With ‘The Beast’ already a distant memory, this week’s review will be significantly longer than last, as barring the impact of the United game on Monday, the other nights all ran rather well.

LEAGUE NEWS

In terms of new teams looking to get all Ballered up, there is only one place to look! Our Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday leagues remain full, and while we will absolutely be wanting to add a SUMMER 5TH DIVISION to the SUNDAY LEAGUE while the 11’s season is over, for now the only option is:

Our NEW MONDAY CHAMPIONSHIP, which kicks off on 19TH MARCH. There’s plenty of interest coming in, but it’s first come, first served for the final couple of spaces

SUNDAY LEAGUE

The brand spanking new Sunday league season kicked off this week, with 4 full divisions and just one game off. More weeks like this would be nice….. Duno were the surprise package for the first half of last season, before falling away to finish their debut Premiership season in a respectable third place. Dench were making their Premiership bow this week, and they quickly found out what it was about as they found themselves 4 goals down at the break through strikes from Luke Newsham, Liam Watson (2) and Jack Cope. Things didn’t get any better for them in the second half, and further goals from Callum Jones, Watson (2), Cope and Newsham handed down a heavy defeat to the top flight new boys, who face Kinky Slipper this week…… Insole started their campaign to regain the title they lost last season against the other top division new boys as Team Tom happily returned to the top flight. They were already starting the countdown til the end of the season after the first 10 minutes as they quickly found themselves 4-0 down as Kyle Clarke, Aaron Campbell, Jake Parker and Jack Atkinson found the net. Andy Walker pulled a goal back on 11 minutes, but Atkinson made it 5-1 three minutes before the break and Clarke made it 6 three minutes into the second. Carl Carter got a second for Team Tom, but Clarke got his third three minutes from time to ease Insole to an opening night win. The current champs started their defence with a potentially tricky game against Kipsta Cobras, who improved as the season went on last time around. It looked like business as usual when Wes Harney gave Kinky the lead on 4 minutes, but Connor Harding scored a brace to turn this one around and Callum Jones made it 3-1 to Kipsta halfway through the opening period. Harney got his second to make it 3-2 at the break, but Jack Horgan restored the two goal Kipsta lead with 19 minutes to play. Kinky aren’t the champions for nothing though, and within 7 minutes they hadn’t only drawn themselves level, they’d opened up a two goal lead! Dean pulled the first back on 33 minutes, James Radcliffe made it 4-4 three minutes later, before Dean and Joe Lailey added two more in as many minutes to put Kinky two clear. They were able to see out the remaining 12 minutes, and start the season with a win.

It looks like we’ve got a new team to watch in the Championship, as Real Maskid made their Ballers debut against a McMuffin Men side who’d improved towards the end of the season to survive and go again at this level. Jake McConnell got the first Maskid goal in the first minute, but Sam Delgado leveled things up for McMuffins in the 16th minute. Darren McConnell restored the Real lead two minutes later, and it was 3-1 4 minutes before the break after Jack Wilson scored. Alec Pattinson gave the new boys a three goal lead in the first minute of the second period and when Darren McConnell made it 5-1 17 minutes from time the wheels well and truly fell off for McMuffin Men for this week. Jack McConnell grabbed three in as many minutes, Darren another, a randommer called Kieran who’s name just appeared on the score card got himself a goal, and Jack scored his 5th and the final goal three minutes from time to give the new boys a heavy opening night win. Prior to that impressive win, we’d have put Inter Row Z down as potential favourites for the Championship title this season, and their opening game against El Caliente was against a side who were coming out of the Premiership. The opening 5 minutes saw a goal apiece as Ray Donnelly replied for Inter after Nathaniel Odysseus-Kingsley had given Caliente an early lead. They were the only goals of a tight first half, but things picked up in the second half with Caliente restoring their lead in the first minute of the half through Ross Grealey’s goal. Donnelly leveled it up again almost immediately, and put Inter in front for the first time 4 minutes later. Michael Winn gave them a two goal lead with 17 minutes to play, but Caliente hit back again through Anthony Sargeant’s goal half way through the period. It was Inter’s night though, and further goals from Kyle Clarke, Jack McDonagh and Winn in the final 7 minutes eased them to a 4 goal victory. Wellspring reached the second tier of the Sunday league for the first time, and played Step Brothers in their opening Championship game. The got the first goal through Lewis Arden in the 3rd minute, but by the 8th minute they were 3-1 down as Rob Sheldon, Tom and Dom Cioffi all scored in quick succession. They were the only goals for a little while, as half time came and went and the game seemed to be drifting towards a Step Brothers victory until Mike Cocks narrowed the deficit in the final few minutes. Wellspring couldn’t find a leveler in the final stages though, and Step Brothers got their season off to a narrow winning start.

FC AOTS will be hoping for a more successful campaign this time around, and started their season against a promoted Deportivo Lack Of Talent who had stumbled over the line at the end of last season, and continued to miss several of their regular starters. AOTS looked to have this one well under control in the early stages as Adam Duty scored 4 and Ben Jamieson the other in the opening 15 minutes. Ashley Ellwood pulled one back for Deportivo, but AOTS were quickly back in control as Charlie Hutchinson and Steve Whittle both added to their tally before half time. Whittle got his second just after the break, before Deportivo finally had a decent spell of their won in the match as Brad Peet, Jake Riley and Rhys Moult all scored to make it 8-4. AOTS kicked on and fired in 4 more to end the game on a high as Duty got his 5th, Hutchinson his second, and Whittle his third and 4th of the game to give AOTS the best possible start. The other two games bode well for a decent League One season, with both games being tight and competitive. Polish Army took a two goal lead in at half time against Stockport Eagles after newbie Bania grabbed both first half goals. There were 4 goals crammed into a very short period in the second half, but they resulted in the Poles maintaining their two goal lead as goals from Bania and Marcin were enough to see off the two goals in reply from James Marshall. SK Dons very kindly voluntarily stayed in the third tier, and looked good to pick up an opening day win as early goals from Kyle Norris, Paddy Bannister and Danny Brookes gave them a three goal half time lead over The Veterans. The Vets had a terrible second half to last season, but they had a good second half here, as they took their chances while the Dons missed theirs, and goals from Paul Atherton (2), Simon Grainger and Andy Carrington saw them recover to claim a 4-3 win.

League Two is where we lost the one game for this week, as new teams Beercalona and SK Six were unable to start until next week. All 4 teams who played this week will be looking for better seasons than last, including Inter Your Sister and FC Stront Bakken, who’ve become quite familiar with each other in recent seasons. Craig Johnson grabbed the opener for Inter in the 7th minute, but Darius Forbes leveled things up a minute later as we went into the break at 1-1. Shaun Jemison gave the Bucket Boys the lead 7 minutes into the second period, before two more Forbes goals sealed an impressive opening night win for Stront Bakken. Is this their season? Pathetico Madrid have undergone a overhaul of their playing staff, and the new look team took on relegated Rooneytunes this week with both teams looking to put down a marker. Just the one first half goal from Jack Hodgkinson was enough for Rooneytunes to lead at the break, before a goal from Saul Heavyside and two from Chris Sinclair put them well in control. Adam Boswell did pull one back for Pathetico, but Cameron Higginbottom killed this one off with Rooney’s 5th before Matt Boswell struck a late consolation for Pathetico.

THE SUNDAY LEAGUE IS CURRENTLY FULL, BUT WE WILL SOON BE LOOKING TO ADD A 5TH DIVISION OVER THE SUMMER PERIOD ONCE THE 11’S SEASON FINISHES. GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS.

MONDAY LEAGUE

Sky are doing us no favours at the minute, with United on the telebox this week, and City set to cause us some disruptions next week. Only one league game and one friendly survived this week as far too many people wanted to watch the team who are fighting to be first losers this season…… The one league game saw AC Milmanchester look to keep the pressure on Expected Toulouse at the top with a win over FC Rhino Ket (or FC Rhino Something as most of their lads say when they come in to pay). Rhino Ket kept things tight in the early stages, and even took the lead on 8 minutes through a Louis Moore goal, but Singelton’s Chris and Jason had Milmanchester in front by the time we’d reached the 11 minute mark. Martin Gordon and Jason added two more before the break to give ACM a comfortable half time lead. The Ketters got the first goal of the second half to reduce the deficit to two as Jack Needham scored, but ACM were always in control and they killed this one off with goals from Gordon (3), Callum Jones (2) and Jason Singleton’s third. Jake Shaw did grab a late goal for Rhino Ket, but Milmanchester roll on towards what seems like being a crucial second game with Expected. We threw Nice Buns under the bus a bit this week, as after a couple of friendly wins in recent weeks we put them in with Expected Toulouse to see what they were really made of……. It was a step too far for them at the moment, as early goals from Jordan Milne and Waz Akram, followed by strikes from Callum Rahman (2) and Liam Mottram made it 5-0 at the break. Jimmy Williamson got Nice Buns on the board two minutes into the second half, and they looked like getting a respectable defeat out of it until Toulouse added 6 more in the final 11 minutes through Milne, Akram, Mottram (2) and Niall Hillen (2). Hopefully a slightly lesser opposition for the Buns next week!

THE FINAL SPACES ARE FILLING UP FOR THE ADDITION OF THE MONDAY CHAMPIONSHIP ON 19TH MARCH. GET IN TOUCH TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE.

TUESDAY LEAGUE

We’ve had to wait a while for a Tuesday like this, but we are finally their with the two full divisions, and only one team stopped us from having a full house of games this week. We’ve got a sneaking feeling that Gangs Of Dwight Yorke may be crowned Tuesday Premiership champions this season, as they sat 12 points clear at the top of the table before this week’s game with Inter Row Z, who still have second place to play for. After a quiet opening 7 minutes, this one burst into life after Ray Donnelly had given Inter the lead. Jason Singleton quickly leveled up for Gangs, before two Aden Jones goals looked to have put them in control. Callum Donnelly pulled one back for Inter, before Singleton and Kyle Clarke exchanged quickfire goals to leave is at 4-3 Gangs after 7 goals in 10 minutes! There were two more in the half, and surprisingly both of them came to Interas Donelly and Ryan McAndrew scored to give them a 5-4 half time lead. We were all square again when Jones grabbed his third with 15 minutes to go, but the Gangs 100% record was in danger when Clarke put Inter back in front with 10 minutes to play. Singleton made it 6-6 in the 47th minute, and there was still time for two Callum Jones goals in the dying embers of the game to give Gangs a very hard fought win. In the fight for second place, both Oooze FC and Only Kruls & Horses remain in contention as only two points separated second and 5th going into this weeks games. Oooze’ form had markedly improved since their recent influx of new players, but they were three down inside 16 minutes this week as Jack Mullern grabbed two and Brad Gilman the third for Kruls. Phil Parker kept Oooze in with a sniff at the break as he scored two minutes from the whistle, and it was game on 5 minutes into the second period as Adam Corr and Parker made it 3-3 with 20 to play. An unfortunate injury to one of Oooze’s players robbed them of his services for the remainder of the game, and from the minute Sean Martin put Kruls back in front 14 minutes from the end they didn’t look back, as Mullern grabbed another couple in the final 10 minutes to send Kruls into second spot. We threw Turkish Delight straight into the top flight for the second half of the season off the back of one comfortable friendly win a few weeks ago, and they faced an out of form Inter Mi Van in their first league game. It was the more experienced Ballers side who hit the front 19 minutes in as Gary Wood grabbed the opener, and they lead by two at the break as Simon Royle made the most of some slack defending from a corner. Turkish Delight started the second half well, and deservedly pulled one back with 19 minutes left through Omar’s goal, but a penalty from Mike Derbyshire 4 minutes later put Inter back in control. The new team ran out of steam in the final stages, and two more from Royle and another from Wood meant the new boys suffered a defeat on their opening league night.

