Luke Waiting and Ryan Green, but Dean quickly pulled one back. Gangs stepped up the pressure and once Wez Barker leveled things up and Jones put them in front with 10 minutes left, further goals from Barker, Josh Morrissey and Connor Harding sealed a hard fought win, with James Holden’s goal for Shaka just a consolation.

Black Jack were back after a few weeks off, and took on a Beercalona team who won on the opening night last week, but who were short a few players after their endeavors on Sunday. Black Jack took advantage, and goals from Jack Roberts, Luke Waiting and two from Harri Budd saw them lead 4-0 at the break. Budd scored twice more and Waiting got his second of the game after the break, with Beercalona’s only reply coming from Martin Bell. Europeans were back for a second game after last week’s hammering at the hands of Wellspring, and they got off to a flying start as Fawad gave them the lead in the first minute against Rooneytunes. They haven’t quite managed the miraculous improvement they would have needed after last week’s performance, but they did manage to half the number of goals they conceded last week as Chris Sinclair scored 4, Cameron Wilson three, Ash Taylor two, while Cian Gilllespie, Cameron Higginbottom and an own goal clinched a 12-1 win for Rooneytunes, which at least shows a level of improvement for the new team.

Stroke Titty were looking to recover from last week’s opening night defeat to Total Bala, while Wellspring had that incredible start against Europeans. There two teams are playing in different levels now though, and Stroke lead 4-2 at the break as Sam Tattersall scored two, Conor Dolan and Ryan Stevens one each, while Lewis Arden and Mike Devitt replied for Wellspring. Stroke eased clear in the second period as Jay Willingham scored two, Dolan and Tattersall the others, with George Quayle scoring Wellspring’s only second half reply.

WE CURRENTLY HAVE SPACES AVAILABLE IN OUR TUESDAY LEAGUE. GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS OR TO REGISTER YOUR TEAM.

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

Hmmmm, we don’t currently have the score cards for the Wednesday league, so the review of those games will follow when we have them. Watch this space…….

So that’s the World Cup done and dusted, and it won’t be long before we’re moaning about the weather again, so can we please just get back to having our normal weekly game of football?

league news

The new TUESDAY LEAGUE kicked off this week, but with a space still remaining any new teams could still sign up and not start the season behind any of the other teams as there’s still time to catch the games up.

The next new league to start after that is the MONDAY LEAGUE, which kicks off a week on Monday, 30th July. With a question mark hanging over a couple of teams, there maybe spaces to be had for any new or returning teams. Friendlies available this Monday for anyone who might want a one off trial game before the season starts!

We, as always, would love to add a 5th division to our biggest league night, the SUNDAY LEAGUE, and after a season heavily affected by holidays, the World Cup, festivals and the weather, we should be looking good for at least the next three weeks until the Premier League reappears to cause us problems again!

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANY OF THE ABOVE, FILL IN A ‘JOIN A LEAGUE’ FORM ON THE HOMEPAGE OR CALL OR TEXT 07809252658

sunday league

With the World Cup Final on the agenda, none of Kinky Slipper, El Caliente, Real Maskid or Duno were able to play this week, meaning no Premiership games took place. Maybe next week will be better……

It was a relatively similar story in the Championship as a number of teams continue to struggle throughout the summer months, but at least one game survived as Stockport Eagles took on a Wellspring team who have been mostly absent from the Sunday league this season. Playing on other nights has obviously kept them active, so despite going into this game as heavy underdogs they were only two down at the interval as Ray Donnelly scored both of the Eagles goals. Wellspring were back in it 7 minutes into the second half as Mike Devitt grabbed a goal, but the promotion chasers pulled clear in the latter stages as Ryan McAndrew and Paul Waugh scored to see Eagles go 6 points clear of Kipsta at the top of the table, with Kipsta having a couple of games in hand.

With Ladzio absent for a second week in a row, Sevilla Lacatalent had the chance to close the gap at the top of the table as they took on Inter Your Sister. A close first half saw just the one goal, from Max Liversedge, give Inter the narrow lead at the break. He scored his second two minutes into the second half, and his third 9 minutes from time to edge Inter closer to the win, and though Mark Lomas pulled one back for Sevilla two minutes later, Inter looked to have it won when Craig Johnson quickly added Inter’s 4th. Sevilla didn’t want to let this one go easily, and David Witter pulled two back to give us a grandstand finish, but Inter held on for the win to move them to within a point of second spot. Step Brothers and FC Stront Bakken are at the other end of the spectrum, both trying to avoid relegation into the bottom flight, which for Step Brothers would be a first. The Bucket Boys started the night off bottom of the table, but they lead at half time through Sam Fitzpatrick’s 6th minute goal. Step Brothers were level two minutes after the break as Dom Cioffi got a goal, and they went in front when Chris Sinclair scored with 15 minutes left to play. Within two minutes Stront Bakken ‘keeper Connor Atkinson scored a freak goal from a long clearance to make it 2-2, and Declan Matthews won the game for them with two goals in a minute as we headed towards the full time whistle. Stront Bakken leapfrog Step Brothers to leave one of the Ballers originals staring at their first season in the bottom division.

