SOUL SURMISE

FANTASY LEAGUE - THE STRESS STARTS NOW!

It is a big and stressful day for millions of us. Teams need picked for the opening match of a new season of Fantasy League, tonight.

Today millions will be working out who they can buy for their £100 million budget. 

How many big players can we afford. 

What are the cheap players that are going to come through? 

Should I skimp on my defence for big goal scorers? 

Will new signings fit into their teams quickly? 

What about players from promoted teams? 

And managers, don't substitute a player before he has played his 60 minutes and don't bring a player on with a minute to go!  

Of course it is a marathon not a sprint and for most Fantasy League managers their teams will bear little resemblance even in October to the team they choose tonight. However, there will still be some panic. 

A good start is better than a bad one though it is amazing how quickly the team at the top of your particular league on Sunday night might drop away within a few weeks.

With one free substitution per week and then every additional transfer per week costing 4 valuable points it is best to have a good steady team at the outset.

Of course, there is some luck in this game. One of the biggest factors is choosing the right captain every week as their points double. It might be luck that my player scores a hat trick and yours doesn’t score at all. That might happen week after week!

BUT let me say that as I have followed this game for some 15 years and been involved in a Fitzroy League for 15 that this will have little to do with luck.

As I look at our league I know that John McMullen will be the one to beat. Isaac Orr, who I baptised less than fifteen years ago will be setting his sights on the top 3. My daughter Jasmine will be trying to build on an astonished good first season. BUT like cream the same names always come to the top season after season.

As always I recommend a solid start. I am going as always with a well tested spine. Big names who have proven themselves at the core. Maybe risk a new cheaper player early on. 

Then the wheeling and dealing can begin. There will be a careful watching to see what surprise player might come through for £5m. The sooner you get him the better. Some thought they had him with Oscar Bobb and then he breaks his leg! That’s Fantasy League. Or the nightmare of it.

So the best of luck and providence. I am not convinced about team yet. Two more hours to tinker.

THE OLYMPICS IN OUR UNIQUE VENN DIAGRAM

There is nothing like The Olympic Games. Everybody is still buzzing, talking about a great performance here, an act of kindness there and medals everywhere. We even put on our duvet cover last night as if we were synchronised swimmers. Janice finished with a flourish of a pirouette. Oh that was gymnastics!

It was quite the Games for us on the island of Ireland. The Irish team scored NO gold medals at the Athens Games twenty years ago but this year scored no less than 4 golds in a tally of 7. If only Ciara Mageean hadn’t have gotten injured there was a medal for her in that 1500m.

Even more incredible was the wee North. Not having won any gold medals since 1988 and individual ones since 1972 we won three gold in sixteen hours - Daniel Wiffen in the 800 metres freestyle, a couple of hours later Jack McMillan has one in the 4x200m freestyle relay and early the next morning Hannah Scott in the Women’s Quadruple Skulls.

The benefit of the Venn diagram for me is usually adding the medals together. In 2012 Katie Taylor’s gold meant I celebrated 30 gold medals, instead of just the Great Britain & Northern Ireland 29. This year though, Northern Ireland actually won as many medals as the Republic. Seven. Of course some of those were the same medals. 

And so we have Jack McMillan and Hannah Scott going gold in British vests and Daniel Wiffen and Rhys McClenaghan in Irish vests. A silver for Rebecca Shorten and bronzes for Philip Doyle and Daniel Wiffen again. Wow! 

The benefits of that Venn Diagram. Let me explain. We lie snugly in between Great Britain and the Republic Of Ireland, sharing political government with the former and an island with the latter. We are tiny and it is easy to get knocked around by two more powerful entities pushing and shoving, often over us and a very bloody history where no one is innocent.

These two national entities are like the big circles in a Venn diagram. I like to sit in the middle bit that overlaps. 

It is not about flags. Or borders. Or who the Prime Minister or Taoiseach is? Those are pretty much set in stone. For me, it means more to my identity how I feel about the two states. Parts of my very self are touched by both countries. 

 

Walking across Ballycastle beach

Or an afternoon on Grafton Street

Hearing the Uilleann pipes. 

Remembering my Granny’s Ulster Scott words. 

Watching an All Ireland Hurling Final. 

Receiving my MBE from Princess Anne.

 

I do love the benefits of the Venn diagram. The Great Britain & Northern Ireland team didn’t do so well, when it came to gold medals this year. However Keely Hodgkinson’s gold and Alex Yee’s, Tommy Fleetwood silver, Georgia Bell’s bronze and of course Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s mammoth silver in the Heptathlon. Then Tom Daley and Helen Glover just adding more and more to their tally.