After losing a couple of friendlies in the build up to the start of the Championship, Shaka were looking to make it two wins from two when the games mean something. They were playing Wellspring, who had dropped into the lower league after struggling throughout the first half of the season. Shaka got off to a flyer in this one and lead 4-0 after just 9 minutes, with Tom Hannan, Krisstian Ebanks-Perrin, Andrew Cadwallander and an own goal giving Wellspring an early mountain to climb. It got worse when Liam Paull made it 5 on 19 minutes, and though Lewis Arden grabbed a goal for Wellspring two minutes before the break, they were 5 down again as Hannan got his second a minute later. Any hopes of a second half comeback were pretty much ended within 4 minutes of the restart as Cadwallader added his second to leave them now 6 goals behind. Arden did get the next goal, but 4 more in the next 7 minutes from Jamie Forward Hannan (2) and Paull took any remaining doubts away. Mike Devitt got Wellspring’s with 9 minutes left, but Shaka had the final say as Paull got his third to make the final score 12-3. Beercalona made their return to Ballers after a couple of previously failed attempts, and they looked to have a tough opening night against Black Jack who had won their opening game a couple of weeks ago. All the first half goals were crammed into a 5 minute spell as James Holden grabbed a 4 minute hat trick before Ste Bowler got Beercalona’s first Ballers league goal. Harri Budd made it 4-1 for Black Jack, and that remained the score until the break, before another scoreless 10 minutes at the start of the second period was ended by Jake Whitehead’s goal to make it 5-1. Ryan Alderson and Budd scored to take the game away from Beercalona, but Ben Smith did grab a second for them 8 minutes from time. Black Jack added two more in the final stages as Holden and Kev McClean finished off the scoring to leave Shaka and Black Jack level on 6 points at the top of the table.

THE TUESDAY LEAGUE IS CURRENTLY FULL. IT’S ALL ABOUT SUNDAY AND MONDAY FOR PROSPECTIVE NEW TEAMS AT THE MINUTE!  

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

A full house turnout for the Wednesday league this week, with two league games and a friendly as we look to wrap up the league in the next few weeks. Michu At De Gea Ba already have the league sown up for a second successive season, but Magpie will still think they should have been coming into this season as defending champions having stumbled at the final hurdle last time out. They’ve struggled a bit of late though, and despite taking the lead through Bartosz Schmidt’s first minute goal, Ian Davies, Adam Porter and Jamie Longworth fired back to give Michu control. Mariusz Koszla looked to have left Magpie just the one behind when he scored a minute before the break, but Longworth got his second seconds later to make it 4-2 at half time. Davies got his second 5 minutes into the second half, but we headed into the final 15 minutes with all still to play for. Magpie quickly ran out of legs though, and three goals from Matt Barton, one for Michael Jennison and two more each for Longworth and Porter, meant that Schmidt’s late goal was scant consolation for Magpie. Sevilla Lacatalent picked up their first win a fortnight ago, but they were back in familiar territory early on against Polish Army this week as Bania continued his impressive scoring start to Ballers life with the opener in the second minute. That was the only goal of a tight first half, but the Army looked to have taken complete control in the early stages of the second period as Dominik and Bania scored to make it 3-0 with 19 minutes to go. Ryan Wall gave Sevilla a glimmer of hope a minute later, but those hopes ended as Bania scored two more in the final 11 minutes to ease the Poles to a 5-1 win. The Exeter Gently v Stockport Eagles may have been a friendly, but it sure was competitive! It was 2-2 at the break as Michael Winn and Ryan McAndrew twice drew Eagles level after Kristian Igo and Jacob Gough had given Exeter the lead. A mad couple of minutes mid way through the second half saw Igo grab two more with Paul Waugh responding again for Eagles, but Mehrad Torkian grabbed Exeter’s 5th 5 minutes from time to give them the hard fought win. And all this for nothing……

THE WEDNESDAY LEAGUE REMAINS FULL. SUNDAY AND MONDAY ARE THE PLACES TO LOOK FOR SOME BALLERS ACTION!

You need, need, NEED to head on over to our Facebook page RIGHT NOW, to get involved in our competition to win a FREE MONTH OF BALLERS FOOTBALL!

Get yourselves over to www.facebook.com/skballers/, find the post that went online at 12.30pm on Thursday 1st March and follow the instructions to be in with a chance of winning! Current teams, former teams and teams interested in signing up are all eligible to take part.

The competition will be running until Thursday 15th March at 9pm, so get as many of your lads to get involved as possible.

Good luck!

Spring is here! The clocks go forward in a few weeks, and before we know it the ‘Beast from the East’ will be a distant memory, having had a fairly major impact on the Ballers action this week.

LEAGUE NEWS

If it wasn’t for this weather we could have been reporting on a bumper week as the Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday leagues are all full, and we are down to just the one space in the Monday league which restarts on 19th March. The Beast From The East finally caught up with us and wiped out the Tuesday and Wednesday leagues this week, but we’re sure everyone will be back at it for next week.

When we say the Sunday league is full, that’s assuming we don’t gain enough teams in the next few days to add a 5TH DIVISION TO THE SUNDAY LEAGUE. It’s worth asking if you might be interested…..

As previously mentioned, we have just the ONE SPACE in the Monday league for the NEW MONDAY DIVISION WHICH STARTS ON 19TH MARCH. Get in touch for details.

sUNDAY LEAGUE

Just the final 4 league games were played this week alongside a batch of friendlies for the teams without games. We will probably mention it again bu the NEW SUNDAY LEAGUE STARTS THIS WEEKEND, 4TH MARCH, last chance to get involved…..

Insole might have lost their title, but second place was still there to be had if they could beat a Kipsta Cobras team who were one of the teams who had taken points off them this season. Liam Atkinson gave Insole the lead in the 4th minute, and doubled that lead 9 minutes later, before Jake Parker grabbed his first Ballers goal and Atkinson scored again to make it 4-0 two minutes before the break. George Carr pulled one back just before half time, and the lead was reduced to two two minutes after the restart as Matt Toft scored. That was as close at they got though, and goals from Brad Street and Aaron Campbell in the next 5 minutes eased them clear again. Atkinson got his 4th of the game and Street his second in the final minute to see Insole finish the season with a win.

The Veterans needed to recapture some of their early season form if they were to avoid taking the drop back to the third tier, a season after they came so close to claiming a Premiership spot. The had to find a win from one of their two games this week, with the first being the toughest test at Championship level as Dench looked to claim the title. There were plenty of goals in this one, and in the early stages it very much looked like being a routine win for the table toppers as Phil Carroll, Dan Jones(2), Marc Jagger and Jonny McAuley made it 5-0 after just 14 minutes. Andy Carrington and Ben Mercer got The Vets off the mark and back in contention with two goals in the following two minutes, but Jones third of the half made it 6-2 on 19 minutes. Simon Grainger got another back for The Vets, McAuley got his second for Dench, before Wes Hodkinson scored the final goal of an action packed first half to leave us at 7-4 at the break. The second half was much more one sided, as Jagger scored a minute into the period, and even though Dean Minshull pulled another back two minutes later, further goals from Jagger(3), Paul Bardsley, Carroll, McAuley and Luke Ashworth meant that Dench head into the Premiership as Champions on the back of an impressive win. It will get harder from next week…… So the final relegation place came down to The Veterans and The McMuffin Men, with the McMuffins having ran into a decent spell of form to give them a chance of saving their season. They had beaten the same opposition last week, but went behind here as the fresh Sam Collicott gave The Vets the lead in the 5th minute. That lead lasted just a minutes as Jack Searle quickly drew McMuffin level, and they took control with two goals in the final 5 minutes of the half from Sam Delgado. Charley Eyre’s goal 5 minutes into the second half looked to have sealed The Vets fate, but Andy Carrington pulled one back a minute later, and they remained in contention when Collicott got his second a minute after Searle had increased the McMuffin lead again. The final stages proved too much for The Vets and McMuffin Men scored three more through Eyre, Searle and Delgado to secure their Championship status.

Polish Army’s debut Sunday season saw them finish in a mid table position that confirmed we’d put them in the right division, but this week they were facing an FC AOTS team who will be disappointed with their showing this season. This was an absolute cracker, and Mateusz scored the first of plenty of goals in the second minute. AOTS turned it around with two in three minutes from Steve Whittle and Adam Duty, but by the break they were three behind as Marcin scored two, Matuesz got his second and Pawel got himself on the score sheet. AOTS needed a good start to the second period and they got it, as a goal from Whittle and two from Eoghan Scott made it 5-5 with 18 minutes still to play. It was a mad 18 minutes, with both teams giving it everything, and the roars that greeted each goal could be heard from miles around! Pawel put the Poles back in front, but Scott and Duty quickly turned it around to put AOTS back in front. Pawel scored again before Duty quickly responded to edge AOTS ahead as we headed into the final 5. Marcin leveled things up yet again, but Duty looked to have won it for AOTS with his 4th two minutes from time. It was probably only fair that this one ended up all square, and it did as Grzegorz scored a last minute leveler, and these two teams will get to do it all again next season!

League Two was all done and dusted last week, so all that remained of the week was a series of friendles. Stockport Eagles put up a decent showing against the Premiership winners Kinky Slipper, who may have been on a comedown after their unbeaten Premiership season, the game finishing 9-8 in Kinky’s favour. The ‘local derby’ between League One winners Inter Row Z and Duno finished in a competitive 5-5 draw as Inter will be looking to join Duno in the top flight in a seasons time. Rooneytunes and Deportivo Lack Of Talent will be swapping places this season, and Rooneytunes will be looking to mount a promotion campaign as they won this one 7-2 against an admittedly weakened Deportivo side. League One runners up Wellspring picked up a 6-1 win over Pathetico Madrid, who will remain in the bottom division and be looking to mount a more sustainable promotion campaign this time around.

THE NEW SUNDAY LEAGUE STARTS THIS WEEK. CHANCES OF US GETTING TO A 5TH DIVISION ARE PROBABLY MINIMAL, UNLESS YOU AND SEVERAL OTHER PEOPLE WHO DON’T CURRENTLY PLAY THINK ABOUT ENTERING A SIDE……. ALL YOU CAN DO IS ASK!

MONDAY LEAGUE

Following a fairly late cancellation from their opposition, AC Milmanchester missed a game for the first time this season, so Expected Toulouse had the chance to claim top spot as they played two to catch up games that were previously missed. The first was a potential banana skin against Phantom Brazilians, who were hampered by an injury in the warm up to Paul Wilkinson, and it showed in their first half performance as Expected dominated the opening 25. Jordan Milne put them in front on 5 minutes before Jack Grundy doubled the lead in the 8th minute. Liam Mottram, Niall Hillen and Milne added to the total, and though Ryan Clayton pulled one back a minute before the break, Milne grabbed his third of the half to make it 6-1 at the interval. Matt Barton toe-bunged Phantom back to within 4 at the start of the second half, and though the second half was a much more even half of football, it was an own goal three minutes from time that sealed a fairly comfortable win that saw Toulouse go top on goal difference. They would have expected to increase that advantage in their second game against bottom side Murder On Zidane’s Floor, and without wanting to dwell on this one too much, they did. ‘Keeper Nicolas Appleton joined the Golden Gloves list as he kept a clean sheet while his team mates spread the goals about as they fired in 16. Liam Mottram top scored with 6, Jordan Milne got 4, and Jack Grundy, Niall Hillen and Jack Taylor got two apiece as Murder sit tight on the league splitting at the half way point. Strikeforce found fielding a team to be a bit of a struggle, but they got 6 on the pitch again as they took on struggling Pathetico Madrid. Pathetico are another side who are awaiting the split, but they had the better of the opening period as goals from John Peneveyre, Liam Needham, Nathan Thomson and Craig Moss saw them into the break 4-2 up as Matty Aked and Matthew Ricketts responded for Strikeforce. Mike Pinder made it a one goal game when he scored 5 minutes after the break, but the man they call Dale made it 5-3 two minutes later. Strikeforce finished the stronger though, and goals from Pinder and Joey Carruth drew this one level with 10 to play. Grant Gregory put them in front for the first time before Carruth and an un-named scorer finished this one off as Strikeforce, quite surprisingly, sit in third place. Nice Buns were back for a second week as they patiently await the start of the Monday Championship, and they faced off against a mix’n’match team made up primarily of Duno and Inter Row Z players. The first half was end to end, and it was 4-4 at the break Buns goals from Charlie and Jimmy Williamson and two from Tom Dempsey were matched by three from Liam Watson and one from Calvin Alexander. The Buns controlled the second half though, and Jimmy added 4 more, Charlie two more, and Dale Kirkham and Tom Hall a pair of goals each  to ease them to a 14-6 win with Lee Clarke and Ray Donnelly grabbing a couple back.

THE NEW MONDAY CHAMPIONSHIP STARTS ON 19TH MARCH. THERE IS CURRENTLY A SPACE TO BE HAD, BUT IT WON’T BE THERE FOR LONG…….