Deportivo Lack Of Talent have been clinging onto top spot in recent weeks with an on fire Beercalona breathing down their necks, but they were up against an in form Rooneytunes this week. This was another game with a tight first half, but the only two goals went the way of Rooneytunes as Josh Borthwick and Dec Church gave them a 2-0 half time lead. Borthwick made it three 6 minutes after the restart, and though Ashley Ellwood pulled one back for Deportivo with 17 to play, Rooneytunes were the team that finished the stronger as Borthwick added another three to his personal total, and Rooneytunes now sit just 4 points behind Deportivo with a game in hand. After a strong start to the season with three straight wins, The Veterens had suffered three staight defeats to all but end their promotion hopes for the season. A win over a struggling FC AOTS would give them a narrow chance of staying in the mix, and a crazy first 9 minutes saw the teams share 6 goals. The Vets twice lead through and Paul Atherton goal and an own goal, but two Adam Duty goals pegged them back straightaway before Eoghan Scott edged AOTS in front. Atherton’s second made it 3-3, but it was advantage AOTS at the break as debutant Zac Jamieson got a first Ballers goal on 14 minutes. Simon Grainger leveled up for The Veterans 5 minutes into the second half, and did it again after Scott had grabbed his second to edge AOTS in front again. Duty got his third 8 minutes from time, and AOTS lead by two for the first time when Charlie Hutchinson scored 5 minutes later. That was the end of the scoring as AOTS pick up a first win of the season to edge away from the wooden spoon position.

In friendlies, Beercalona turned up despite their opposition having cancelled, and with Insole having already arrived before their opposition had told us they couldn’t play, the two teams from opposite ends of the Ballers leagues played off in a friendly. The League Two team put up a decent fight, before Insole ran out 8-4 winners with two goals each from Kyle Clarke, Matthew Atkinson and Kurtes Curran, while Jay Ratcliffe grabbed a double for Beercalona. Kipsta Cobras were also the victims of a late cancellation this week, something that hardly ever happens, but Stront Bakken were kind enough to stop on and give them a game which turned out to be a reasonably competitive one. Kipsta ran out 7-3 winners as the Bucket Boys tired in the second period, with Callum Jones and Warren Yeo scoring two goals each.

THE SUNDAY EVENING LEAGUE REMAINS FULL, BUT THERE ARE QUESTION MARKS OVER THE CONTINUED PARTICIPATION OF A COUPLE OF TEAMS, SO IF YOU WANTED TO JOIN IT’S DEFINITELY WORTH ASKING THE QUESTION…..

monday league

As we get to the business end of the season, the Premiership title has become a two horse race between Not A Chance and AC Milmanchester, with the possibility of the title being decided this week a real thing. First up were Milmanchester, who needed to beat Phantom Brazilians in their last game of the season to force Not A Chance to win their final two games for the title. An explosive first 5 minutes saw 4 goals, two for each team, as Matt Barton and James Stanton scored either side of a Jason Singleton double for ACM. Milmanchester edged in front through goals from Reece Nevins and Singleton, but there was only one goal in it at the break as Jimmy Leeson pulled one back a minute before the break. Another quick start to the second half saw Milmanchester remain a goal ahead after Singleton’s third was quickly followed by Leeson’s second, and we were level again when Chris Gee scored with 18 minutes left. Billy Gallagher restored Milmanchester’s lead yet again with 11 to play, but we headed towards the final 5 minutes level as Stanton scored his second. ACM needed the win, and they got it as Singleton got his 5th and the winner to leave them 5 points clear before Not A Chance kicked off this week. They were taking on J Stands Barmy Army in a game that didn’t look like being a gimme as they looked to remain in control of their own destiny, but they did score first through Kyle Bell’s third minute goal. J Stands turned things around during the midway point of the half as Jay Willingham scored two and Jimmy Leeson another as they went 3-1 up. Chris Priestley pulled one back for the Chancers, but Aaron Collins made it 4-2 to J Stands at the break. Bell got his second 5 minutes into the second period to keep the title hopefuls in touch, but they found themselves three behind with 12 minutes to play as Reece Nuttall got on the score sheet and Collins got his second. Champions find a way, and the Chancers roared back with 4 goals in 5 minutes from Mark Usher, Dom Andrew, Ryan Usher and Priestley to leave them on the brink of playing for the title next week. It wasn’t to be however, as Leeson got his second (which made up for an earlier penalty miss…..) to deny Not A Chance the win and the chance of the title. AC Milmanchester regain the crown they lost last season in the most dramatic of circumstances.

The title in the Championship was already decided before the second meeting of the top two as Diva Fever couldn’t last the course after a promising start as they finish second to Jeremy Cheadle. Cheadle were well in control at the break as three Phil Monaghan goals and another from Alex Whelan saw them lead 4-1 at the break, an own goal being the only Diva reply. Monaghan got his 4th two minutes after the restart, but Joe Dodd and John Brookes quickly pulled two back for Diva before Monaghan added his 5th to keep Cheadle three up. Dodd pulled two more back to bring the score back to 6-5, but the champs finished the stronger as Whelan added two more and Monaghan his 6th to give Cheadle a winning end to their successful league campaign. Pathetico Madrid were looking for a third win in a row this week after a season of struggle both in terms of getting players on the pitch and picking up any results when they do! The final game of Nice Buns first full season with us started with them taking the lead through Dale Kirkham’s third minute goal, but the returning Danny Hamlett quickly drew Pathetico level. Paul Cheetham restored the Buns lead, and two goals in as many minutes from Cheetham and Charlie Williamson in the final 5 minutes of the half put them in control at the break. Williamson got his second three minutes into the second half, and his third 10 minutes from time took the result beyond doubt as Buns looked like having one of their good weeks! Nathan Thomson did pull one back a minute later, and James Litttlewood got their third three minutes from time, but in those three minutes Kirkham still had time to grab two more to give Buns a comfortable victory to end the season.