For Ireland those rowers, Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy are always a highlight. Asked about adding to previous silver and gold, with another gold, O’Donovan suggested it must be “a fluke”. The man's humour and modesty. Ready to take a bus to Cork from Dublin airport they finally took a lift from someone on the same flight. Special. Kellie Harrington retiring after another gold in the boxing is a tidy ending too. I was so sorry for Rhasidat Adeleke to not get on a podium in the 400 or 4x400m but there is always LA!

All in all though it is the very best ever Olympics for our wee country fighting above our weight. The island's best Olympics ever for sure! Well done to our particularly unique Magnificent Six!

N. IRELAND OLYMPIC GOLDS FOR BOTH GB & NI AND IRELAND

What a sporting week for our wee country. We waited 36 years for an Olympic gold medal; Jimmy Kirkwood and Stephen Martin’s hockey golds at the 1988 games. It was 1972 and Mary Peters before that.

And then in 16 hours we win three. Daniel Wiffen in the 800 metres freestyle, a couple of hours later Jack McMillan has one in the 4x200m freestyle relay and early the next morning Hannah Scott has her narrowest of victories in the Women’s Quadruple Skulls.

36 years and then 3 in 16 hours. 

Of course two of the medals are from the Great Britain & Northern Ireland team and one is from the Irish team. The Northern Irish who play sport can elect which country they wish to compete for, though it may be more about which sports are all Ireland sports, like golf where Rory McIlroy has been competing for Ireland right through his career. Others might not make one team and can compete for the other. 

Antrim brothers Paul and Mark Gleghorne played for different countries at the Rio Olympics, Paul for Ireland, Mark choosing Great Britain & Northern Ireland. 

For me, the the joy is the same. These guys are from our wee country. I’ve written before about the Venn Diagram of my nationality. I believe also at an Olympic time. The Olympics is certainly when it is most on show.

We lie snugly in between Great Britain and the Republic Of Ireland, sharing political government with the former and an island with the latter. We are tiny and it is easy to get knocked around by two more powerful entities pushing and shoving, often over us and a very bloody history where no one is innocent.

These two national entities are like the big circles in a Venn diagram. I like to sit in the middle bit that over laps. 

It is not about flags. Or borders. Or who the Prime Minister or Taoiseach is? Those are pretty much set in stone. For me, it means more to my identity how I feel about the two states. Parts of my most self are touched by both countries. 

 

When I hear the Uilleann pipes. 

Remembering my Granny’s Ulster Scott words. 

Watching an All Ireland Hurling Final. 

Receiving my MBE from Princess Anne.

 

Oh I do love the benefits of the Venn diagram.

In the Olympics it is usually about adding the British and Irish medals together to declare that I have more than if you are just British… or just Irish. This year it is actually us. Right there in the middle of the Venn diagram.

We’ll cheer Rebecca Shorten too, silver in the Women’s Four and Philip Doyle also, a bronze in the Double Sculls. Our wee country fighting above our weight. Hopefully there’s more to come. I am loving it.

 

RORY THROWS AWAY US OPEN - IN 2011 I FEARED DAYS LIKE THESE

Rory! Rory! Rory! So sad. I was gutted. I can only imagine how you feel.

I was sure that it was Rory’s year. On the 69th tee of the 124th US Open Rory McIlroy is 2 shots clear. Bryan Dechambeau is struggling. Play it canny Rory and this is yours. I was thinking that he just might get the monkey off his back but I was so nervous.

Three bogeys, two of them by missing 3 foot putts and Rory throws it away yet again. 

Doug Sanders is famous for missing a 3 foot putt on the last green to beat Jack Nicklaus in the 1970 British Open. He lost after a play off. Well, Doug can rest in peace. Rory did it twice in 4 holes, not having missed a 3 foot put all season.    

I have been watching golf for 50 years and I have never known anyone like Rory. To be playing like one of the best natural golfer in the world yet not able to close out the big ones and some of the littler ones. Nicklaus didn’t do it. Tiger didn’t do it. Only Rory.

I use the names of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods intentionally. After Rory won his first second Major in 2012 he made it clear that he was no longer playing for money but for records. He had his sights on Nicklaus’s 18 Major wins and when he picked up two more in 2014 it looked like that was very much on. 

No Majors since. Oh many will remind me he has been world number 1, Player of The Year a few times and won 40 tournaments across the world - 26 of those in the USPGA Tour. BUT… that is not what Rory was playing for.