TUESDAY LEAGUE

After a mid afternoon pitch inspection showed no settled snow on the hallowed turf, we looked set for a decent night of Ballers Tuesday league action. But a heavy half hour of snow an hour before the games were due to kick off buried the pitch in snow and made the roads around the centre a little dicey, so we had no choice to but to call off our Tuesday action for this week.

WE CURRENTLY SEEM TO HAVE A COUPLE OF TEAMS ‘FIGHTING’ OVER THE ONE CURRENT SPACE IN THE NEW TUESDAY CHAMPIONSHIP, SO IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO SIGN UP, MONDAY IS YOUR NIGHT!

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

Ha, no chance…..

THE WEDNESDAY LEAGUE REMAINS FULL, CAST YOUR EYES AT MONDAY IF YOU WANT TO BE A BALLER.

Everything seems to be going rather well! The highly anticipated Tuesday Championship started this week, spaces are filling up nicely for the new Monday Championship which starts in March, and the new Sunday league is looking good for when that starts on 4th March. Plus we only had United playing this Wednesday, which didn’t have anywhere near the impact that Valentine’s Day had last week. Whisper it, but we even saw the sun this week……

LEAGUE NEWS

The NEW TUESDAY CHAMPIONSHIP started this week, but there’s still ONE SPACE there to be had by any new team wanting to get involved.

The next full new league to start will be our ever popular SUNDAY LEAGUE, which will be kicking off on 4TH MARCH. We currently have 4 divisions, a 5th could be added to put us at absolute capacity, so SPACES ARE AVAILABLE for any new or returning teams who want to get involved. Friendlies are available on Sunday 25th February for anyone wanting to get a game under their belts before the big kick off.

We will be adding an extra division to the MONDAY LEAGUE on the 12TH MARCH, and with 4 of the 6 slots already full, we have SPACES AVAILABLE for TWO MORE TEAMS. Friendlies are available for any new teams wanting to get a few games in before it kicks off.

There are plenty of ways to get hold of us, but from here the easiest thing to do is click on the ‘Join A League’ tab on the homepage, fill in some details and we’ll be in touch!

SUNDAY LEAGUE

The first of two catch up weeks ahead of the start of the NEW SUNDAY SEASON WHICH KICKS OFF ON 4TH MARCH (we might mention this a few more times in the next couple of weeks) didn’t really see anything finalised which wasn’t already sorted. Kipsta Cobras (or the Kipsta Allstars as they should have been known this week) should have given Kinky Slipper a guard of honour onto the pitch this week, but instead they had the cheek to take an early lead through a Warren Yeo header. Kinky weren’t up for letting their season fizzle out, and they’d leveled it up before the break as Kyle, who’s surname we should really know by now, scored 8 minutes from half time. The champs were in front two minutes after the break through Rob Cresswell’s goal, and they ran away with it in the final 10 minutes as Cresswell, Wesley Harney, Joe Lailey and Jordan Hutchinson scored to ensure Kinky finished the season unbeaten.

Having slipped to a shock defeat to The McMuffin Men last week, Dench were looking to get back to winning ways against a recently improved Step Brothers. That improvement looked like it might continue into a third straight win when Chris Moore put them in front in the 4th minute, but Callum Wild’s equiliser two minutes later was added to by three more from Marc Jagger and two from Phil Carroll as Dench went into the break 6-1 in front. Tom and Dom Cioffi got the first goals of the second period to reduce the deficit to three with 12 minutes left, but Dench killed this one off in the final stages with two more Callum Wild goals and a late Jonny McAuley finish putting this one to bed. With Team Tom not playing a league game this week, the title will come down to the final week, with Dench leading the way with a considerable goal difference advantage. The McMuffin Men were looking to build on last week’s impressive win against The Veterans in what was a relegation 6 pointer. A tight first half saw just the two goals, both going the way of The McMuffin’s with Charley Eyre grabbing both. The Veterans halved that lead 6 minutes into the second half through an cracking Egg strike. Chances came and went at both ends, but it was The McMuffin’s that ran away with it in the final 13 minutes. Sam Delgado grabbed their third, before Eyre and Dustin Lizaba added two more in the final 10 minutes. Having come desperately close to gaining promotion to the Premiership last season, The Veterans look like heading the other way this season.

Wellspring and Polish Army will be in different divisions next season after Wellspring made a decent fist of trying to keep up with Inter Row Z at the top of the table. They needed a ridiculously unlikely score line to give them the title, and from the start it seemed that just winning the game wouldn’t be a straightforward task as early goals from Pawel and Jay Berrisford meant we went into the break at 1-1. Pawel restored the Polish lead, but again they held that lead for barely a minute before Charlie Bridge drew Wellspring level. Grzegorz put the Army in front for a third time 16 minutes from time, but two Berrisford goals put Wellspring in front for the first time with 8 minutes left. It was their turn to let a lead go as Mateusz scored the final goal two minutes later to end an entertaining game all square at 4-4. FC AOTS promotion hopes ended last week, but they were still playing catch up and had two games this week. They hammered SK Dons just a few weeks ago, but a personnel change for the Dons has brought about an improvement in results, and they raced into a 6 goal lead at the break as Paddy Bannister scored three, Joe Marsland two and Kyle Norris one. Bannister made it 7, 7 minutes into the second period, before Adam Atherton briefly threatened a ridiculous comeback with a 6 minute hat trick. The Dons killed the game off as Marsland, Bannister and Matthew Richardson added three more to their total, before Atherton grabbed his 4th as a consolation in the final minute. They had a second chance to pick up a win this week against a Rooneytunes team who’d lost their last 4 games, but it looked like being more of the same in a bad week for AOTS as goals from Ashley Taylor, Cian Gillespie and Chris Sinclair put Rooneytunes three up in the first 17 minutes. Scott Robinson pulled one back for AOTS just before the break, and goals from Tom Dennerly and Ben Jamieson early in the second half meant we were all square at 3-3 with 20 minutes to play. Rooneytunes were the stronger side in the second half as AOTS began to feel the effects of the two games, and Sinclair grabbed two more before Jack Hodkinson added two of his own to put Rooneytunes 4 up. Adam Atherton pulled one back for AOTS but Rooneytunes finished with a flourish as Sinclair, Hodkinson, Taylor and Aiden Conway all scored in the last 5 minutes to give Rooneytunes a comfortable winning margin.

Everything was already wrapped up in League Two, with both promotion spots filled. Deportivo were missing a couple of regulars this week as they took on bottom of the table FC Stront Bakken, who were hoping for nothing more than to not finish bottom of the lot. Declan Matthews gave the Bucket Boys the lead in the 8th minute, before an otherwise tight half burst into life with two more Stront Bakken goals in the last couple of minutes through Matthews and Lukas Voveris. It obviously wasn’t Deportivo’s night, and Matthews completed his hat trick 5 minutes into the second period, before Darius (just Darius) grabbed three of his own in the final 12 minutes with Patrick Mitchell grabbing another as the Bucket Boys ended the season on a high note with an 8-0 whitewash of one of the promoted teams. Isn’t football brilliant……?! A defeat for Inter Your Sister would leave them in bottom position in the bottom division, just months after they were in the top division, and they faced a Pathetico Madrid team this week who’ve reverted back to their old ways of starting a season well before the wheels fall off towards the end. Inter’s new boy Brandon Byers-Wilkes gave them the lead in the 6th minute and Matthew Kealy doubled their advantage on 17. John Lodge pulled one back for Inter a couple of minutes later, and it was 3-2 at the break as Kealy scored his second before Adam Norton pulled one back on the stroke of half time. The pattern continued at the start of the second half as Gaz Sumner put Inter twoup again, only for Carl Reynolds to quickly pull one back again for Pathetico. A pair of quickfire goals from Kealy gave Inter a three goal advantage with 13 to play, and Byers-Wilkes grabbed another couple and Craig Johnson another as Inter raced into a 6 goal lead. Norton got his second in the 48th minute, but Inter had the final word as Dave Smythe scored their 10th to mean that Inter avoided bottom spot. They should probably stick with this exact same team going into the new season…….

We had a couple of friendlies for those teams who were without a league game this week, and Insole beat Stockport Eagles for the second week in a row by 6 goals to 2, while Inter Row Z made us consider what division they should be going in for the new season as they beat Premiership-bound Team Tom 7-2

THE NEW SUNDAY LEAGUE KICKS OFF ON 4TH MARCH. SPACES ARE AVAILABLE AS WE LOOK TO ADD A 5TH DIVISION TO OUR BIGGEST LEAGUE NIGHT. FRIENDLIES ARE AVAILABLE THIS WEEKEND FOR ANY TEAMS WANTING TO GET A GAME UNDER THEIR BELTS BEFORE THE SEASON STARTS!

MONDAY LEAGUE

City’s final action of the FA Cup for this season affected the turnout this week, but the top two were in action and we welcomed another new team to the Ballers family this week. Expected Toulouse are in the box seat in terms of having a 100% record, but it was AC MIlmanchester who went into this weeks fixtures top of the table as a result of having played more games, and they were first up against a Murder On Zidane’s Floor team who were still pointless. In terms of having no points, rather than there being no point to them. It seemed unlikely, even before kick off, that they would get anything from this one, and when Jason Singleton put ACM in front in the second minute it looked like being a long night. They held on in there and nearly made it to the break just the one behind, but Martin Gordon doubled the AC advantage just before half time. Kiarno Samms made it 3-0 5 minutes into the second half, but Murder tried to keep going and had chances of their own. Samms grabbed another two to make it 5 with 7 minutes left, and Simon Hackney and Samms finished off the win with goals in the last couple of minutes. Given the two teams respective records so far this season, it could have been worse…… Strikeforce had all kinds of trouble putting a team out this week, as they beg, stole and borrowed players from anywhere and everywhere, so Expected Toulouse were probably expected to pick up a sizable win to continue their quest for a first Monday Premiership title. The first half didn’t exactly go with the form book as Jay Berrisford put Strikeforce in front in the 6th minute, but Jordan Milne scored two in a minute to turn things back in Expected’s favour. Phil Carroll leveled things up again for Strikeforce, but Toulouse eased two goals in front as Liam Mottram and Wasim Akram found the net. It was back to one at the break as Berrisford got his second, but the second half was a completely different story. Milne and Akram scored to put Toulouse three up, and Milne grabbed three more, Akram and Mottram two more, Jack Grundy a second half hat trick and Niall Hillen just the one, as they ran riot with just a Carroll goal for Strikeforce in return. For those who couldn’t be bothered adding all them up, that’s a final score of 17-4. We welcomed Nice Buns to the Ballers Monday league, and their opening game was a friendly against Team Randommer. The new team took a little time to adjust to the Ballers game, and after they fell behind early, three goals from Tom Dempsey and one apiece from Jimmy Williamson and Paul Cheetham were enough to see them pick up a 5-3 opening night win. Always good to start with a win……

THE NEW MONDAY CHAMPIONSHIP KICKS OFF ON 19TH MARCH. CURRENTLY THERE ARE TWO SPACES AVAILABLE FOR NEW TEAMS, WITH FRIENDLIES AVAILABLE FOR ANY NEW TEAMS WANTING TO GIVE IT A GO OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS. GET IN TOUCH FOR DETAILS.

TUESDAY LEAGUE

And then there was two! As planned, the Championship returned to the Tuesday league this week, with a couple of games played. First up the Premiership continued with leaders Gangs Of Dwight Yorke taking on a recently improved Only Kruls & Horses. It looked like being business as normal when Gangs went into half time three goals up as Jimmy Leeson added two goals to Callum Jones’ opener. Kruls started the second half strongly and pulled a couple back in the first 5 minutes of the half through Shane Zammit’s two goals. Leeson’s third eased Gangs two clear again, and Connor Harding’s goal 7 minutes from time looked to have finihed this one off. Sean Martin gave Kruls brief hope of staging a late comeback, but Jones got his second a minute later to make it 8 wins from 8 for Gangs this season. Inter Row Z and Inter Mi Van had the chance to overtake Kruls if either of them could pick up the win from their game this week, and it looked like being Row Z when they went two up in the first 6 minutes through Michael Win and Harry Shipton goals. When Callum Donnelly made it three on 16 minutes they looked well on their way towards the win, but Gary Wood pulled two back for Mi Van in quick succession to make it 3-2 heading into the break. The second half was tight, and we headed well into the final 10 minutes with the score line remaining the same, but it was Row Z that completed the win as Blazej Serwski and Shipton scored in the final few minutes to complete a hard fought win.