Exciting news in friendly action this week as the former Monday Premiership champions Ruud van Nipplerooy finally returned to Ballers action with a friendly against Netsix & Chill. They may take a little time to get back to the side they once were though, as two Mike Pinder goals were enough to give Netsix a 2-1 victory with Joe Lailey getting the Nips consolation.

THE NEW MONDAY LEAGUE STARTS ON 30TH JULY. WE CURRENTLY HAVE A SPACE AVAILABLE FOR A NEW OR RETURNING TEAM, BUT WE KNOW IT WON’T STICK AROUND LONG, SO GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS.

tuesday league

The opening night of the new Tuesday season started with a couple of games in each division and a couple of new teams on show, both of them with very differing results. The first of the new teams were the first ever Ballers Monday league winners, Total Bala, who were taking on Championship winners Stroke Titty in an interesting looking game. The opening 10 minutes passed by without a goal but with chances at either end, before two goal in as many minutes from John Wood and Rick Kelly gave Total a two goal advantage. A second from Kelly three minutes from the break seemed to have put them in control, but Joe Lailey pulled one back early in the second half as Stroke finally took one of their chances. Almost immediately Kelly restored the three goal lead, and Wood’s second with 17 left to play looked to have put them out of sight. Jay Willingham got another back for Stroke, but as they continued to chase the game they were picked off in the latter stages as Kelly and Paul Thornton scored two, Wood and Ste Yates one apiece in the final 12 minutes to ease Total to an impressive opening night win. Michu At De Gea Ba’s Wednesday league debut came against last season’s runners up Shaka, and it looked like getting off to a winning start as Fidelis Eberegbe, Matt Barton and Adam Porter gave them a three goal lead in the opening 9 minutes. Eberegbe’s second in the 16th minute meant it was already a long way back for Shaka, but they made inroads in the final 5 minutes of the half as Ryan Green and Tom Hannan halved the deficit before the break. Barton got his second 4 minutes after the break, and they looked to have the game won with 9 minutes left as Porter also got his second. We looked like having an interesting last few minutes when Hannan grabbed a couple of quickfire goals with three minutes to play, but Michu held on to join Total on maximum points from the opening night.

The second new team were Europeans, and they looked to hold their own in the opening 10 minutes as Jamie Berrisford’s two goals for Wellspring were replied to by Dani. Things quickly started going south for the new team as Wellspring shared the goals around with George Quayle scoring two and Nathan Wilkinson, Lewis Arden, Mike Devitt and Shane Bridges all getting first half goals with just a solitary Dani reply at the other end. Wellspring made sure they would be taking top spot on the opening night as they fired in 15 unanswered second half goals to indicate that Europeans may have a way to go to get up to speed with the Ballers game. Berrisford got 4, Devitt three, Jack Kerton, Quayle and Bridges two each, Arden and an own goal the others. There’s always next week…… Mercifully the other game in the Championship was much tighter, as Beercalona and Rooneytunes, two teams who are familiar with each other from the Sunday league, went into the break all square at 0-0. Tom Ratcliffe finally broke the deadlock with 20 minutes to play, then added a second 5 minutes later, and as Rooneytunes tried to find a away back into the game Martin Bell added another couple in the final 10 minutes to give Beercalona three points on opening night.

THERE ARE STILL SPACES AVAILABLE IN THE TUESDAY LEAGUE, WITH ANY TEAMS JOINING NOW AND PLAYING NEXT WEEK STILL ABLE TO CATCH GAMES UP AS THE SEASON GOES ON. GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS. 

wednesday league

A couple of games played in the Wednesday league this week as we were forced to let Stockport Eagles down after Gareth Lager Sometimes Cider found better things to do….. Ajax Treesdown looked to take advantage of this turn of events as they could go three points clear with a win over Exeter Gently. It didn’t start the way they would have wanted as Exeter flew into a three goal lead with the Ajax defence all over the place. Mike Belshaw opened the scoring and Tom Harrison added two more as they scored three in as many minutes before Daniel Kitchingham quickly pulled one back for Ajax. Within 10 minutes Ajax were two up as Josh Batch got their second, Sam Cawthra the leveler, before Callum Jones grabbed two. ‘Keeper Will Hudson slotted home a penalty to give them a three goal lead, and though Belshaw pulled one back three minutes from half time, Cawthra’s second made it 7-4 at the break. Jones got his third 5 minutes after the break, and the game was done when Jordan Hardman and Jones added further goals with 15 minutes still to play. James Magnani made it 10-5 as Exeter gamely kept at it, but Jones got his 5th a minute later to restore the 6 goal lead. Harrison grabbed two more in the final few minutes, but Ajax had the last word as Kitchingham, who originally started the comeback, finished the game off with their 12th in the final minute. Wellspring and Magpie had only previously met once, when they played out a tight 2-2 draw in a friendly early last season, so we expected this one might be close as well. It started with a goal in the opening minute from Callum Walmsley to give Wellspring the lead, and their lead was doubled through Jack Phillips goal half way through the period. Tomasz Glebiowski pulled one back for Magpie before the break, and they turned things around with two goals in 5 second half minutes from Mariusz Koszla and Stanislaw Cierpiatka to put them on the brink of a first win of the season. Wellspring denied them the victory and shared the points after Phillips second of the game 7 minutes from time left us with a full time score of 3-3.

