The Countdown To Season 35 Has Started

We have fifteen days left before we launch Season 35 of Golden Goals.  The Competition first started way back in 1983 and has built up a regular fan base of around 85 people per season but we would like more, much more..

Last season we had our highest number of entries with a grand total of 136.

It’s not an easy task to pick three teams that could make you our 35th champion but that is how football goes. As always it’s first come, first served so it’s important to get your teams in as quick as you can. The entry forms will be available from Friday 7^th July 2017. 

Why not represent your country where we will add your country after your name in the table each week. 

You can e-mail me here at goldengoals1983@gmail.com to find out more about the competition rules.

Season 35 Coming Soon

With last season now well out of the way it is now time for me to start preparing for Season 35 and to get it up and running, and it is time for you to start thinking about your three teams.

This unique competition has now been running for thirty-four consecutive seasons and with thirty-five just around the corner Golden Goals has stood the test of time.

The Competition first started way back in 1983 and has built up a regular fan base of around 85 people per season but we would like more, much more.

It’s not an easy task to pick three teams that could make you our 35th Champion, but that’s how football goes. As always it’s first come, first served so it’s important to get your teams in as quick as you can.

How does the competition work? Well all you have to do is pick three football teams here in the UK from any English or Scottish leagues or you can mix up your choice from the two countries. Once you have picked the three teams and sent them in to me via your entry form with the entry fee, these teams will be unique to you, as no-one else will have them teams. These three teams could make you our 35^th Champion by scoring as many goals as they can.  Where do these goals come from? They will come from any league game, and from the two English and Scottish domestic cup rounds

We will have prize money throughout the season and if you have been following last season’s blog entries then you will know what I mean.  Each week I will send you a News Sheet via email which will tell you where you are in our table and how your teams are doing. Once the entry date has passed, you will not be able to join in.

Even if you just look at the simple rules and decide not to join in, there will be no pressure to join Golden Goals.

We have had over 16000 hits on our blog and it would be really great that some of you could get together and represent your family or even better your country.

You can e-mail me here at goldengoals1983@gmail.com to find out more about the competition 

The Most Popular Combination Was?

I know, the football season is over BUT Season 35 is not that far away.

At the start of Season 34 we had quit a few players in Golden Goals that wanted the popular combination of CELTIC, MANCHESTER CITY and NEWCASTLE. The first played to pick that combo was Matt Doran.

Now Matt started off the season in 106^th place in the first week but by week six he had progressed well and appeared on the front page and in the following week, Matt had made it into the wining frame (top thirty) From then on he never fell below the top fifteen. Matt’s highest was 8^th place.

His highest weekend score with that combination was twelve goals scored in week 12 from Celtic 4, Manchester City 5 and Newcastle 3. Matt picked up just four blank weekend score sheets and he finally finished in 13^th place. Although he never won any cash at the weekends through the season, he did pick up cash in the final week. He only had one of his teams in the best team frame and they were Celtic who picked up the highest score for him with 134 goals. Manchester City scored 98 goals while Newcastle netted a total of 100 goals.

We hope that we will see Matt back in Season 35 but I am just wondering how many players will pick up Celtic in the next season’s votes.

Last Update Of The Season

The final whistle has been blown on our historic 34^th  Season of Golden Goals and what a great season it was for goals. But it was the season that we managed to beat our highest ever recorded number of entries with 136. The success of the season was all down to you. The good news is that we do not have to wait long for the next season to start. Although we once again lost a few friends this season, we have also gained a lot of new ones. Lets hope that we can continue with this nice run as we have had a lot of success over our full 34 year history of Golden Goals.

This season we have had a quite a few  records that have been broken this season, but more on this later. I hope that you have had a lot of fun watching your name go up and down the table and as shown above, where your combination of teams have left you standing in the final position of the season. But before we go all into that, lets take a look at what happened to the last couple games of the season.

FA Cup Final

Congratulations to ARSENAL on winning the FA Cup for a record 13 times as they beat Premiership Champions CHELSEA 2-1. The  last time that Arsenal won the cup was back in 2014/15 Season.