The Championship kicked off with a couple of games featuring new and returning teams. Despite doing pretty well since signing up, we took the decision to put Blake’s 7 in this division and they faced a Shaka side who’d lost their two friendlies in the run up to the big kick off. This one started off slowly, but when Shaka hit the front 7 minutes from half time through Liam Paull’s goal, they added to it three more times before the break as Andrew Cadwallader, Krisstian Ebanks-Perrin and Mark Brookes looked to have taken the game away with 25 still to play. Paull got his second a minute into the second half and it was well and truly over when Matthew Pownall made it 6 with 18 minutes left. They were in with a sniff of a clean sheet, but an own goal 15 minutes from the end ended those hopes, but Shaka still pick up an impressive first win when it counts. Black Jack were back for their second game following their debut friendly last week, and were taking on the returning LQ FC on the opening night. LQ started the stronger, with Danny Atherden and Matthew Brierley giving them an early two goal lead, but Black Jack pulled one back a couple of minutes later. George Springer restored LQ’s two goal lead in the 9th minute, but Black Jack hit back with two James Davies goals to make it 3-3 on 20 minutes. Brierley nudged LQ back in front but that lead lasted barely a minute as Davies got his third of the half to make it 4-4 at half time. Atherden put LQ in front again a minute into the second half, but again the lead didn’t last long as Harri Budd leveled it up again. Alex Heggie and Ryan Alderson scored scored for each side in the space of a few seconds and it was 6-6 with 20 minutes still left to play. Black Jack finished the stronger, and after Davies put them in front 13 minutes from time, they killed it off with further goals from Budd and two for Jack Roberts to end a highly entertaining opening night from these two teams.

THERE’S A RUMOUR GOING AROUND THAT THE TUESDAY LEAGUE, NEW CHAMPIONSHIP AND ALL, MIGHT BE FULL! YOU CAN ASK US IF YOU WANT TO JOIN, BUT WE MIGHT BE NUDGING YOU TOWARDS SUNDAY OR MONDAY FOR THE TIME BEING!

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

United being in Champions League action didn’t affect any of the Wednesday teams this week, and having seen their performance we’re sure everyone was happy they played! Michu At De Gea Ba already have the title wrapped up for a second season, but Stockport Eagles gave them a decent game first time around. It looked unlikely that they would be able to repeat that after Adam Porter and Paul Rice put Michu two up in the first 4 minutes, and even more unlikely after Matt Barton made it three and Ian Davies added two more just before the break. Jamie Longworth made it 6-0 7 minutes into the second half, and as we went into the final 15 minutes we looked like adding the unlikely name of Michael Jennison to our Golden Gloves leader board. Ben Waugh’s goal 14 minutes from time ended that chance, but Davies, Porter and Longworth completed the scoring in a comfortable win for the leaders. The only thing to fight for in the Wednesday league now is second place, and Exeter Gently found themselves in the extremely unlikely position of being able to challenge for this, especially if they could beat the team currently holding that position, Polish Army. Coming off the back of three straight wins, Exeter went in front on 6 minutes through Mike Lavin’s goal, but Pawel drew the Poles level on 13. Brad Robison restored Exeter’s lead two minutes later, and they were 3-1 up when Mehrad Torkian scored three minutes from the break. IN a game we expected to be tight, it was back to one before the break as Marcin scored a minute later, but Exeter looked to have made the decisive move early in the second period as Tom Harrison and Torkian scored in the opening 6 minutes to give them a three goal advantage. Marcin got his second with 11 minutes to play, and when Grzegorz scored with 4 minutes left we were in for a big finish, but Exeter held on to go level on points with this week’s opponents in third place, despite their -19 goal difference! On a night where one Sevilla failed to pick up a win, our own Sevilla Lacatalent went looking for their first Ballers win against Magpie FC, who have had a dip in form of late. They gave themselves a good chance of making that happen in the opening 25, as goals from Mike Witter, Darius Forbes, David Witter and an own goal saw them go into the break 4 goals up. Magpie needed to get the first goal of the second period to have any chance of getting something from this one, and they did as Milosz Zawila scored two minutes after the break, but Jake Riley got Sevilla’s 5th three minutes later. Radoslaw Leszczak sent us into the last 12 minutes at 5-2, but Sevilla finished stronger as goals from Riley and two from Ryan Wall gave Sevilla that long awaited first win.

THE WEDNESDAY LEAGUE REMAINS FULL. THERE AREN’T MANY SPACES TO BE HAD ACROSS THE 4 LEAGUE NIGHTS, SO IF YOU WANT TO TAKE ONE YOU BEST NOT MESS AROUND!

This cold weather just isn’t funny anymore……

LEAGUE NEWS

We are down to the LAST SPACE for the NEW TUESDAY CHAMPIONSHIP, starting NEXT WEEK, the 20th February. This league is made up of the bottom two teams from the current league, and 4 brand new teams, so for an immediate start get in touch with us as soon as is humanly possible!

Following on from that, just a couple of weeks later the BRAND NEW SUNDAY LEAGUE kicks off on 4th March. As our biggest league night we have the variety of standards to suit all teams, and with available pitch space we can even expand our 4 divisions to 5 if the demand dictates. Given that there’s still a couple of weeks to go, there is still time to get a friendly or two under your belt to give it a go and dust off the cobwebs before the season starts.

Last but not least, we’ll be adding a NEW MONDAY CHAMPIONSHIP back into the Monday league at the half way point of the season, starting on 12th March. Again, due to the time frame we can accommodate new teams who might want a tune up game or two in the run up to the big kick off!

For more information on any of the above, go to the homepage, click ‘Join A League’ and fill in some details.

SUNDAY LEAGUE

Week 10 is the last official week of the season, so quite a few things are now decided, with just the games that have been missed throughout the season looking to be caught up over the next couple of weeks. The Premiership title is done and dusted for the season as Kinky Slipper secured their second crown last week, but they still had an encounter with second placed Duno to get through before the season was out. As it turns out it was a Duno side missing a couple of regular lads, and Kinky strolled into a 6-0 half time lead through 4 goals from Jordan Hutchinson to go alongside goals from Joe Lailey and James Radcliffe. Lailey and Radcliffe added two more in the second period before Jack Cope got Duno on the board. Radcliffe and Lailey both completed their hat tricks in the final stages as Kinky ran out comfortable winners. El Caliente have a temporary new leader as current El Capitain Danny Murphy takes some time out injured, and they’ve also got some new players. They faced a tough game this week against a resurgent Kipsta Cobras, but they got off to the better start as Kieran Norris and Jay Berrisford put them two up inside the first 15 minutes. Dillon Lowth quickly pulled one back for Kipsta to make it 2-1 at half time, but that’s how the score remained as we headed into the final 10 minutes. Kipsta turned it around with two goals in three minutes from Matty Aked and Matthew Sheehan, and Kipsta now sit just a point behind last season’s champions Insole in 4th place.

It’s a straight fight between Team Tom and Dench FC for the Championship title, with both teams well clear of the chasing pack. The Tommers were up first as they took on a struggling Step Brothers, who themselves were looking for points to maintain their Championship status. This one was tight from start to finish, with Rob Sheldon’s goal for Step Brothers the only one of the opening period. Team Tom were level two minutes into the second period through Andy Walker’s goal, but the recent improvement in Step Brothers form continued as an own goal 8 minutes from time gave them the win. This gave Dench the chance to pull themselves level at the top of the table, with a game in hand if they could beat The McMuffin Men for the second time in successive weeks. McMuffin’s started well last week and they took the lead here too as Dustin Lizaba opened the scoring on 5 minutes, but as with last week, a much changed Dench turned it round and lead 2-1 at the break as Jonny McAuley and Phil Carroll scored. Unlike last week, the second half belonged to McMuffin Men as two goals in a minute from Charely Eyre and Sam Delgado put them in front with 14 minutes to go. A goal each from Eyre’s Charely and Mac, also inside a minute put the McMuffins out of sight with 6 minutes still to play, in which time Mac Eyre and Calan Sherer added two more to give the strugglers a surprisingly comfortable win.

On paper, Inter Row Z pretty much had the League One title wrapped up, and depending on results it could all be settled this week. It was a goal fest in the opening period of Inters game with Polish Army, with the poles hitting the front early as Pawel grabbed a 5th minute opener. Ray Donnelly grabbed three in as many minutes to put Inter 3-1 up before Salwek and Pawel drew the poles level again with two more just as quickly. Donnelly grabbed his 4th a minute later to make it 4-3 after a spell of 6 goals in 6 minutes! It was a whole 4 minutes before the net was found again, this time Jamie Kealey put Inter two goals up again, and that’s how it remained at the break. Both teams remembered how to defend in the second half, with just goals from Kealey and Callum Donnelly easing Inter to a 7-3 win. Wellspring faced a tricky match (in their new, very bright shirts) against the only team that could catch them for second place, FC AOTS, knowing they needed to win to retain a mathematical chance of catching the leaders. It took 14 minutes for the deadlock to be broken, as Lewis Arden struck first for Wellspring, but Adam Atherton fired AOTS level 5 minutes before the break. We were second away from going into half time all square, but Mike Devitt restored the Wellspring lead in the final minute of the period. Nathan Wilkinson made it 3-1 with 16 minutes to play, but Atherton reduced the deficit with 5 minutes remaining. Arden’s second of the game two minutes later rubber stamped the win for Wellspring, and left them needing just a 64 goal win from their final game to claim the title…… There’s every possibility that SK Dons and Rooneytunes could be playing each other again next season, as the new look Dons continued to look for their first win of the season. Both teams exchanged early goals as Danny Brookes put the Dons in front before Cian Gillespie leveled things up, but the Dons had the better of the half as Paddy Bannister, Paul Russell and Kyle Norris put them 4-1 up at the break. A further two Brookes goals put Dons out of sight with 10 minutes left to play, and Bannister got his second and Norris two more to give them a comfortable win with Chris Sinclair and Gillespie grabbing a couple of consolation goals for Rooneytunes.

We could have had a dramatic final day to the League Two season if SFC Club were still with us to make Stockport Eagles play for the title, but a forfeit win for the Eagles handed them the title before Deportivo had even played. Deportivo started off like a house on fire against Pathetico Madrid, as Rhys Moult, Dougie McCallum, Rob Parker, Brad Peet and Jake Riley all finding the net in the opening 13 minutes. James Norton got one back for Pathetico, but that was as close as they got in the opening period, and they slipped further behind in the second half as McCallum, Peet and Riley all added their second goals to put Deportivo 8-1 up with 8 minutes left. Adam Norton did pull one back for Pathetico, but the final deficit was back to 7 as Peet got his third 4 minutes from time. Deportivo will join Eagles in League One for the new season. Another team wearing new Ballers shirts this week were FC Stront Bakken, and they were involved in a tight game this week with Inter Your Sister. It was 1-1 at the break as Andy Carrington drew Inter Level after Declan Matthews had given the Bucket Boys the lead. Stront Bakken looked to be heading towards a rare win for them this season as Matthews and Dylan Marinarisa scored a couple of quickfire goals to make it 3-1 with 15 minutes to play, and they held that lead going into the final stages before Martin Keogh and Chris Murray scored a couple of late goals to nick a point for Inter.

THE NEW SUNDAY LEAGUE SEASON KICKS OFF ON 4TH MARCH. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON REGISTERING A TEAM OR TO BOOK A ONE OFF FRIENDLY IN BEFORE THEN, GET IN TOUCH.