THE WEDNESDAY LEAGUE REMAINS FULL, BUT GARETH LAGER BETTER PULL THEIR FINGERS OUT IF THEY WANT TO KEEP THEIR LEAGUE SPACE! IF YOU WANT AN IMMEDIATE START HAVE A LOOK AT ANY OF OUR OTHER LEAGUE NIGHTS! 

So that was the World Cup.

A summer of weather that we’re unlikely to see again made beers and barbeques the order of the day. An England performance that, despite what the negative nancies would say, was far better than the vast majority of people expected, provided a level of overall positivity that hasn’t been seen since the summer of ’96 (for those of you old enough to remember it). All the violence, racism and homophobia that we were told was going to be rampant at this event was nowhere to be seen, and even the final itself provided an unexpected surprise as the previously deadly dull French team found their shooting boots to see off a Croatian team who were far better than any of the more unrealistic England fans would give them credit for. If their goalkeeper was capable of moving they might have even won it.

It’s strange how people’s feelings can change in a period of time. This England team that went into the tournament with no expectations got much further than anyone could have hoped, playing a style of football that was pleasing on the eye, despite us having no stand out world stars. Yet now we keep hearing that we only beat Tunisia, Panama and Sweden, and ended up with a record of three wins and three defeats. I’ll be honest before the game started I wasn’t even that confident we’d beat Panama and to be fair the only game we lost that really counted was the semi-final.

Then there’s those who say we’ll never have a better chance than this because the big nations will come back stronger, but is there any guarantee of that? Germany and Spain have just seen a genuine golden generation of players reach the end of the line, with both bowing out on a bit of a damp squib, but who’s to say the next batch of players coming through will be anywhere near as good as this one? Spain had no real previous history before they won three major tournaments in a row, the last one being in 2012. Before that their best effort had been a runners up place in the 1984 European Championships, and prior to 2008 they were always a fancied team that never really did anything. For all we know by the time the next World Cup comes around it might be Iran or Saudi Arabia that have stumbled on their golden generation…..

Sweden finished top of Germany’s group, then beat the team ranked 6th in the world in Switzerland, before they faced England. Hindsight being the wonderful thing it is, and with England winning the game relatively comfortably (if you take Pickford’s three very good saves out of the equation), all of a sudden beating Sweden was no better than beating the Dog and Duck. As in a pub team called the Dog and Duck, not literally beating a dog and a duck.

It might well be that scoring early in the semi-final was, again with hindsight, a bad thing, as an England team who had played with freedom and a lack of fear went into the second half of a game knowing they were 45 minutes away from the final. Throw ins and free kicks took an age to be taken, and we sank further and further back as the reality kicked in that we were getting closer, and the mentality became about just holding on to what we had. Once the equiliser came and the team had to try and start playing again, they had nothing left in the tank and the end result became inevitable. What might have been……

That said, can anyone really say that Southgate could have done any more than what he did? Would you have had McGuire and Walker as two of your back three before we started? Trippier at right wing back? Sterling frustrates with his lack of an end product, but the work he did unnerved defenders and created space for others to play, and whether you like it or not we never looked like the same team when he wasn’t on the pitch.

So where does all this fit in with Ballers?

Well, while we’ve personally massively enjoyed the World Cup, the weather and the opportunities to socialise, from a business point of view the last few weeks have been a nightmare! Even things like 11-a-side teams pre-season training sessions have been moved to different nights which has meant some teams haven’t been able to fulfill their fixtures, and England managed to play a game on ALL of our league nights, massively affecting all leagues. Which is lovely.

The one positive we are now hoping to take from this, now that it’s all over, is that we will have the ‘Wimbledon’ effect (where everyone picks up a tennis racket for two weeks a year), and everyone will want to get themselves back out on the pitch. As with a new year it probably won’t happen straightaway, as everyone probably needs a bit of time to ease back into ‘normal’ life where the reality is that there isn’t football to watch with a beer every night.

It’s funny how things work out. I’d made my peace and was even quite happy at the idea of losing a full night’s business on our busiest night (and probably the night after with the hangovers) when England looked like they might make the final. The positive I took from it when we lost was that we might get a few games one, and then as we got to the day I still found myself disappointed when teams cancelled their games! It was only France v Croatia for goodness sake……

Anyway, that was the summer of ’18. We know it’s not quite over yet, but the thing that most people will remember it for is.

So drag yourself off your bar stool or garden furniture, get in touch with the lads, and get yourselves down to Ballers for a game. You should probably do it quickly too, as despite the issues with getting games on in recent weeks, if the current teams get themselves playing again we only actually have 4 spaces to fill!

It’s time to start thinking about those post-World Cup resolutions! We’re sure everyone has been enjoying the BBQ’s and beers over the past month, but now it’s nearly time to get back to it.

Not going to lie, while we’ve personally been massively enjoying the World Cup and the incredible weather, it’s done nothing for getting players on the pitches of Ballers in recent weeks. At least one of them will be over by next week…..

LEAGUE NEWS

We conceded defeat in our attempts to get the NEW TUESDAY LEAGUE started before the World Cup ended, with the first scheduled night having dropped on the night of England’s second round game, and then the World Cup semi final, so we’ll be getting kicked off NEXT WEEK, with a potential space still available for anyone wanting to get back into it.