As the commentators floundered in disbelief at his collapse in this US Open my mind went back to that 2011 Masters when he blew a 4 shot third round lead with a mental collapse on the back 9 in the final day. That evening my alarm bells rang loud. Rory was the most naturally talented golfer on the planet BUT did he have the head. I feared then that there would be days like the 2024 US Open.

The head is so important. In sport confidence pulses from it. Resilience too. When a tee shot goes astray can you refocus? Too often Rory highlights his biggest weakness. He has head melts. It actually costs him almost every week. Some weeks I watch and feel deeply sorry for him travelling home knowing that he blew yet another win. Sometimes before he even begins. Remember the opening hole at Portrush in the 2019 Open?!

So… why? Well I wonder about his leaving school too early. Rory didn’t need to stay at school. He was so unbelievably talented that he knew he’d never need A levels. He would manage financially.

It was a short sighted and flawed error. The mental side of sport is so much a part of it. Watch the footballers Guardiola and Klopp sign and you will see that as well as talented they are very strong mentally.

Golfers spend time in the gym to be as strong and fit as they can be. The mental muscle needs developed too. Most of Rory’s competitors did not leave school early. They went to Universities across America and developed their minds as well as their physiques. Education is not just about books and exams. I surmise that Rory has suffered for not going down that route. 

Now, Rory is only 35. He still has an opportunity to make a dent in that target of 18 Majors. I so really really hope he does. And quickly! Whatever he does do this mental frailty in his make up has cost Rory many many Majors and other tournaments. It's a shame. 

As a pastor I fear for him as he heads home tonight. What goes on in his mind. 10 years on and I blew another one. Maybe blew it worse than even that Masters in 2011 or the Open at St. Andrews in 2022. There’s a lot of scar tissue there and these two putts at the US Open are an open wound. 

I so hope that his daughter Poppy and a marriage he’s now prepared to fight for will give him the consolation he needs. I hope too that he finally gets one at The British Open at Troon. If you can pray for such things, I will be.

HOW NOT TO PLAY YOUR FANTASY LEAGUE CAPTAIN - AND FL UPDATES!!!

There are five big decisions for the Fantasy League manager during the season. 

We have two opportunities to change our entire team in what are called WILDCARDs. We get one before and one after New Year's Day.

There is also a FREE HIT that changes your team for only one week before you revert to what you have.

Then there is a BENCH BOOST where you get the points of your entire squad not just the 11 you choose.

Finally there is a TRIPLE CAPTAIN where your captain doesn't just double but trebles his score.

It is all about the nouse to know when to play these.

I decided that the right time for my TRIPLE CAPTAIN was this past week. I had signed Ollie Watkins and boy was he in form as the striker of an Aston Villa team that were banging in goals for fun. At home to Luton Town. They were sure to get 3 or 4 and if he got even 2 and an assist the points were great!

Well of course Villa did get 3 but not as much as an assist for Watkins. 

As if that wasn't bad enough it was the first time this season that I had taken the captain away from Erling Haaland and he scored 2 and had an assist at Old Trafford. It would have been 30 more points had I TRIPLE CAPTAINED Haaland! Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!

Be careful with your precious cards, managers. One lost to me!

Even with this I did ok but 30 points more would have out me in the fray... That's the luck of this game!

 

UPDATES in my MAIN 3 LEAGUES

 

FITZROY

In my Church League my daughter is back on top, level with the perennial winner John McMullen but on top all the same. 

I sit 3rd but not far enough ahead of 4th that I could lose my TRIPLE CAPTAIN.

 

ONLY AN EXCUSE - HEAD TO HEAD

In my very competitive Head-To-Head league I had another comfortable win though when Haaland got his second on Sunday afternoon I wondered if not captaining him might cost me.

My daughter Jasmine leads again and is actually 6 points ahead of me in 3rd with Tim, Janice's cousin who lives with us sitting a point ahead of me. Where are all you Scots!!!???!!!

 

FACEBOOK PUNDITS

A competitive wee league that James Hume has risen like cream above us all, even Jasmine and McMullen, in second place. Go James!

 

Can I say that Jasmine is more interested in her Reading University Women's Team League and she is not at the top of that league. The women are slaying! 

LUKE DONALD'S INTELLIGENCE WINS THE RYDER CUP

On Thursday night as I watched the Opening Ceremony of the Ryder Cup I immediately felt confident that Europe might win. A ball had not been teed up yet but if you ask me the Cup was won and lost in the Captain's speeches.