TUESDAY LEAGUE

City’s stroll in Basel might have lost us a game or two this week, but we welcomed a new team down for their first game in Black Jack, and they took on Shaka, who were here for their second Tuesday night game. There doesn’t really seem to be any title race as such, as Gangs Of Dwight Yorke seem to be strolling to the finish line, and they started this weeks game with Blake’s 7 in impressive fashion, with Wez Barker, Anthony Pugh, and an Aden Jones treble putting them 5 up in the opening 16 minutes. Shaun Mather got Blake’s on the score sheet, but they were 5 down at the break when Pugh got his second just before half time. When Ryan McAndrew pulled a couple more back for Blake’s in the first 6 minutes of the second half, it looked like they were looking to make sure the final scoreline was respectable, but when he added two more and Matty Aked also scored, all of a sudden we were level at 6-6 with 10 minutes to play. There was to be no fairy tale ending for the underdogs though, as Callum Jones goal a minute later was quickly followed by three more from Aden, another from Callum and a Chris Singleton strike to make the final score look a little more straightforward than it actually was. Conditions were a little tricky on Tuesday as the temperature dropped, but the game between Inter Mi Van and Only Kruls & Horses was a cracker. 11 minutes were on the clock when Seb Etchells put the improving Kruls in front, but Brad (just Brad) drew Inter level a minute later for a team who were looking to get back to the form they had shown when they joined. Etchells put Kruls back in front after a mix up in the Inter defence, but it was 2-2 at half time as Phil (just Phil) scored two minutes before the whistle. There was very little to choose between the teams in the second half, in fact there was just the one goal, scored by Marcus Acott that gave Kruls a third straight win that sees them move up to third in the table. Shaka and Black Jack will be facing each other in the new Tuesday Championship that start next week, but for Black Jack this was just a game to check the place out and get used to the set up. They started slowly and were two down in the opening three minutes as Sam Holtham and Tom Hannan scored for a Shaka team who were looking to bounce back from a heavy defeat last week. Ryan Alderson scored Jack’s first Ballers goal on 6 minutes, and Luke Waiting notched just before the break to make it Desmond at half time. Waiting put Jack in front for the first time a minute into the second half, but Connor Atkinson made it 3-3 with 19 minute to play. The last 10 minutes were end to end as Kev McClean put Jack in front on 42 minutes, before Sam Holtham leveled it up again three minutes later. Waiting scored the final goal of the game to give Black Jack their first win, but it all starts for real next week!

WE HAVE 11 OUT OF THE 12 TEAMS WE NEED TO CONSIDER THE TUESDAY LEAGUE FULL, SO THERE’S ONE SPACE LEFT FOR ANYONE WANTING TO GET STARTED IN A BRAND NEW LEAGUE NEXT WEEK!

MONDAY LEAGUE

With Expected Toulouse’ game going down late this week, it was a chance for AC Milmanchester to go top if they could beat a Strikeforce team who were unbeaten so far this season. It was a patched up Strikeforce team this week, so a hard task was made harder before a ball had been kicked. They held out for 11 minutes, but once Martin Gordon had broken the deadlock, he added two more, Jason Singleton and Simon Hackney one each, with just the one Matthew Ricketts goal in response for Strikeforce in the opening period. Grant Gregory pulled Strikeforce within three at the start of the second period, but there was never really any danger of them causing a massive shock and goals in the final 11 minutes from Melford Knight, Singleton, Callum Jones and James Elmore eased ACM to victory. Phantom Brazilians have had a shaky start to the season and came into this week’s game with FC Rhino Ket off the back of two straight defeats (since they got their new shirts…..). Rhino Ket seemed to be heading the other way, as after a poor start they had won their last two, but this one headed the way most people would have predicted before kick off, with Phantom going into the break 4-0 up as Matt Barton, Paul Wilkinson(2) and Andrew Shaw took the chances that came their way. The game wasn’t was one way as the scoreline suggested, but Phantom were more clinical in front of goal and Wilkinson grabbed another couple either side of a Ryan Clayton goal to make it 7-0 with 13 minutes to play. Rhino Ket finally got a goal when Jake Shaw took one of their chances, but Wilkinson scored again straight away with the final goal of the game to help Phantom to a comfortable win. Pathetico Madrid seem to be counting down the days til the split in the league to get back into a comfortable Championship spot, while last season’s Championship winners Not A Chance will be looking to retain a top 6 place at the half way point. Phil Carroll put the Chancers in front on 7 minutes, but that looked like being it for the opening period until Kyle Bell and Paul Bardsley scored as we approached the half time whistle. Bell got two more in the early stages of the second half, before Liam Needham got Pathetico off the mark with 18 minutes to play. Bell added two more in the next two minutes, and Chris Priestley scored the Chancers 8th in the 40th minute. Needham got a second 5 minutes from time, but Carroll scored the final goal of the game to send Not A Chance into 4th place. We had a new team down for a friendly this week, but we’re not going to go into too much detail of this 26 goal thriller, as Team Randommer beat Rooneytunes 17-8.

THE BRAND NEW MONDAY CHAMPIONSHIP STARTS ON 12TH MARCH, TWO SPACES LEFT. FRIENDLIES AVAILABLE FOR ANY NEW TEAMS WANTING TO GIVE IT A GO BEFORE THE BIG KICK OFF.

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

Exeter Gently and Magpie FC were the only teams not under the thumb this Valentine’s Day, so the choice of Game Of The Day was quite an easy one. Exeter have been much improved in recent weeks and they were looking to make it three wins on the bounce. They started well, and were three up inside the opening 14 minutes as Mehrad Torkian, Tom Harrison and Kristian Igo hit the net. Magpie pulled one back at the back end of the half through Radoslaw Leszczak’s finish. Exeter started the second half very sloppily, and Leszczak grabbed his second two minutes in, but two almost identical Igo goals put Exeter three goals in front again.James Magnani sealed the win three minutes from time, with Tomasz Glebiowski’s last minute goal just a consolation.

DESPITE THE TURNOUT THIS WEEK, THE WEDNESDAY LEAGUE REMAINS FULL. IF YOU’RE WANTING TO PLAY ON SUNDAY, MONDAY OR TUESDAY EVENINGS, GET IN TOUCH!

Bit cold, isn’t it? Possibly too early for some of the fair weather footballers to start thinking about getting back into it, but if you do…….

LEAGUE NEWS

We are less than two weeks away from the split in the TUESDAY LEAGUE, with the top 6 continuing as the Premiership, and the bottom two dropping in with 4 new teams to make up a new Championship. There are TWO SPACES AVAILABLE as it stands, with friendlies available for any new teams next week. Get in touch ASAP to book in your one off trial game.

The same thing will be happening in the MONDAY LEAGUE in 4 weeks time, so we are looking for another couple of teams to fill the TWO SPACES we have for that as well. There’s a bit more time to get your friendly games booked in for now, so to have the chance to get a few games under your belt, give us a shout.

The brand new SUNDAY LEAGUE kicks off on 4th March, and with the opportunity for expansion still there we can look to accommodate any new teams looking to get involved. There are two catch up weeks to follow this upcoming weekend, so some existing league teams will not have scheduled league games. Friendlies can be arranged over these two weeks to give us an  idea of what division any new team should go into. If you’re interested, you know what to do…….

TUESDAY LEAGUE

We welcomed a couple of new teams to the Tuesday league who got involved in friendlies ahead of the split, and both of these teams had differing fortunes, but they’ll both be back next week to do it all again. In the league games this week Inter Mi Van were looking to bounce back from their first defeat against struggling Wellspring FC. It was a Wellspring team featuring a couple of new recruits this week, and they were level at 1-1 at the break after Connor Harding leveled up after Ryan Andres had given Inter the lead. Two goals from Warren Yeo early in the second period put Wellspring two up, and though Carl Robins pulled one back with 15 minutes remaining, Harding’s second of the game 7 minutes from time completed a surprise victory for a team who look likely to drop into the Championship when the league splits. Outside of Gangs Of Dwight Yorke, the rest of the league appears to be hard to call, as Only Kruls & Horses looked to pick up some momentum after finally picking up their first win of the season last week, while Inter Row Z were looking to pick up some wins after a series of draws earlier in the campaign. Goals from Sean Martin, James Thornley and Seb Etchells gave Kruls a 3-0 lead inside the opening 14 minutes, but goals from Donnelly’s Ray and Callum reduced the deficit to one as we approached the interval. Etchells second made it 4-2 at the break, and Jack Mullern’s goal 6 minutes into the second period helped them open up a three goal lead again. There was no way back for Inter this time, and Mullern grabbed his second in the final minute to complete a win that pretty much ensures Kruls a place in the top 6 at the split. In the friendlies, brand new boys Turkish Delight picked up an impressive 10-2 win over a Wellspring team who stopped on to give them a game, while not as new but still new to Tuesday Shaka were heavily beaten 11-1 by a rapidly improving Oooze FC.

THE TUESDAY CHAMPIONSHIP WILL BE KICKING OFF ON 20TH FEBRUARY, CURRENTLY TWO SPACES AVAILABLE, WITH FRIENDLIES AVAILABLE NEXT WEEK AS A ‘TRY BEFORE YOU BUY.’ GET IN TOUCH.

SUNDAY LEAGUE

Kinky Slipper have been the bridesmaids more times than they would like to have been in the Sunday Premiership, and while we’re sure they looked very nice in their bridesmaids dresses, they wanted this to be their big season. While we’ve had some dramatic finishes to the Sunday Premiership in previous seasons, Kinky could clinch the title with weeks to spare if they could beat El Caliente this week. When they went in at half time 9-0 up, El Caliente might as well have formed a guard of honour for the second half. The game finished 13-0, with Joe Lailey scoring 4, and Jordan Hutchinson, Wesley Harney and Rob Cresswell scoring three each. The now former champions Insole faced an interesting game this week against a Kipsta Cobras team who’ve shown massive signs of improvement of late. A tight first half saw us go in at half time scoreless, and we were 5 minutes into the second half before a Liam Atkinson goal kicked this one into life. Matt Toft scored two in a minute to put Kipsta in front, before Jordan Cunningham scored the 4th goal in 6 minutes to make it Desmond with 14 minutes to play. There were no more goals, but Kipsta could have won it if Warren Yeo could have converted a penalty…….

With Under Rated having left us for now, Dench and Team Tom will finish in the top two at the end of the season, it’s just a case of who finishes top. Dench looked odds on to pick up another win this week as they faced bottom of the table McMuffin Men, but the McMuffin’s didn’t read the script as they went two up in the opening 5 minutes through goals from Sam Delgado and Mark Bailey. They looked like holding onto that lead until the break, but goals from Phil Carroll and Marc Jagger in the last 5 minutes of the half made it 2-2 at half time. Dan Jones put Dench in front for the first time 8 minutes into the second period, and it was Dench all the way from here as Jagger added another three, Carroll and Jones one each to complete the win. Team Tom have just kept winning this season, and are on the brink of fulfilling their dream of a return to the top flight……. They were 4-0 up in the first 16 minutes against a Veterans team who’ve lost the plot in the last few weeks and have gone from promotion hopefuls to relegation candidates. Carl Carter opened the scoring in the first minute before a couple from James MacDonald and a goal for the returning Sam Collicott looked to have killed this one off before half time. Wes Hodgkinson pulled one back before the break, and he got a second a minute into the second half to half the deficit and keep things interesting. Aaron Crook eased any worries the Toms had with their 5th 6 minutes from time, meaning Hodgkinson’s third of the game three minutes later was just a consolation.

Inter Row Z could still feel Wellspring’s breath on the back of their necks at the top of League One, despite having picked up 19 points out of a possible 24 from their opening 8 games, and having a sizeable goal difference advantage. A win over Rooneytunes could claim the title this week depending on Wellspring’s result, and it looked like a stroll for them when they went into the break with a 5-0 lead as Michael Winn, Ryan McAndrew, Jamie Kealy, Ray Donnelly and Anes Sejdich-Suhonjich scored as the goals were shared around. Rooneytunes kept it tight for the opening 15 minutes of the second period, before 4 more Inter goals in the final 10 minutes, one each for Kealey, Donnelly and Winn, meant Chris Sinclair’s last minute goal for Rooneytunes was barely worth noting.  Wellspring were heavy favourites to pick up the win over an SK Dons team who’ve struggled desperately in recent weeks. It looked like being more of the same for them as Mike Cocks and Lewis Arden put the promotion chasers two up in the first 4 minutes, but debutant Paddy Bannister pulled one back for the Dons a couple of minutes later. Arden’s second restored the two goal lead, but Bannister pulled another back before Mike Devitt made it 4-2 a minute before the break. Kyle Norris made it an interesting last 14 minutes when he pulled another back for the Dons, but Arden looked to have sealed the Wellspring win 5 minutes from time. Matthew Richardson ensured the game would go to the wire with a 4th for the Dons with three minutes left, but Wellspring held on for a win that puts them in a strong position to take second spot at worst. FC AOTS were the only team who could crash the promotion places if they can win their games in hand, but they fell behind to Polish Army when Matuesz scored in the 4th minute. Adam Atherton and Carl Buckley scored to turn it back in their favour, but two more from Mateusz and Eoghan Scott’s goal for AOTS meant we went into the break at 3-3. Atherton and Buckley gave AOTS some breathing space with goals early in the second period, and they seemed to be seeing the game out until Slawek scored 5 minutes from time to make it 5-4. They held on for the win though, and are now 8 points behind Wellspring with two games in hand.