The current MONDAY LEAGUE is approaching the end of the season, and we’re looking at having a couple of spaces for any teams wanting to get involved. Now’s the time to let us know.

FOR ANY INFORMATION ON ANY OF THE ABOVE, FILL IN A JOIN A LEAGUE FORM FROM THE HOME PAGE.

SUNDAY LEAGUE

A better overall turnout this week saw at least two games played in each division, and after missing the last couple of weeks El Caliente were looking to continue their impressive recent form with a tough test against Champions and leaders Duno FC. Early goals from Liam Watson and Jay Berrisford had us level at 1-1 with 6 minutes on the clock, and it remained tight going into the final 10 minutes of the half as Nathaniel Odysseus-Kingsley replied to goals from Jack Cope and Zak (just Zak, he only has one name, a bit like Cher) to leave us at 3-2. It was the leaders who pulled away with three goals in the final 7 minutes of the half, two from Ray Donnelly and one from Calvin Alexander. Caliente needed to get back in it early in the second half, but the next goal also went Duno’s way with Donnelly getting his second, and though Danny King did get the next goal for Caliente, Duno pulled away with further goals from Watson (2), Alexander and Donnelly. Ross Grealey got another for Caliente but that was obviously not going to mean much, and Donnelly got his 5th before Watson joined him by adding another couple before the full time whistle. Insole have been looking back to their old selves lately, while Bangers & Pash have barely been here but were here this week. They didn’t really turn up for the first half as Insole raced into a 4 goal lead through goals from Kurtes Curran, two from Kyle Clarke and another for Liam Atkinson. MacKenzie Hope got Bangers on the score sheet 4 minutes before the break, but Jack Atkinson made sure Insole were 4 up at the break three minutes later. Jack and an own goal pretty much sealed the win for Insole, and though Michael (just Michael) got another for Bangers, Insole completed a comfortable win with further goals from Jordan Cunningham, Curran, Liam Atkinson and Clarke. Insole have jumped from bottom to second with two consecutive wins.

New boys Netsix & Chill agreed to play two games this week as they attempt to catch up missed games, and they started the evening by taking on Team Tom, who were winless going into this week’s games. They looked like remaining winless as Netsix raced into a 5 goal lead in the opening 15 minutes, Joe Cole with three of them, Jaden Robinson and Kai Lawless the other two. Tom Hornsby got the Tommers on the board, and his second three minutes into the second half meant it could be game on again. Lewis Hall edged Netsix clear again, but Liam Bancroft quickly replied and Adam Priest added another to send us into the final 15 minutes at 6-4. The new team finished on a high though, as Robinson and James Riley grabbed late goals to give Netsix their first Ballers win at the second attempt. Their third attempt will be one for them to forget as the immediately took on one of the promotion favourites Stockport Eagles. The Eagles soared into a three goal half time lead through two goals from Ryan McAndrew and one from Ray Donnelly, but on a hot Sunday evening Netsix wilted in the second period. Paul Waugh got two, Liam Watson three, Calvin Alexander, McAndrew and Michael Winn one apiece, with Joe Cole denying Eagles a clean sheet in the latter stages.

With Ladzio missing their first game since joining Ballers, Sevilla Lacatalent had the chance to close the gap on the leaders as they took on the very hit and miss Step Brothers. Thomas Cioffi gave Step Brothers an early lead, and namesake Dom restored their lead after Jake Riley had briefly leveled for Sevilla, before Riley scored two in a minute to send Sevilla into the break with a 3-2 lead. Things turned back in the Brothers favour as Tom and Dom scored in the first 5 minutes of the second half to put them back in front, and a couple of pieces of magic from Chris Moore looked to have given them a shock win as they lead 6-3 with 8 minutes left . Riley got his 4th to reduce the deficit, and we had a grand finale as Sam Melling and David Witter scored in the final few minutes to give each team a share of the spoils. Inter Your Sister were looking to add to their first win of the season last week as they took on FC Stront Bakken, but they fell behind in the 5th minute as Declan Matthews gave the Bucket Boys the lead. The returning Brandon Byers-Wilkes leveled up for Inter, and they lead 3-1 at the break as Dave Smythe helped himself to two goals before adding a third in the first minute of the second period. The game looked done as Gaz Sumner added their 5th a minute later, and though Matthews pulled one back for Bakken Inter quickly added two more through Smythe and Byers-Wilkes. The game was lost for Stront Bakken, but Matthews did grab another couple before Sumner completed the scoring in the final minute. All of a sudden Inter have gone from being bottom to being 4 points off second place, Stront Bakken are now bottom.