Zac Johnston did nothing wrong but his attempt to speak Italian and his speech in general lost 10 & 8 to the speech of European captain Luke Donald.

There was a real intelligence about Donald's speech. This is a very clever man. There was also a deep sense of being orientated to the place. His Italian was longer and seemed more fluid and much more than a gesture. Donald also mentioned the caddies and I had a sense that he knew his team, his wider staff and all of those that would support his twelve players.

That intelligence was immediately proven in the pairings for foursomes and four balls. 

Lots has been said about the American players taking 5 or 6 weeks rest before the event. What I liked more was how Donald had used those weeks.

Keeping his players competitive was one thing but pairing them up in the BMW PGA, using a competitive tournament two weeks before the Cup to bond the team in a competitive atmosphere. This was a well thought through build up. That intelligence again.

If I thought this over Friday and Saturday it became even clearer on Sunday. As I looked at the pairings for the singles on Sunday morning I actually wondered where Europe might win four points. I was concerned. 

Now why would that be after having won three out of the first four sessions. It was because when you see the American team lined out they have world beaters. How could they have been 5 points down? How could Scottie Scheffler have lost 9&7 in the Saturday Foursomes? He slugged it out down the 18th to a half match with John Rham on Sunday.

There is a thing that you hear about in Belfast schools. It is called added value. Basically if you come to our school we can add a valuable increase to your expected results from what you have attained up to then.

That speech by Luke Donald, his preparation before and his influence during the week, added a value to almost every European player.

Robert McIntyre might say it himself. It was a huge step up in his levels of golf pressure. At times he looked like a wee boy among men. Yet, Robert McIntyre came out of his debut Ryder Cup with 2 wins and a half match, one a singles win against the US Open champion. Now, that is added value. 

This was in the end a hard fought win, though the final score looks very decisive. With a 5 point lead going into the final day the Europeans needed their final three players to fight hard to bring the Cup home. Overall, this was a huge win, against the seemingly stronger American players on paper. 

Do not underestimate how much a captain's intelligence won Europe this Cup. My hope is that he'll take on a brash New York crowd and see if we could possibly win again in two years time on American soil. Lead us again Luke!

ZOMBIE AT THE RUGBY WORLD CUP... I SURMISE THE ROW!

I was immediately surprised. As the whistle blew, to bring relief and joy at Ireland’s narrow win over South Africa in the Rugby World Cup, I could hear Zombie, a well know international hit for The Cranberries pumping out across the Stade de France and on into the Paris night. 

I was intrigued. Who chose that song? I immediately had images of Saracen tanks on Belfast streets. I had never sensed it as a celebratory song for a sports event. Mind you who heard Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline as a sports anthem!

I suppose, as you are all expecting, I was expecting U2’s Beautiful Day or something. At least Zombie hadn’t been the obvious.

I then woke up on Monday morning and Zombie was the raging row on social media. It seems that Republicans are not happy that a song of protest against the IRA should be seen as a song of unity. 

It got a little laughable for me when I read post after post that described The Cranberries as West Brits. I lived in Dublin for a few years and knew a few West Brits but none of them had names like Dolores O Riordan. 

If anyone who was against the bombs and bullets tactics of the IRA were called West Brits, then a great number of people of the Republic were West Brits in 1993.

It was in March 1993 that the IRA exploded a bomb in Warrington, England. Three-year-old Johnathan Ball was killed and twelve year-old Tim Parry  had his life support machine turned off just five days later. 

There was an out pouring of horror in Dublin at the time. I was living there and felt that something different was happening. Dublin mother Susan McHugh brought 20,000 on the Dublin streets to protest the murder of children in the name of Irish freedom. It was a stepping stone through more horror as we stumbled our way to an IRA ceasefire eighteen months later.

The Cranberries were riding this same horror and asking question about the violence of the northern Troubles. It was 1993 that they wrote Zombie.

After I posted this blog I got a little more info about the song's original use at sporting events. It seems that those "West Brits" known as Limerick GAA started using it before the Munster Rugby crowd took it board. A song as born in Limerick as You'll Never Walk Alone was in Liverpool. It makes sense and is now sneaking out from Munster to the entire island.

So, I am not sure that the vehemency of those against the Irish Rugby team celebrating to Zombie has much robustness of argument. It is certainly not as offensive as a moment a couple of months ago when in a mid Ulster pub, the only other punters sharing the bar with us, came back in after they had left to shout “Up the Ra!” at what could only have been us.