Stockport Eagles would escape the Sunday bottom division for the first time in their history next season if they could pick up a win over FC Stront Bakken this week, and Michael Winn got them off to a good start with the opening goal in the third minute. Benjamin Dean drew the Bucket Boys level 4 minutes later, but Ryan McAndrew scored a double to put the Eagles in charge. Patrick Mitchell pulled one back for Stront Bakken just before the break, but the Eagles soared away in the second period as Paul Waugh, Alecs Pattinson and James Marshall completed a 6-2 win that clinches at least a promotion place. Deportivo Lack Of Talent would remain title favourites if they could beat struggling Inter Your Sister, but they looked to be fluffing their lines as a Steve Johnson goal late in the first half gave Inter a narrow half time lead. When Max Liversedge doubled their lead 10 minutes into the second half and Dave Smythe made it three with 8 minutes left Deportivo’s title hopes looked over, and though Jake Riley pulled one back a minute later Craig Johnson restored Inter’s three goal lead with 6 to play. That first Riley goal put some life into Deportivo, and they fired in three goals in 4 minutes, Ashley Ellwood with the first and Riley with the other two to give Deportivo what looked for long periods of the game to be an unlikely point. Eagles are now 4 points clear of Deportivo, so it’s now entirely in their hands.

THE NEW SUNDAY EVENING LEAGUE KICKS OFF ON 4TH MARCH. THIS IS OUR BIGGEST LEAGUE NIGHT, WITH THE GREATEST VARIETY OF STANDARDS. IT IS ALSO THE ONE NIGHT WHERE EXPANSION IS STILL POSSIBLE, AND FRIENDLIES WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR NEW TEAMS OVER THE NEXT TWO WEEKS. WHAT’S THE HARM IN GIVING IT A GO…….?!

MONDAY LEAGUE

It looks to be one fro two for the Monday Premiership title this season, and those two played each other for the first time this season as back to back champs AC Milmanchester played Expected Toulouse. Some of the finishing in this one was something else, and two really good goals from Liam Mottram and Jordan Milne put Toulouse two up in the opening 6 minutes. Kiarno Samms pulled one back half way through the period but Wasim Akram quickly restored Toulouse’s two goal lead. The advantage was back to one at the break when Samms got his second a minute before the whistle. Toulouse took the game away from the champions in the first 8 minutes of the second period as Milne added another two and Niall Hillen and Akram other two more to make it 7-2. Samms got his third but Milne and Akram quickly added two more to kill the game off, meaning Samm’s 4th 9 minutes from time was nothing more than a consolation. Phantom Brazilians v Not A Chance always has the look of a game that’s too close to call, and this one was pretty tight from the get go. Paul Wilkinson put Phantom ahead 6 minutes in, but Chris Priestley’s goal 7 minutes before the break meant we went in level at half time. Phil Carroll put The Chancers ahead 5 minutes into the second period, and when he scored his second 12 minutes from time it looked a long way back for Phantom. The chances of a comeback were ended by Callum Boyle’s goal 4 minutes from the end, as Not A Chance finally get their season up and running at the 4th time of asking. FC Rhino Ket got their season going a week earlier, and were looking to make it two in a row against Pathetico Madrid, who’d taken a beating at the hands of Milmanchester last week. It was a high scoring first half with 10 goals in the opening 25 minutes, the first three coming from Jack Needham (2) and Louis Moore from the Rhinos. They retained a level of control throughout the half as far as the scoreline was concerned, as they quickly restored their three goal lead through Harrison Wroe and Sam Roberts goals after Craig Moss and Tom Arrundale had pulled a couple back for Pathetico. John Peneveyre grabbed a couple for Pathetico either side of Needham’s third, and it was 6-4 at the break. Pathetico weren’t helped in their attempts to stay in the game by an injury to ‘keeper Danny Robinshaw, but the second half belonged to The Kets as Jake Shaw, Moore and Wroe all grabbed two more and Needham another to ease them to a comfortable win with a couple of late Arrundale goals all Pathetico could muster in the second period. With Strikeforce unable to field a side this week, Team Randommer were back together to give Murder On Zidane’s Floor a game, and the Randoms picked up a 4-2 win as we consider trying to keep them together for the new Monday Championship in a few weeks time.

WE’RE LOOKING TO ADD THE SECOND DIVISION BACK TO MONDAY AT THE HALF WAY POINT IN THE SEASON IN A FEW WEEKS. FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO BOOK YOUR TEAM IN FOR A ONE OFF, NO OBLIGATION TRIAL GAME, GET IN TOUCH.

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

It was a standard full house in the Wednesday league with all 6 teams in attendance on a chilly evening. Michu At De Dea Ba look set to stroll to their second successive title, but Magpie could still make a fight of it if they could pick up a win when the two faced each other this week. It looked like being a stroll for Michu when they went 3-0 up in the opening 11 minutes as Matt Barton scored two and Alex Brady the other. Magpie regrouped and struck back, and three goals in 10 minutes from Milosz Zawila mean that we went into half time with an unlikely 3-3 scoreline. Three minutes into the second half Mariusz Koszla scored to complete the Magpie turnaround, and as we headed towards the final 10 minutes a Magpie win remained on the cards. The wheels fell off for them in the final 10 minutes though, as Brady leveled things up before Barton put Michu back in front. They then added 5 more goals in the last 5 minutes as Barton scored two more to make it 5 for the game, Brady completed his hat trick and Maison Owen and Paul Rice put the icing on the cake. It would be just about the biggest shock in the history of the world if they didn’t make it back to back title wins now.

The very first evening of Wednesday league Ballers action featured a game between Polish Army and Stockport Eagles, and the latest chapter of their rivalry took place this week. A really tight first half saw us go in at the break at 1-1 as Mateusz cancelled out Michael Winn’s opener. We approached the final 10 with no further goals, but an injury to Ryan McAndrew left the Eagles to play out the game with 5 men, and the Army capitalised with three goals in the last 10 minutes through Grzegorz, Dominik and Pawel. The Army sit second, but 9 points behind the leaders with three games left, and a goal difference that’s 62 worse off! A pair of strugglers faced off as Exeter Gently looked to build on last week’s first win of the season against the newly renamed Sevilla Lacatalent (it was worth waiting for!). An own goal gave Exeter the ideal start, before Kristian Igo doubled their advantage with less than 10 minutes on the clock. Jake Riley puled one back half way through the period, but Mike Lavin ensured that Exeter had a two goal lead at the break. Sevilla got back to within a goal again when Sam Melling scored with 15 minutes to go, but Brad Robison edged Exeter two ahead briefly before Melling made it 4-3 with 11 minutes to play. As has been the case since they joined the league, Sevilla fell away in the final stages, and 4 more Robison goals alongside a second for Igo eased Exeter to a second straight win.

THE WEDNESDAY LEAGUE REMAINS FULL. CAST YOUR EYES TO THE OTHER NIGHTS IF YOU’RE LOOKING TO SIGN UP!

How is it February already? Dry January out of the way, so responsible drinking is back on the table for those of us who took part.

LEAGUE NEWS

First things first, with it being the end of January we welcome back the Goal Of The Month competition. This month’s competition will be posted on our social media pages on Friday 2nd February. The monthly winners receive a pair of tickets to a Stockport County home game of their choice, courtesy of JR Sports, our ball and kit suppliers.

As per last week’s news, we have new SUNDAY, MONDAY and TUESDAY LEAGUES kicking off in February, so for more information or to book in your FREE ONE OFF TRIAL GAME, or to discuss what deals can be done for teams doubling up and joining a second league, fill in an enquiry form on the homepage or call or text 07809252658.

TUESDAY LEAGUE

As we approach the half way point of the season, with the aim still being to make the split with the top 6 playing each other for a second time while the bottom two join 4 new teams in the all new Tuesday Championship, Gangs Of Dwight Yorke look like they might not need the extra 5 games to claim the title. Inter Mi Van have done well since joining, but this was the acid test for them as far as the Tuesday league goes, and they fell behind early as Jimmy Leeson and Aden Jones scored in the opening three minutes. It was a long way back for them when Rob Brocklehurst and Jason Singleton made it 4-0 by the 15 minute mark. Gary Wood got Inter on the scoreboard, before Singleton and Wood added their second each to make it 5-2 at the break. Leeson’s second followed by a Simon Royle goal kept the gap at three. Goals from Jones and Chris Singleton took the game away from Inter, before further goals from Jones and Brocklehurst for Gangs, and Phil Hampson and Jonny Langton from Inter meant that Gangs eased to a 10-5 victory. That’s 6 from 6 for the Champions-elect.

Blakes 7, formerly Pathetico Madrid, looked destined for life in the new Championship after they suffered a 10-0 hammering at the hands of Inter last week, but a couple of new players were in this week as they took on an Oooze team who were able to field a team of 6 all by themselves! The new players that had impressed in last week’s win over Only Kruls weren’t able to make the same impact for Oooze as goals from Ben and Paul Waugh, and two from Michael Winn, sent Blakes into the break with a 4-0 lead. Matty Aked made it 5-0 with 16 minutes to go, before Callum Bullock finally took one of the many chances Oooze had spurned to get what seemed to be a consolation. Two more from Jago Stackhouse and Adam Corr brought it back to 5-3 with 8 minutes still to play, but John Lodge scored the final goal of the game three minutes from time to seal the win for Blakes. It’s Gangs next for them…… Only Kruls & Horses and Wellspring FC hadn’t mustered a point between them this season so far, so a game between the two of them meant that record had to go. Wellspring were never at the races this week as 4 goals in 5 minutes from Jack Mullern, James Thornley (2) and Sean Martin made it 4-0 at the break. Lewis Arden did grab a couple of goals for Wellspring in the second half, but Kruls added 8 more from Mullern, Seb Etchells (4), Thornley and Marcus Acott (2). Wellspring will definitely be dropping into this second division in a couple of weeks!

THE NEW TUESDAY CHAMPIONSHIP WILL BE STARTING IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS. TWO SPACES LEFT!

SUNDAY LEAGUE

We are into the final straight in the Sunday league, as week 8 brought about a few more significant results as teams look to claim top spot in each division come the end of the season.

Two big games took place in the Premiership, as leaders Kinky Slipper took on a Kipsta Cobras team who had surprisingly beaten Duno a couple of weeks ago, while Duno looked to stay in contention as they played the surely soon to be dethroned champions, Insole. It took Kinky 10 minutes to break through in their game, as Wesley Harney grabbed the opener, before Jordan Hutchinson and Joe Lailey added a couple more by the 17 minute mark. Dillon Lowth pulled one back for Kipsta a minute later, but Hutchinson grabbed a vital 4th for Kinky just before the break. The second half started off with a Jack Horgan goal to make it 4-2, but it was a far more cautious second period and James Radcliffe’s late goal was the seal on an important win for the league leaders. Duno v Insole was a tight one last time around and this one was no different. There was just the one goal in the opening period, as Liam Watson gave Duno the lead as they looked to complete a league double over the champs. Insole piled on the pressure in the second period, and they leveled when Kyle Clarke scored 8 minutes in, before both teams went looking for the win with a draw no good to either side. It was Insole that won it with Connor Harding’s goal two minutes from time, leaving Kinky 4 points clear at the top with a game in hand.

The big game at the top of the Championship didn’t quite turn out the way we were hoping, as Team Tom were let down late by one of their players leaving them scrambling around for a 6th man. Dench took full advantage to lead 4-0 at the break with Marc Jagger getting all 4, and they looked set for a place on the Golden Gloves board as three more from Jagger made it 7-0 with 7 minutes left. Carl Carter got Team Tom on the board a minute later, but two Phil Carroll goals completed a comfortable Dench win that sees them leapfrog this week’s opponents to go top of the table. The Veterans and Step Brothers went into this week’s game in miserable form with just one win each so far this season. It was the Brotherhood that got off to the better start as Josh Armitage and Chris Moore put them two up in the opening 10 minutes. They took a firm grip on the game just after the break as two from Gaz Fay and another from Rob Sheldon put them out of sight with 18 minutes still to play. ‘Keeper Matt Fay wasn’t able to take his place on the Golden Gloves board as he conceded three in the final 4 minutes to make the game look a little closer than it was.