Deportivo Lack Of Talent remained top going into this week’s round of fixtures and would have been expecting to maintain their lead as they took on bottom placed SK Six. SK may be without a point this season, but they don’t often take a hammering and they hit the front through Harry Bridge’s 9th minute goal. Their lead lasted just two minutes as Josh Jackson drew Deportivo level, and two goals in two minute just before the break from Ben Proctor and Rob Parker put them in control heading into the second period. SK got the first goal of that second half as Brad Bent scored 6 minutes in, but Parker restored the two goal lead with 12 minutes remaining. The same player finished this one off with a couple of goals in the final few minutes, with Bent grabbing SK’s third as a consolation in the final minute. That result meant Deportivo would remain top regardless of the result of the game between in form Beercalona and The Veterans. An own goal in the third minute was the only goal of the opening stages as Beercalona hit the front, but things really opened up after Simon Grainger’s 11th minute leveler for the Vets. It didn’t go the Vets way for the most part though, as goals from Jay Ratcliffe and two from Tom Ratcliffe put Beercalona three up within 5 minutes of that equiliser. Grainger got his second to keep the Vets in touch, but Beercalona smashed in 4 more before the break to take firm control of this one. Martin Bell got the first before Jay Ratlciffe added two either side of Scott Williams’ goal. With the game effectively won the second half was a little quieter, but Jay Ratcliffe got his 4th 8 minutes into the second period. Debutant and probably one time only visitor James Brierley got a goal for The Veterans 10 minutes from time, but Bell got his second and the final goal of the game 7 minutes from time to leave us looking at a two horse race for the League Two title this season. FC AOTS were back for a second week in a row, which in itself is an achievement recently! They took on the hit and miss Rooneytunes and didn’t get off to the best of starts as Jack Hodkinson scored a hat trick in the first 5 minutes to put them in control. Paul Buckley (no relation) got a debut goal for AOTS three minutes later, but Hodkinson got his 4th 4 minutes before the break to see Rooneytunes into the break with a 4-1 lead. He added another alongside an Ashley Taylor goal to put them well in control with 18 minutes left, and though Tom Dennerly pulled another back for AOTS, Cameron Higginbottom and Chris Sinclair quickly replied for Rooneys. Buckly got a second near the end, but there was still time for Josh Borthwick and Hodkinson to add further goals to give Rooneytunes a comfortable win.

THE SUNDAY LEAGUE REMAINS FULL, BUT WE REMAIN DETERMINED TO ADD A 5TH DIVISION ONCE THIS WORLD CUP THING IS OVER. GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS.

MONDAY LEAGUE

One league game and two friendlies took place this week as the Monday season splutters towards it’s conclusion with the World Cup, the weather, and even some teams 11-a-side pre-season training being shifted, hopefully back to normal soon. The one league game that took place was the final game of Netsix & Chill’s somewhat disappointing season which started off with them as favourites for the Championship crown, but will finish with them ending up in third place at best. A win over Pathetico Madrid would secure that third place slot, but they were two down in the opening 8 minutes as James Littlewood and Luke Warburton got early goals. Netsix were back in it 10 minutes before the break as Wayne Reeves pulled one back, but Warburton’s second three minutes later gave them a two goal lead at the break. A frustrating night for Netsix saw them struggle to close the gap in a tight second period, and they only got on the score sheet again through James Bamgbose’ last minute strike, but Pathetico made it two wins in a row, which is unheard of!

J Stands Barmy Army were back for their second game as they took on possible top division opposition in Diva Fever this week. A hat trick on each side from Jamie Stokes and Chris Murray were amongst the highlights, but J Stands edged a close game 9-7 with Reece Nuttall and Jay Willingham grabbing a brace for them. AC Milmanchester and Nice Buns were also in friendly action, and as you’d expect it was the top division team who had the better of things here. Two goals each from MArtin Gordon, James Elmore and Jason Singleton helped them to a 10-4 win.

WE NOW HAVE A SPACE IN THE MONDAY EVENING LEAGUE AS WE APPROACH THE END OF THE CURRENT SEASON. TO GET SOME GAME TIME UNDER YOUR BELT AHEAD OF THE NEW SEASON, GET IN TOUCH.

TUESDAY LEAGUE

With the start of the Tuesday season delayed by another week, there was just the one friendly played this week as Michu At De Gea Ba eased themselves into action on a different night with a friendly against Wellspring. As you would imagine from a team who were three times winners of the Wednesday league, they were the stronger side here tonight against a side who are desperate to stay in the second division for the new season, and with Matt Barton scoring 8 of their 11 goals, they eased to a comfortable 11-4 win.

THE NEW TUESDAY LEAGUE STARTS NEXT WEEK. WE ARE LOOKING AT BEING ABLE TO FIND A SPACE FOR ONE MORE TEAM, SO GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS.

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

Ha, as if there were any games played on a Wednesday this week……

HOPEFULLY WE’LL BE BACK TO A FULL HOUSE OF GAMES NEXT WEEK, AS THE WEDNESDAY LEAGUE REMAINS FULL. CHECK OUT THE OTHER NIGHT’S FOR CURRENT SPACES.

The brand new Tuesday league kicks off next week, on 17th July, two days after the World Cup Final…… Spaces are available for any new teams looking to get started.

All games are 50 minutes in length, with kick offs at 8pm and 9pm, priced at £5 per player per game. Plus we offer all of this:

⚽ FULL FIXTURES, TABLES, RESULTS AND STATS (goals, man of the matches, clean sheets, win percentages) POSTED ONLINE

⚽ GAME OF THE DAY HIGHLIGHTS POSTED ON FACEBOOK WEEKLY

⚽ HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT POSTED ON INSTAGRAM AND TWITTER WEEKLY

⚽ FACEBOOK LIVE STREAMING, GETTING AROUND THE GAMES AT ONE PARTICULAR TIME, WEEKLY

⚽ WEEKLY LEAGUE REVIEWS POSTED ONLINE

For more details or to register your team, complete a ‘Join A League’ form from the homepage, call or text 07809252658 or email [email protected]

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)

Given that we’ve finished this before kick off of the England v Belgium game, we can only assume the country remains in a state of hysteria about the chances of it coming home, or a bit of reality has kicked in.