Arsenal started off the game at a very fast pace and they scored in the fourth minute of the first half by Sanchez. This is how it stood by the end of the first half  1-0 to Arsenal. In the second half  Chelsea did have a few attacks but they were mostly broken down by Arsenal but it was a very entertaining game between the two London teams. Chelsea went down to 10 men when Moses was booked in the 68^th minute but that did not take the fight out of Chelsea and they equalised in the 76^th minute by Diego Costa. Arsenal then put on the pressure and they scored the winning goal in the 79^th minute by Ramsey. Final score 2-1 to Arsenal.Arsenal have not had a great season as they finished in fifth place in the premiership but they did finish the season with a total of 101 goals. This is Arsenal’s best season since they scored their highest score of 103 goals back in the 2002/03 Season. Last season they score a total of 77 goals. They had a total of 16 votes this season.

Champion Chelsea did have a great season as they finished seven points clear of rivals Tottenham in second place in the premiership with a total of 109 goals, which is their best score since their highest score of 128 goals in the 2009/10 Season. Last season they scored a total of 76 goals and they had a total of 15 votes this season.

Scottish WILLIAM HILL Cup Final

Champions CELTIC won the Scottish Cup final for the 37^th time after they beat ABERDEEN 2-1 at Hampden Park to pick up the domestic treble, their first since the 2001/02 Season. But it was Aberdeen that went into the lead after just 9 minutes of play with a goal from Hayes before Celtic equalised two minutes later with a goal from Armstrong. It was 1-1 at half time and we had to wait till near the end of full time before Celtic scored the winning goal by Rogic in the 90+2 minutes of  added time. Celtic have had a the best season ever by being Champions with a gap of 30 points clear of second place Aberdeen. They finished on a total of 134 goals which is their highest score with Golden Goals beating their previous score of 122 goals from the 2001/02 Season. last season they finished on a total of 108 goals. They had a total of 69 votes this season. Aberdeen finished on their best score in their last seven outings with Golden Goals with 89 goals. Last season they finished on a total of 62 goals. They had just one vote this season.

So it’s Congratulations to JOHN WOOD as he now becomes our 34^th Champion with Golden Goals in the very last weekend of the season, and he took the winning prize money of a total of £105 and also picked up three weekends wins taking his final lump sum to nearly £120 in cash.

We can now add  John’s name in our history book and in the Champions League where he finished in 3^rd  place on 344 goals. John had the winning combination of  ARSENAL (101) CELTIC (134) and CHELSEA (109). Just two of his teams finished in our top best three teams and they were Celtic and Chelsea. John picked up four blank score sheet throughout the season and his highest score was 13 goals in week 26. In the end he finished just one goal clear of  Lee Clark who finally finished in second place and Stephen Stubbs in third place both with a total of 343 goals. 

ROAD TO CHAMPION

 So our new Champion’s name, JOHN WOOD is now in our history book, but what about the other people who managed to get to that magic number one spot.

We had a total of twelve people that made it to that number one slot. We already know that John had the very last week at the top but who stayed there the longest. That person was DANIEL GOODSON who was their for a total of 14 weeks. He had one week in week 8 and then a run from week 14 to 26. We then had JUNE TIGHE with 11 weeks from week 31 to 41 while GRANT PHILLIPS had 5 weeks from week 10 to 13. STEPHEN STUBBS was their for 4 weeks from week’s 27 to 30. With 2 week’s we had JACQUI WILLIAMS in our very first two weeks of the season. We then had six players that had a single week

each. They were ZIGGY (John Wood) in our 3^rd  week, CHRIS SETFORD in week 4. Our third lady to get there in week 5 was KELLIE STRATTON.  Our only Champion to reach there this season was RICKY WOOD in week 6, STEPTOE & SON was in week 7 and LEE CLARK in week 42.

So what happened to our past Champions. Well we had a total of fourteen that played in this seasons competition and six of them finished in the top thirty and they were ALICE STUBBS our 2012/13 Champion in 6^th place, GEOFF DOCKERILL our1994/95 Champion in 7^th place, MIKE PEPPERRELL 2002/03 Champion in 8^th place, followed by two times Champion PHIL REEVE 187/88 & 2011/12 in 19^th place  In 22^nd place came our 2005/06 Champion KEAMUS SETNA with TONY GUY our 2010/11 Champion in 26^th place. We had another Champion that finished in the top fifty and they were in 37^th Place PAUL DAVEY our 2013/14 Champion. Below is the list of our top five champions of  Golden Goals.