It is however a reminder of how sensitive we are to songs and chants in certain situations and how much they still reach deep into our souls and offend and hurt us. We need to find songs that unite instead of divide, no matter what the sensitivity of our feelings.

I have been a fan of Snow Patrol’s Run. Is it too Northern? Why does that matter? It is some anthem in a stadium when Gary Lightbody fires the crowd. Staying north we could offer Teenage Kicks an utter punk rock classic.

There are also Thin Lizzy classics. What about Whiskey In the Jar or The Boys Are Back in Town. The thumping Horslips song The Power and the Glory is maybe not well enough known. The Sawdoctors’ To Win Just Once seems appropriate. Or… how would it be, should Ireland actually win this World Cup, if 30,000 Irish are heard singing No One Compares To You, so close to Sinead’s sad passing. There is also Beautiful Day!

STOCKI'S FANTASY LEAGUE SURMISE #4

Oh it was a week of utter drama, frustration and deep deep disappointment. A Fantasy League storm. 

First up was that I had transferred out Elanga to bring in the star of the weekend before -Raheem Sterling. Elanga hadn't started for Forest in the first 3 games and Sterling looked like he was fizzing. Elanga scores. Sterling doesn't! Oh if that was all.

I hadn't done well on Saturday afternoon. Silva didn't start for City and after he came on got booked! Haaland did his hat trick business but about 90% have him too. I went off to a gig on the north coast and found myself out of wifi range. When wifi kicked in I discover that my striker Evan Ferguson had scored a hit trick... but he hadn't started any game this season... so I had him on my bench! AAAHHH!!!

So Sunday, particularly in my head-to head league I needed points. Alexander Arnold have me some hope with his first expensive contribution of the season BUT two minutes in the United/Arsenal match cost me two clean sheets. Of course one of the scorers was my man Rashford BUT... you guessed it... I had put him on the bench at the last minute on Friday evening.

So without those 24 points that I left on the bench, I needed a miracle. It was a Declan Rice miracle, the assist from Saka enough to defeat Adela, last year's champion by 2 points!

FITZROY LEAGUE

The perennial winner John McMullan eventually rises to the top but my daughter Jasmine is still there, level with him. After Bowen's goal on Friday night, Jasmine was at the dizzy heights of 75,000th over all. WoW! Jonny Fitch, Stephen Orr and Ryan Kee are the chasers, every year competitive, all three!

FACEBOOK LEAGUE

Rev Haydon Spenceley over takes Jasmine to stay at the top. Haydon was Chaplain at Northampton town and made a stunning record this year called Ruthless Trust. Good at Fantasy League too. What a guy!

HEAD-TO-HEAD LEAGUE

Fortunately for me Adela chanced a -4. It cost her so I am one of the 4 with 9 points. Leader on Friday lost his game to Stevie Hay. Pretty hard to lose to Stevie. He still has Tierney and Mitrovic still in his team and Haaland 3rd sub!!! He did have Ferguson as captain and Haaland obviously came off his bench. There is luck involved too. 

Now it is the International Break. The transfer window is closed. Time for a Wildcard anyone!

 

WEEK 3 FANTASY LEAGUE - My Surmise

It was one of those awful Fantasy League weeks where as the weekend goes on you realise that it getting worse instead of the better you are hoeing against hope for. 

I should have noticed on Saturday. I heading to a wedding at 3pm and check the scores early on to find that Onana, my keeper, has no points. I check to see if he’s not playing and discover that United have conceded twice in the first four minutes at home to Nottingham Forest. Maybe United cleans sheets should not be hoped for! 

By Sunday afternoon I am needing Berardo Silva and Trent Alexander Arnold to do something spectacular. Before Bernardo can, and he doesn’t, my captain Haaland has doubled his -2 for a missed penalty! That is not so bad as 91% have Erling and most as captain.

Alexander Arnold thought. Booked in the opening minutes for letting go of the ball. Was he meant to hold on to it. Bizarre decision. Even more bizarre was his not being sent off a minute later for what WAS a yellow card offence! From there - nothing!

The Weekend result is that I free fall down my leagues. 

My excuse is that Saturday was the first time `I had watched a match this season. I learned a lot. Gusto? Who is he? £4m! Wow. These little things that cannot be learned on vacation, away from good wifi will hopefully be fixed in the next few weeks.

 

MY LEAGUES

FITZROY LEAGUE.