LEAGUE NEWS

First up, for anyone who NEEDS to start playing football immediately having been inspired by games like France v Denmark and Senegal v Colombia, we have our BRAND NEW TUESDAY LEAGUE starting NEXT WEEK. There are still a couple of spaces to be had, and if England finished second you even have an extra week to sort out your team.

The FINAL BALLERS WORLD CUP HEAT is THIS SUNDAY at 3pm, again we have the final spaces to fill. If you want to give Germany another chance to win the real World Cup, get your team registered!

We still have the option to add a mini league to our Sunday league in the next couple of weeks, and spaces would still be available in that.

FOR DETAILS ON ANY OF THE ABOVE, FILL IN A JOIN A LEAGUE FORM ON THE HOMEPAGE

SUNDAY LEAGUE

The England game, holidays etc caused a bit of havoc in the Sunday league this week, as such, no Premiership games were played.

The Championship saw one game played as two of the promotion favourites in Kipsta Cobras and Stockport Eagles went head to head. The returning Connor Harding gave Kipsta a second minute lead, and they went into the break with a three goal lead as Kieran Mills and Liam Atkinson scored in the 14th and 23rd minutes. Eagles were given hope at the start of the second period as Ray Donnelly pulled one back two minutes in, and his second with 7 minutes left set us up for a big finish. Mills got his second a minute later to ease Kipsta two goals up again, but Donnelly got this third with three minutes to go. Kipsta were able to hold on, and they go level with Eagles at the top with a game in hand after ending Eagles 100% start to the season while maintaining their own.

Ladzio were looking to continue their flying start against a McMuffin Men team who have had a shaky opening to the season, but McMuffin’s didn’t read the script in the first half as Sam Delgado got three to give them a 3-0half time lead. When Charley Eyre, Logan Sherer and Delgado added three more in the opening 10 minutes of the second half the Ladzio 100% start was over. Eyre and Mark Bailey added two more in the final 5 minutes, with George Hibbs getting a consolation to deny McMuffin ‘keeper Dustin Lizaba a clean sheet. FC Stront Bakken and Step Brothers have had a mixed start to the season, so this game was anyone’s for the taking. It looked to be the Bucket Boys who were taking it as Lukas Voveris gave them a half time lead with a 6th minute goal, and Declan Matthews doubled it in the opening minute of the second period. Dom Cioffi pulled one back with 19 minutes to play, but an own goal and Voveris second of the game made it 4-1 on 37 minutes. Cioffi pulled another back two minutes later, and when he scored two in two minutes with 5 minutes left on the clock, Step Brothers had nicked what looked like an unlikely point.

Deportivo Lack Of Talent have been one of the most consistent teams in the opening weeks of the season, having struggled through most of the last campaign, and they went up against leaders The Veterans with The Vets 100% record on the line. Deportivo took early control as Rob Parker and Ben Proctor put them two up in the first 8 minutes. Paul Atherton pulled one back for the Vets 10 minutes before the break, but Brad Peet restored the Deportivo two goal lead two minutes later. The Veterans started the second half strongly and goals from Simon Grainger and Paul Atherton made it 3-3 with 18 minutes left. They weren’t level for long as Parker got his second to give Deportivo their lead back. Despite plenty of effort in the very testing conditions there were no more goals and Deportivo leapfrog The Vets into first place. Defences were hardly on top in the game between Beercalona and Rooneytunes as Beercalona raced into a 4 goal lead in the opening 7 minutes as Jay Ratcliffe got three and Martin Bell the other. Saul Heavyside pulled a couple back for Rooneytunes halfway through the period, and namesake Cain also got on the score sheet after Tom Ratcliffe and an own goal had pulled Beercalona clear again. Tom Ratcliffe’s second made it 7-3 at the break, but Beercalona ran away with it in the second half as Bell got 4, Jay Ratcliffe three, Tom Ratcliffe two and Scott Williams the other, with two Cain Heavyside and one Dec Church goals in response for Rooneytunes. For those without calculators that made the final score 19-7. The new boys of Droylsden’s Finest could yet find a place as a 7th team in League Two (if we can make it work), and they were back for a second game this week against fellow young guns SK Six. The first half showed that they are still learning how to play the Ballers game, as two goals from Steve Blunsten and one each for Max Blunsten Shepherd Brad Bent and Harry Bridge saw them lead 5-2 at the break, with two goals from Jack Philips in reply for the new boys. Things changed dramatically at the start of the second half, Joe Bulman got the first of 6 goals in 10 minutes as Droylsden turned it around, with 4 of them coming from Liam Mercer and the other from Nathan Daly. SK hit back with a couple of their own from Bent to trail by one with 12 minutes to play, but Mercer got his 5th of the half to seal a first Ballers win for the Finest.

THE SUNDAY LEAGUE IS CURRENTLY FULL, BUT WE HAVE THE OPTION OF ADDING A MINI LEAGUE IN THE NEXT COUPLE OF WEEKS IF ANYONE WANTS TO GET INVOLVED.