Inter Row Z looked likely to claim the League One title this week if they could beat second placed Wellspring in a game that had finished 14-2 in their favour earlier on in the season. Wellspring were fielding a different side this time, and they went two up in the first 5 minutes as Lewis Arden and Jake Hamilton grabbed early goals. It was 3-0 when Hamilton scored his second on 21 minutes, but Inter stayed in contention as Ray Donnelly scored just before the break. Both teams scored early in the second period with Donnelly and Chris Murray scoring for either side, but it was Wellspring who pulled away with three goals in 5 minutes, two from Arden and a third from Hamilton. Callum Donnelly grabbed a late consolation for Inter, but they will hope to secure the League One title before the season is over. Rooneytunes have been hit and miss since they signed up a few weeks ago, and this week’s game against Polish Army represented a chance for both teams to get some points on the board. It was the Poles who hit the front as two Marcin goals gave them the advantage before Cameron Higgibottom pulled one back for Rooneytunes before the break. A tight second half looked to be heading for a point apiece after Chris Sinclair drew Rooney’s level 5 minutes from time, but the Army marched to victory as Mateusz scored a last gasp winner. There’s not too much to say about the other game in the division this week, as struggling SK Dons took an absolute hammering at the hands of FC AOTS. Carl Buckley grabbed 10 and Adam Duty 5 as AOTS ran in 22 goals with just the one Matt Richardson strike in reply for the Dons. This season can’t end soon enough for them, while AOTS games in hand could still see them mount a challenge for second spot.

Stockport Eagles look likely to be taking the step up a level at the end of the season, with the only real question remaining being whether they finish first or second. They held a narrow 2-1 lead over Inter Your Sister at half time this week as goals from Michael Winn and Ryan McAndrew were countered by Dave Smythe’s reply for Inter. McAndrew’s second a minute into the second half restored the Eagles two goal lead, and they soared to victory as Winn grabbed his second and McAndrew got two more to ease them to a comfortable win. Pathetico’s hopes of being a part of the promotion shake up relied on them picking up a win over struggling FC Stront Bakken this week, and an end to end first half saw Pathetico lead three times only to be clawed back on each occasion. Carl Reynolds gave Pathetico the lead and John Lodge restored it, but Declan Matthews pulled the Bucket Boys level both times. Reynolds second eased Pathetico in front for the third time, but Lukas Voveris made it 3-3 at the break. There was literally nothing to choose between the teams in the second period, as the game finished 3-3, leaving Pathetico 5 points behind second placed Deportivo with time running out.

THE NEW SUNDAY LEAGUE STARTS IN MARCH. WE WILL ALWAYS FIND SPACE FOR NEW TEAMS!

MONDAY LEAGUE

With the normally reliable Expected Toulouse missing through illness and injury this week, AC MIlmanchester had the chance to go clear at the top of the table as they took on Pathetico Madrid. Pathetico had picked up a first win of the season last week, but Nathan Thomson’s opening minute goal for them wasn’t the beginning of what would have been a massive shock as Kiarno Samms scored 4 in the next 13 minutes alongside a goal from Simon Hackney to put Milmanchester 5-1 in front. James Littlewood scored a second for Pathetico, but Chris Singleton scored one of their two more goals before the break to make it 7-2 at half time. The second half was one way as Samms and Singleton scored two each in a comfortable 12-2 win for ACM. Strikeforce and Not A Chance were part of the very first Ballers top division and met for the first time in a while with both teams looking to get points on the board to keep them in the mix for a top 6 finish at the half way point. After Mike Pinder had given Strikeforce the lead in the 5th minute, the Chancers took control and Kyle Bell scored three in 8 minutes to make it 3-1 5 minutes before the break. Pinder got his second two minutes from the break, and goals from Charles Yates and Matthew Ricketts turned it back in Strikeforce’ favour within 4 minutes of the restart. Not A Chance threw everything at the Strikeforce goal in an attempt to get back into it, but they were caught out on the break and Craig Oliver tapped home Strikeforce’ 5th with 9 minutes remaining. The Chancers ensured it would be a grandstand finish when John Wildman made the most of some poor defending to make it 5-4 with a couple of minutes to play, but they couldn’t break through again and Strikeforce make it two wins from two to sit in third place. Two teams who’ve struggled recently were looking for an upturn in fortune as Murder On Zidane’s Floor looked for a repeat of their friendly win over FC Rhino Ket, who themselves were also looking for their first points of the season. It was Rhino Ket who took a firm grip on this game in the first half as Jake Shaw, Harrison(?) and Jack Needham put them three up in the opening 7 minutes. Mike Hennessey made it 4 before the break and it looked a long way back for Murder. Harrison made it 5 early in the second half, before Zidane’s got on the board and ended the Rhino hopes of a place on the Golden Gloves list with an Ellis Stelfox goal. Hennessey’s second put Rhino 5 up again, but Conor McLellan reduced that to 4 with 15 minutes to play. Shaw’s second and Harrison’s third ended the contest, with Stelfox’s second 4 minutes from time just a consolation.

THE MONDAY LEAGUE WILL SPLIT ON 12TH MARCH, WITH NEW TEAMS BEING FILTERED INTO A NEW SECOND DIVISION. FRIENDLIES AVAILABLE FOR ANY NEW TEAMS WANTING TO GET SOME GAMES UNDER THEIR BELTS BEFORE IT STARTS. 

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

United and City both played this midweek, but it didn’t stop our Wednesday league from having a full turnout! New Team were in for a tough night as they faced champions and leaders Michu At De Gea Ba in only their third game, and were still looking for their first point. A one sided first half ensured that they would be waiting another week for that, as Alex Brady gave them a first minute lead before book ending the half with Michu’s 7th after Ian Davies had scored 4 and Matt Barton the other inbetween. A Jake Riley strike that had made the score 4-1 at the time was the only goal New Team could muster in the opening period. The second half was a bit tighter, but Michu eased further ahead with three early goals from Paul Rice (2) and Jamie Longworth, before New Team won the last 16 minutes 3-2. Daniel McDonald, Riley and Ryan Wall got their goals, while Barton and Davies got the others for Michu. Stockport Eagles were hoping to maintain their position as nearest challengers as they took on an Exeter Gently team who have struggled badly of late. It was Exeter who took the lead in the 5th minute through Mike Lavin, but it seemed to be going with form when Alecs Pattinson scored two and Ben Waugh a third to put Eagles in charge. We’re pretty sure the scorers are wrong in this one as Tom Wood is down as pulling one back for Exeter before the break, but we’re sure he was in goal……. Exeter found some form in the second period and turned this one around as Mike Belshaw, Wood(?) and Tom Harrison scored to give them a 5-3 lead. Ryan McAndrew pulled one back for Eagles three minutes from time, and some ill discipline meant Exeter had to hang on with 5 men, but they did to claim their first win of the season. They play New Team next week, while Eagles slip 9 points off the top. The Polish derby is a mid table affair so far this campaign, but with games in hand Magpie could make a play for the title if they can keep on winning. The went in front with two goals midway through the first half from Milosz Zawila and debutant Robert Michalski, but Polish Army were back in it a minute before the break after Dominik pulled one back. The Army turned the game around in the early stages of the second half as Dominik drew them level before Slawek put them in front with 13 minutes left. Their lead lasted just one minute as Michalski quickly drew Magpie level, and with both teams going for the win it was Michalski’s third of the game 5 minutes from time that sealed the win for Magpie. They face Michu next week needing a win just to halve their lead at the top of the table!

THE WEDNESDAY LEAGUE IS CURRENTLY FULL! PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ASK ABOUT ANY OTHER NIGHT…….

We are now approaching 18 months since the formation of SK Ballers Limited (how official), so we thought we’d give you a little bit of information on where we see ourselves, what our aims are, what our priorities are etc etc. Hopefully this can give everyone an idea of where we are heading, and what YOU can do to help us get where we want to be, in order to give our customers everything that they could want from us. GO TEAM!!

When the decision was made to set this company up, one of the key components was taking some of the frustrations and restrictions of working for other people away, and being able to (hopefully) treat people in the football environment the way that I would want to be treated as a customer. Try and be well organised, flexible, price it sensibly, and try to have good communication with teams in order to easily resolve issues that may come up.

Those things also involved prioritising the long standing customers rather than throwing all of the best offers at new teams. Common sense will tell you that the teams who have played the longest will have put the most money into the business, which is why we made the decision to reward the teams who had been with us a year with team shirts. We could only do that because there was enough money in the business to be able to do it, and that’s why we have committed to doing that for two teams every month going forward. Obviously we will only be able to do that as long as the money is coming in, so as long as we have enough teams, teams will continue to be rewarded! That is the Ballers circle of life. Simple.

I’ve had a number of conversations with people who are under the assumption that we are making an absolute fortune from doing this given how the busy the pitch is most nights, and when the odd player is trying to get away with not paying they probably see a company name and logo and think it’s sticking it to the man, not paying money to those shareholders who sit in their offices, feet up, lighting up cigars with £50 notes and mopping their brows with 20’s. Now I enjoy mopping my brow with a 20 as much as the next man, but I can’t afford to do it with too many of them as it stands. Everyone would like to live comfortably, take home a good wage and buy all those material things that are so important. Personally I would like to buy the scented dog poo bags with the tie handles rather than the Pound Shop ones, and maybe one day those of us involved with Ballers might be in a comfortable enough position to buy whatever poo bags we want, but not yet.

Actual photo from the first Ballers Christmas night out.

We are using the money that is coming in and after we’ve paid out for the pitch hire, the referees, the trophies, the many, many footballs we need to replace due to some of the truly special levels of shooting that goes on, and we are reinvesting a lot of that into improving things within the company, and that’s where the shirts come in again. At some point in the next 12 months we’ll have every team that plays here kitted out, and those league nights will look awesome! We have spent over £1000 so far on shirts. If we hadn’t done that, no one would expected us to, and that’s £1000 we could have paid ourselves for doing a damn fine job, but we bought the shirts as we felt it was a fair reward for the teams who’ve got us this far. It might seem like common sense but who else does it?!

We are also going to be looking into ways to improve our filming, look at options with multiple cameras, film as much of the action as we can, maybe stream numerous games to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, whatever it is we can do. We bought a device before Christmas that can measure all kinds of stats from the player that is wearing it, we hope to do a lot more of that stuff going forward. Some people can’t believe we don’t have VAR yet, give it time……

We will want to review the website since it’s relaunch. What’s good about it? What needs more work? What more can we add to it? How do we start recording other things like assists, shots on/off target, number of saves?

It’s all going to take time, it’s going to take money both in terms of buying equipment and gaining the required knowledge from people far more qualified than us, it might involve bringing more people on board, but if we keep doing our part of running good leagues that people are happy to pay money to be part of, we’ll get there. If and when we do, it’ll all be thanks to those guys who come and pay their money every week. Help us create something that’s bigger and better than anything else out there!

Time for a cigar. Next month we’ll talk referees, that’ll be a fun one.

 

Another decent week means a nice, long review of the week’s action for everyone to get stuck into.

LEAGUE NEWS

Here’s how things are looking for any new teams wanting get involved in some Ballers action:

TUESDAY LEAGUE: Second division kicking off on Tuesday 6th February. Currently room for two more teams with trial friendlies available over the next couple of weeks

SUNDAY LEAGUE: The brand new Sunday league kicks off on 4th March. With the option of a 5th division still there we will almost definitely find room for any new teams who want to get involved. Again, friendlies are available for anyone wanting to give it a go

MONDAY LEAGUE: We’ll be looking to add a second division to the Monday league at the half way point of the current season, which drops on 12th March. Plenty of time to get some friendlies in to get the lads ready for the competitive stuff……

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

TUESDAY LEAGUE

Gangs Of Dwight Yorke are going to take some stopping in the Tuesday league, and they looked to maintain their 100% record against an Inter Row Z team who had drawn all of their games this season. The Gangs record looked to be the one that was going to remain intact as they lead 3-0 at the break thanks to a pair of Rob Brockhurst goals either side of a Connor Harding strike. Harding’s second of the game three minutes into the second period edged Gangs nearer to win number 5 of the season, but a Ray Donnelly goal a minute later kicked a bit of life into Inter. A further two goals from Ryan McAndrew reduced the deficit to one goal with 10 minutes still to play, but an Aden Jones goal a minute later burst their bubble and gave Gangs another win. After an absolute hammering from Gangs last week, Oooze FC hit the pub to do some scouting and pulled in a couple of new players this week. One of those players, Callum Bullock, scored twice in the opening 7 minutes to give them an early grip on their game with Only Kruls & Horses. Marcus Acott pulled one back for Kruls 11 minutes from the break, but another couple for Bullock gave Oooze a three goal lead. James Thornley reduced that lead to two a minute before the break, but their hopes of a second half comeback were dealt a blow by another quickfire double from Bullock. Kruls hit back with a couple of quick goals themselves from Maison Owen and Acott  to get it back to 6-4 with 18 minutes still to play, but after a bit of Kruls pressure Phil Parker scored with 7 minutes left to put Oooze out of sight. Bullock grabbed his 7th for good measure, with Sean Martin’s late goal just a consolation for a Kruls teams who have struggled to get going this season. Pathetico Madrid’s first Tuesday league game looked a tough assignment against an Inter Mi Van team who’ve impressed since joining. An early Simon Royle goal for Inter looked like being the only goal of a tight first half before Mike Derbyshire added two more late in the period. Those two goals broke the Pathetico resistance, and Inter added 7 more goals without reply in the second period, Royle with 4 of them, Derbyshire with one and Lee Boshir with a couple.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR NEW TEAMS TO HELP MAKE UP A SECOND DIVISION WHICH WILL KICK OFF ON 6TH FEBRUARY. ONE OFF TRIAL FRIENDLIES ARE AVAILABLE FOR ANY TEAMS WANTING TO GIVE IT A GO.