My daughter Jasmine and her Earps, I Did It Agian remains on top. She had an average week but had enough of a lead. Up further than I fell and into second is Ryan Kee and his Jubious Bandits (his team name referencing his beloved Juba in South Sudan). The Bandits scored 87 points, just short of twice as many as Jasmine. Over half of those were on Friday night. Ryan captained Raheem Sterling as well as scoring with Jackson and clean sheeting with Chilwell. Visionary work. Deserved the points!

Perennial heavy hitters McMullen, Fitch and Orr are waiting to pounce. I have it all to do.

 

FACEBOOK LEAGUE

Again, it is Jasmine. McMullen and James Hume the closest chasers!

 

ONLY AN EXCUSE - HEAD To HEAD

I had a local derby with my mate Tim, who is currently living with us. Tim is a quiet gracious man but I knew he had his heart and soul grinning away that he thumped me from the off. I still had a chance on Sunday but as I hoped for Silva to save me, it came up on the screen that Matty Cash had scored for Villa. WHAATTT?! A Timmy defender not in our equations and then… Cash scores again and my Weekend is Ker Plunk! I mean Matty Cash twice in one game… when!!!

This league looks so exciting. It has everyone nudging for position. In a league of 16, 2nd to 8th all have 6 points with Timmy’s sin against me moving him one ahead on 7pts. No one with 100% records after 3 games. Heavy hitters are finding it tough though Ross Coulter found his feet to defeat Jasmine’s strong start. 

 

ME AGAIN

Big decisions needed to strengthen as I try to strengthen the MBEs… It is that stage where we are all seeing what our teams could be with a few weeks of transfers. Far too early for a WILD CARD though another week like this one and I’ll be under that pressure!

SURMISING FANTASY LEAGUE (AND MY LEAGUES) WEEK 3

It was one of those awful Fantasy League weeks where as the weekend goes on you realise that it getting worse instead of the better you are hoeing against hope for. 

I should have noticed on Saturday. I heading to a wedding at 3pm and check the scores early on to find that Onana, my keeper, has no points. I check to see if he’s not playing and discover that United have conceded twice in the first four minutes at home to Nottingham Forest. Maybe United cleans sheets should not be hoped for! 

By Sunday afternoon I am needing Berardo Silva and Trent Alexander Arnold to do something spectacular. Before Bernardo can, and he doesn’t, my captain Haaland has doubled his -2 for a missed penalty! That is not so bad as 91% have Erling and most as captain.

Alexander Arnold though. Booked in the opening minutes for letting go of the ball. Was he meant to hold on to it. Bizarre decision but even more bizarre was his not being sent off a minute later for what WAS a yellow card offence! From there - nothing!

The Weekend result is that I free fall down my leagues. 

My excuse is that Saturday was the first time `I had watched a match this season. I learned a lot. Gusto? Who is he? £4m! Wow. These little things that cannot be learned on vacation, away from good wifi will hopefully be fixed in the next few weeks.

 

MY LEAGUES

FITZROY.

My daughter Jasmine and her Earps, I Did It Agian remains on top. She had an average week but had enough of a lead. Up further than I fell and into second is Ryan Kee and his Jubious Bandits (his team name referencing his beloved Juba in South Sudan). The Bandits scored 87 points, just short of twice as many as Jasmine. Over half of those were on Friday night. Ryan captained Raheem Sterling as well as scoring with Jackson and clean sheeting with Chilwell. Visionary work. Deserved the points!

Perennial heavy hitters McMullen, Fitch and Orr are waiting to pounce. I have it all to do.

 

FACEBOOK.

Again, it is Jasmine. McMullen and James Hume the closest chasers!

 

ONLY AN EXCUSE - HEAD To HEAD

I had a local derby with my mate Tim, who is currently living with us. Tim is a quiet gracious man but I knew he had his heart and soul grinning away that he thumped me from the off. I still had a chance on Sunday but as I hoped for Silva to save me, it came up on the screen that Matty Cash had scored for Villa. WHAATTT?! A Timmy defender not in our equations and then… Cash scores again and my Weekend is Ker Plunk! I mean Matty Cash twice in one game… when!!!

This league looks so exciting. It has everyone nudging for position. In a league of 16, 2nd to 8th all have 6 points with Timmy’s sin against me moving him one ahead on 7pts. No one with 100% records after 3 games. Heavy hitters are finding it tough though Ross Coulter found his feet to defeat Jasmine’s strong start. 

 

ME AGAIN

Big decisions needed to strengthen as I try to strengthen the MBEs… It is that stage where we are all seeing what our teams could be with a few weeks of transfers. Far too early for a WILD CARD though another week like this one and I’ll be under that pressure!