MONDAY LEAGUE

With the Monday league restored to capacity, it was a couple of teams inabilities to field a side in the heat that caused us to lose a couple of games this week. Not A Chance went into this weeks games looking to secure their place at the top of the Premiership table as they took on Pink Panthers, and they started well as Dom Andrew, Tom Usher and Jack Halsall put them three up in the first 9 minutes. Gage Eme pulled one back for the Panthers a minute into the second half, and they stayed in contention after Reece Brown scored a minute after Ryan Usher had restored the Chancers three goal lead. The Chancers ran away with it in the final 10 minutes though as Halsall and Usher added to their total before ‘guest’ player Simon added three in the final 7 minutes to make the final score 9-2. The winner of the first AC Milmanchester v Expected Toulouse game of the season would most likely go on to challenge Not A Chance for the title, and James Elmore gave ACM the lead in the second minute. Anthony Pugh made it two in the 9th minute, and though Liam Mottram pulled one back for Toulouse half way through the period, Milmanchester lead 3-1 at the break after Simon Hackney scored 4 minutes from half time. David Murphy made it 4 a minute into the second period, but Toulouse were back in it again a minute later as Mottram got his second. Murphy scored again a minute later, and further goals from Hackney and Elmore put Milmanchester out of sight with 7 minutes to play. Callum Rahman got a consolation for the champs two minutes from time, but they fall three points off the pace in their attempts to retain their title. Milmanchester are second, a point behind the leaders.

Jeremy Cheadle and Nice Buns started their campaigns this season with a 5-5 draw on the opening night, but Cheadle have gone on to have the better season so far and look set for promotion to the top flight. They were in comfortable control at the break as Phil Monaghan scored two, Joe Knight and Kieran Monaghan the others as they went in at half time 4-0 up. This was a tough night for Nice Buns, who had been competitive in all of their games this season, but they were well of the pace this week as Jack Whelan added two alongside further goals from Knight and the two Monaghan’s to give Cheadle a comfortable win to go 4 points clear at the top with Diva Fever not playing this week. Class On Fake Grass made their move over to Monday from Tuesday and had a Monday opener against a hit and miss Netsix & Chill who were short a couple of regulars this week. Adam Rawcliffe gave the new side the lead in the opening minute, but Kurtes Curran leveled up for Netsix within a minute. Mike Cocks put Class back in front with just 5 minutes on the clock, and they added 4 more goals without reply in the opening half through Sean Moore, Will Hall and Cocks to lead 6-1 at the break. Another Cocks goal looked to have clinched the win with 21 minutes still to play, but Netsix responded with three goals in 4 minutes to give themselves hope as Lee Tongue, Brad Street and Mike Pinder all scored. Cocks got his 4th with 7 minutes left to end any hopes of an unlikely comeback, and Class get off to a winning start.

THE MONDAY LEAGUE IS CURRENTLY FULL. ALL NEW LEAGUE ENQUIRIES SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO OUR TUESDAY OR SUNDAY LEAGUES. 

TUESDAY LEAGUE

The dying embers of the Tuesday league saw one league game and one friendly as we begin to focus on the new season that could start next week (if England don’t finish second in the group…..). The league game was in the Championship as Beercalona and Turkish Delight finished of their seasons with a bit of a dead rubber. That didn’t affect the intensity in the game though, as Turkish returned from three weeks off to lead 3-0 at the break as Volkan’s opening goal was added to by two from Deigo. Martin Bell pulled one back for Beercalona three minutes after the break, and it was game on again when Craig Scanlon and Tom Ratcliffe scored within a minute of each other to make it 3-3 with 14 to play. It was Beercalona that nicked it through Bell’s second 6 minutes from time as they end the season in a respectable third place.

Rooneytunes came in to give Wellspring a friendly, and for a game that meant nothing it was a belter as Josh (just Josh) scored three and Chris Sinclair two as Rooneytunes ran out surprising 7-6 winners.

THE NEW TUESDAY LEAGUE STARTS NEXT WEEK! SPACES AVAILABLE FOR ANY NEW TEAMS. GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS ASAP!

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

And we’re back for a new season of the Wednesday league with two games played on the opening night. With Michu At De Gea Ba having moved onto the Tuesday league, the title race could be wide open this season, and two of the likely title contenders were in action this week. Stockport Eagles will think they should have been going into this season as title holders, having dropped away towards the end of last season, but they were in front at half time in their first game of the season against Magpie thanks to Ryan McAndrew’s 10th minute goal. They doubled that lead two minutes into the second period through Ben Waugh’s finish, and made it three when the same player added another with 17 to play. They ran away with it in the last 10 as Ray Donnelly added three, Callum Davies and Waugh another each to give Eagles a comfortable opening night win. Ajax Treesdown had a good start to Ballers life in the second half of last season, so might fancy making a decent fist of a title fight this season. They played the imaginatively named Gareth Lager Sometimes Cider in their first Wednesday game, and it was a belter. Matt Snape gave Gareth the lead in the 12th minute, and they were a minute away from holding onto that lead at the break before Evan Farrell drew Ajax level. Ajax were in front for the first time a minute into the second half through Daniel Kitchingham’s goal, and they looked well in control when Sam Cawthra and Kitchingham added further goals to make it 4-1 with 17 minutes to play. Gareth hit back with three goals in 5 minutes to send us into the final 4 minutes at 4-4 as Matt Hanson got one and Louis Isaacs two. It was Ajax who won it as Farrell got his second two minutes from time, and they held on thanks to a man of the match performance from ‘keeper Will Hudson, who kept Gareth at bay in the final couple of minutes.

THE WEDNESDAY LEAGUE IS CURRENTLY FULL. TUESDAY AND SUNDAY ARE THE NIGHTS TO LOOK AT!