                                               CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

                      NAME                      M/W         W/E          TOTAL

                 1. L. KING                   116             239             355      2001/02

                 2. P. DAVEY                 132             216             348      2013/14

                 3. J. WOOD                   92             252             344      2016/17     

                 4. M. PEPPERRELL      91             247             338      2002/03

                 5. D. SOMERVILLE      95             237             332      2009/10

                                   

At the other end of the table, we had five players that landed on that rotten number of 136. GRAEME BRITTON holds the record for the best of our losers league with 214 goals from our 2004/05 season. The person who finished rock bottom this season was JASON COOPER. Jason was there for a total of three weeks with his first in week 8 and then the very last two weeks of the season. Over the season Jason picked up eight blank score sheets over the season. Jason had the combination of BRISTOL ROVERS (77) DERBY (61) and WALSALL (51) total of 189 goals. Jason’s combination finished in 8^th place in our losers league and we can now add’s his name in the history book.

Although Jason finished rock bottom, it was KATHY SOMERVILLE that stayed there the longest with a total of 21 weeks. Kathy was then followed by SANDRA NICHOLLS with 10 weeks and then EMMA SAWYER with 8 weeks. ANDREW ROSSDALE was there for one week which was our very first week of the season.

100 MIDWEEK GOALS JACKPOT

The Prize Money for the 100 Midweek Goals Rollover Jackpot of £80 went to DARLY NICHOLLS who won on a score of 136 goals which has now beaten PAUL DAVEY record score of 132 goals from the 2013/14 season. Darly won the cash in week thirty-one with his combination of Brighton, Celtic and Newcsatle.

BEAT THE SCORE

The fantastic sum of  £60 cash prize money for BEAT THE SCORE has not been picked up once again this season. The prize money will go to the first person who scores 19 goals or more at the weekend. So I hope that we can add more cash to the pot next season. The holder of this record is Mark Rymer with 18 goals scored way back in our 1998/99 season, so it’s about time that some-one beat that score?

THE BEST THREE TEAMS FINISHED AS

CELTIC (134) TOTTENHAM (109) CHELSEA (109) Total of  352 goals.

We had a total of six teams this season that picked up 100 or more goals. They are our best team CELTIC with that fantastic score of 134 goals which beats their previous record of 122 goals scored back in our 2000/01 Season. This is their 34^th season with Golden Goals and this is their 16^th season with 100 or more goals scored by the end of the season. They have now set another record by scoring 100 or more goals in their last seven consecutive season’s. Another record they now hold is that they have scored in all of their forty-seven league and two domestic cup competitions games giving them an average score of 2.8 goals per game. Over the 34 seasons, they have scored a total of 3303 goals which now gives them an average score of 97 goals per season. Last season they scored 108 goals. They had a total of 69 votes this season.

In second place was TOTTENHAM who equalled their best score of 109 goals set in the 1986/87 Season. They have scored a total of 2428 goals over the 33 seasons that they have been with us. That now gives them an average score of 73 goals per season. They had a total of 14 votes.

The third best team was CHELSEA and they also finished on a total of 109 goals. This is the third season that they have scored 100 or more goals in the 34 years that they have been with Golden Goals.

They have scored a total of 2779 goals over the 34 seasons which gives them an average score of 81 goals per season. They had a total of  15 votes this season. SHEFFIELD UNITED came next with 101 goals. This is their second best score as they netted a total of 104 goals in the 2011/12 Season. United have been with us for 17 season’s and they have scored a total of 1255 goals over the years. They are now on an average score of 73 goals per season. They had just 2 votes this season. Our fifth team was ARSENAL. They also finished on a total of 101 goals  and their fourth season with 100 or more goals. This is their best season for fourteen years as their highest score is 103 scored in the 2002/03 Season. Arsenal have been with us for 32 seasons and over that time they have netted a total of 2673 goals which gives them an average score of  83 goals per season. They had a total of 16 votes. In sixth place was NEWCASTLE with a total of 100 goals. This is their best score since they had a record score of 105 goals in the 1992/93 Season. This is Newcastles 28^th Season with us and over the years they have scored a total of 1939 goals which gives them an average score of 69 goals per season. last season they finished on just 48 goals. They had a total of 42 votes this season.