SUNDAY LEAGUE

This week was the first week of the year when a couple of teams were unable to fulfill their fixtures. Heaven forbid. Of the games that did go ahead the standout fixture was the latest installment of the Sunday Classico as Kinky Slipper took on Insole knowing they could all but end the Champions title hopes with a win. A typically tight first half saw Insole lead at the break through Jack Atkinson’s goal. Kinky leveled early in the second half through Joe Lailey’s close range finish, but Insole were back in front within seconds through Atkinson’s second. Kyle Clarke’s goal 14 minutes from time looked to have sealed the win for Insole, but Kinky hit back in the final 10 minutes as James Radcliffe and Wes Harney scored to make it 3-3 with 6 minutes to play. Harney’s second completed the Kinky comeback to give them a 9 point lead over the seemingly soon to be dethroned Premiership champs. Duno were looking to keep up the pressure on the leaders as they took on El Caliente. A back and forth first half saw Duno lead 5-3 at the break as debutant Steve Eddy and Liam Watson scored two for the title hopefuls and Kieran Norris grabbed a double for Caliente. Duno looked like keeping Caliente at arms length as Eddy got his third to keep them two clear after Jamie Berrisford got one. Duno had suffered a narrow shock defeat to Kipsta last week, and they looked to be stumbling again as Nathaniel Odysseus-Kinglsey got his second and Berrisford another to make it 6-6 with 6 minutes left. Duno nicked all three points with Stevie Whetham’s last minute goal to remain just one point off the leaders. The run in is going to be interesting.

The Team Tom v Under Rated game went down this week, meaning Dench had the chance to move into second place if they could keep up their good recent run of form. The Veterans may have been missing a couple of their regular players, but Dench were ruthless in the way they took advantage. Marc Jagger got 6 and Phil Carroll 4 as Dench romped to a 13-1 win and are very much in the shake up for promotion to the top flight. A pair of strugglers faced each other in the other game of the evening as The McMuffin Men went looking for their first points of the campaign against a Step Brothers side who only had three points on the board, and that was from the last encounter between these two teams. The pointless McMuffins started the better and two Mark Bailey goals gave them an early advantage, but the Brothers hit back to lead at the break thanks to goals from Rob Sheldon, Gaz Fay and Chris Simpson. Sheldon’s second, 6 minutes after the break, gave them a two goal lead as they looked set to double their points tally for the season, but Jack Searle halved the deficit two minutes later. Charley Eyre gave us the potential for a grandstand finish when he leveled things up 5 minutes from time, and it was the McMuffin’s who completed their comeback with Calan Sherer’s winner two minutes from time.

Only one game survived this week in League One, and it saw Inter Row Z take another step towards an inevitable promotion as they hammered SK Dons 17-3. Ryan McAndrew got 7 while Ray Donnelly helped himself to 5, before the game came to an ‘abrupt’ end. Inter are now 6 points clear at the top of the table, and a whopping 13 points clear of third placed Polish Army.

Things are less clear in League Two, as it looked like being any two from three for promotion this season. Two of those teams faced each other as Pathetico Madrid looked to bounce back having picked up just one point from their previous two games, as they went up against Stockport Eagles who had won three on the bounce. The Eagles soared into a two goal half time lead through a pair of Ryan McAndrew strikes, and Ben Waugh looked to have put the game to bed with their third three minutes after the break. Two goals in three minutes threatened to turn this game on his head as Carl Reynolds and James Norton made it 3-2 with 15 minutes still to play, but it was the Eagles who finished the stronger as Waugh and Alecs Pattinson killed the game off before Michael Winn scored two late goals to put a gloss on the final scoreline. Deportivo Lack Of Talent had the chance to leapfrog Pathetico into second place if they could beat struggling Stront Bakken. It took 20 minutes before an own goal broke the deadlock for Deportivo, but Declan Matthews drew the Bucket Boys level two minutes later. Rob Parker grabbed a late goal to send Deportivo into the break with a lead, and a second own goal in the second period clinched a hard fought win for Deportivo as they look for a return to League One. In what could prove to be SFC Club’s final game with us, a team consisting of several irregular players picked up an 8-0 win over Inter Your Sister.

WE ARE APPROACHING THE END OF ANOTHER SUNDAY LEAGUE SEASON, WITH THE POSSIBILITY OF THAT 5TH DIVISION STILL THERE. FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO REGISTER A TEAM, GET IN TOUCH.

MONDAY LEAGUE

A full house of games in the Monday league this week as the new season settles down nicely. The game of the night saw last season’s winners take on last season’s third placed team as AC Milmanchester took on Phantom Brazilians. ACM started like a house on fire and scored three in three minutes as Martin Gordon got two and Kiarno Samms the other to give them an early 3-0 lead. Matt Barton pulled one back for Phantom, but it was 4-1 at the break as Samms got his second. Paul Wilkinson pulled another back early in the second half, but the game looked over as Singleton’s Chris and Jason scored to make it 6-1, before Jason made it 7 with 13 minutes remaining. Phantom didn’t want to give this one up easily, as Barton and Matt Holbrook quickly pulled two back, and as we headed into the final 5 minutes Wilkinson made it 7-4. Samms eased any AC worries with his third three minutes from time, but Phantom got within two as Barton and Wilkinson both completed their hat tricks. Jason Singleton and Simon Hackney scored very late on to ease Milmanchester to a 10-7 win to make it two wins from two at the start of their title defence. Expected Toulouse look set to be ACM’s nearest challengers again, but they faced a Not A Chance side who ran ACM close last week. A lively opening 10 minutes saw Toulouse go 3-1 up as Liam Mottram opened the scoring before Jordan Milne added two more. Waz Akram made it 4-1 before Phil Carroll pulled another back for the Chancers, before they saw their hopes dashed as Callum Wild had to go in goal after picking up an injury while they only had the 6 players available this week. Two more goals for Milne just before the break effectively ended this one as a contest, before Mottram, Milne, Akram and Jack Grundy added goals in the second half to complete a fairly comfortable 10-4 win.

Strikeforce made their first appearance of the season against an FC Rhino Ket side who may have fancied their chances of getting points on the board this week. An entertaining first half saw us go in at the break all square at 3-3 with Louis Moore grabbing two and Jack Needham the other for Rhino Ket, Matthew Ricketts, Matt Pinder and Warren Yeo netting for Strikeforce. It was Strikeforce who struck first in the second half with Craig Oliver adding to an own goal to give them a two goal lead. Needham got a second to keep Rhino Ket in the mix, but two late goals from Pinder and Yeo gave Strikeforce the win. Murder On Zidane’s Floor had a tough opening night against Phantom Brazilians last week, but a good start against Pathetico Madrid saw two goals from Sam Delgado and one each from Ellis Stelfox and ‘Mitch’ give them a 4-0 lead inside the opening 22 minutes. John Peneveyre pulled one back before the break to give Pathetico a bit of hope, and the same player (with the correct spelling) scored a second three minutes into the second period. When Delgado completed his hat trick with 10 minutes remaining this one looked done. Pathetico burst into life in those final 10 though, and a goal from ‘Dale’ followed by two more from Peneveyre in a 4 minute spell made it 5-5. Peneveyre grabbed his 5th two minutes later and Pathetico had claimed the most unlikely of victories to get their season off and running.

WE ARE TWO WEEKS INTO THE NEW MONDAY LEAGUE, AND BY WEEK 7 WE WILL BE LOOKING TO ADD ANOTHER 4 TEAMS IN TO MAKE UP A SECOND DIVISION. GET IN TOUCH TO REGISTER, FRIENDLY GAMES ARE AVAILABLE IN THE MEANTIME.

WEDNESDAY LEAGUE

It felt really good to have a full turnout on a Wednesday again, but some things don’t change. Michu At De Gea Ba (formerly Ruud van Ni-Ste-Lloyd) picked up their trophies from last season and look set to retain their title as they went into this week’s game with Exeter Gently with a 6 point lead at the top of the table. They ensured that that would be the least their lead would be with a dominant display from the opening whistle as they shared the goals around with Paul Rice scoring 4, Adam Porter, Jamie Longworth and Ian Davies with three, Matt Barton with two and Michael Jennison the other as they ran out 16-1 winners. Magpie returned to Ballers action with a win last week against new team New Team, but this wee’s game with Stockport Eagles looked like a good one on paper. After a goal in the opening minute from Ben Waugh gave Eagles the lead, the only other goal of the half came from Ryan McAndrew to double that lead 6 minutes before the break. His second a minute after the restart meant it was a long way back for Magpie, and Connor Harding made it an impossible task with another couple to make it 5-0 with 14 minutes to play. Magpie kept going and managed to pull a couple of goals back in the final 10 minutes to make the scoreline a little more respectable, but the Eagles pick up a win that sees them stay second in the table. Polish Army were back in town after missing a week due to injuries and gave New Team their second Ballers game. It looked like being two defeats from two for the new boys after Mateusz, Michal and Marcin gave the Poles a 3-0 lead, but Jake Riley did pull one back 4 minutes from the end of the first period. Mateusz second two minutes later restored the three goal lead at the break, but New Teamfired back with a pair of Sam Melling goals in the first 4 minutes of the second period. It was all to play for when Daniel McDonald leveled things up 13 minutes from time, but as with last week the new boys ran out of steam in the latter stages, and three goals from Michal meant that Polish Army edged this one 7-4.

THE WEDNESDAY LEAGUE REMAINS FULL! FORTUNATELY WE HAVE THREE OTHER NIGHTS YOU CAN LOOK AT IF YOU WANT TO REGISTER A TEAM!

As we write this the sun is actually out, so you know what that means? SUMMER IS ON IT’S WAY!

It may take a little while to get to us, so before the nights get lighter, while it’s still relatively miserable, why not get the lads together and get signed up for one of our upcoming new leagues and get playing under the lights?

ON ALL LEAGUE NIGHTS WE CAN OFFER NEW TEAMS A FREE TRIAL GAME SO THEY CAN GIVE US A GO BEFORE DECIDING IF IT’S FOR THEM!

TUESDAY LEAGUE

The first opportunity to get involved in a new league will come in the Tuesday league. Having gone with one division for the season that started just before Christmas, we are looking for new teams that will make up a second division when all the current teams have played each other once.

The bottom two clubs in the current league will drop in, with 4 new teams joining them to make up the Championship. Two of those spaces have already been claimed meaning we have TWO SPACES AVAILABLE FOR NEW TEAMS.

SUNDAY LEAGUE

The Sunday league is our biggest league night, with 4 divisions and we’ve just about got room for one more.

The NEW SUNDAY LEAGUE kicks off on 4TH MARCH, but friendly trial games will be available for new teams to come and give it a go before deciding whether to sign up or not in the meantime. No matter what your standard, we’ll get you a weekly competitive game at your current level.

MONDAY LEAGUE

The Monday league also dropped to one bigger division over the festive period, with the same plan of splitting the league into two once all current teams have played each other once.

This SECOND DIVISION will be starting on 12TH MARCH, so there’s plenty of time to get some games under your belt before it all becomes serious.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ANY OF THE ABOVE, COMPLETE AN ENQUIRY FORM THROUGH THE ‘JOIN A LEAGUE’ SECTION OF THE HOMEPAGE, OR TEXT 07809252658.