So lets see what happened to our other teams to see if they have broken any records this time round.  MANCHESTER CITY who ended the season with a total of 98 goals had the top English votes with 50.  This is their best season since they scored that record number of goals with 137 in the 2012/14 Season. Last season they finished on 97 goals. MANCHESTER UNITED did better than last season’s total of 69 goals with 78. This is their best score since the 2011/12 Season with 103 goals. They had a total of 26 votes this season.  LIVERPOOL finished on a total of 92goals which is their best since the 2013/14 Season with 110 goals. Liverpool had a total of 11 votes this season. BRIGHTON picked up their best score yet by beating their highest score of 82 goals in the 2000/01 Season. This season they finished on a total of 86 goals and they had 10 votes. DONCASTER with 2 votes finished on a total of 87goals which beats their highest score in 2003/04 Season with 84 goals. BRISTOL ROVERS finished on a total of 77 goals which is now their best score by beating their highest score of 73 goals in the 2011/12 Season. SCUNTHORPE beat their best score of 76 goals in the 2002/03 Season with 86 goals. SOUTHEND finished on a total of 71 goals which is their best score since 1990/91 where they finished on their top score of 74 goals. Last season they scored just 59 goals.

THE WORST THREE TEAMS FINISHED AS

OLDHAM (37) KILMARNOCK (41) STOKE (46) Total of 124 goals.

Well the worst team for this season finished with just 37 goals in their 8^th Season with Golden Goals and they were OLDHAM. This is their worst score by beating their lowest score of 52goals scored in our very first season of 1983/84. They had just one votes this season.

Next we had KILMARNOCK finishing on 41 goals which is their lowest score in their last three seasons that they have been with us. They had just one vote this season and their previous worst score was 42 goals from the 1999/00 season which was their first. STOKE finished in third place with their lowest score in six seasons of 46 goals. They also had just one vote. Their lowest score prior to this was 38 goals back in our 2004/05 Season which was the last time that they played in Golden Goals.

Our fourth worst team was ASTON VILLA  with 48 goals. They picked up their second lowest score just beating their lowest goals total of 43 goals back in the 2013/014 Season. They had 7 votes this season.

LEYTON ORIENT finished on a total of 49 goals which is their worst on record. Their previous worst score was 52 goals in the 2003/04 Season. Last Season they finished on 67 goals. ACCRINGTON STANLEY could not beat their first and only season with us of 71 goals scored in the 2006/07 Season, so this is their worst score to date by finishing on 67 goals. YEOVIL finished on 54 goals which was their lowest score in their last four seasons. Their previous lowest score was when we last saw them in the 2004/05 Season with 62 goals.

In Scotland PETERHEAD played in their second season with us but they could not beat their first score of 63 goals scored in the 2004/05 Season with just 58 goals.

The highest scoring team in our 34 Season HIBERNIAN after they won 8-1 away to non-league team Bonnyrigg Ross in the Fourth Round of the Scottish WILLIAM HILL CUP in Week Twenty-Five.

OLDHAM  have picked up the most number of blank score sheets this season with a total of twenty-six                             out of their fifty league and cup games played.

Well that’s it, another season of GOLDEN GOALS has finished. I still can not believe that I have been doing this competition for 34 year’s and after a hell of a lot of work this season that, I will still be looking forward to the next one.

Our Golden Goals blog has picked up a lot of interest again this season as we have now had over 16,000 hits to date. I was hoping that we would attract more people out in the big wide world to join in but no luck just yet, so lets hope that we can for our 35^th Season.

Here are the top thirty-one winners of the season who have received cash from £105 to £3.00

    FINAL     LAST                                                               M/WEEK    W/END    TOTAL        

   WEEK    SHEET         NAME                                         GOALS      GOALS   GOALS      

           

          1             4              JOHN WOOD                                92                 252            344         

          2             1              L. CLARK                                       113               230            343            

          3             2              S. STUBBS                                      121               222            343            

          4             3              M. FISHER                                      89                 252            341            

         5              -               B. CLARK                                       97                 244           341            

          6              -             A. STUBBS (2012/13)                   103               237           340            

          7             8             G. DOCKERILL (1994/95)          98                 237            335            

          8           10             M. PEPPERRELL (2002/03)       112               223            335            

          9             7             J. TIGHE                                         118               217            335            

       10           12              M. ADKINS                                   88                 245            333                            

       11             9              TIM WOOD                                   94                 239            333            

       12           14              N. HORTON                                  94                 238            332            

       13           11              M. DORAN                                   117               215            332            

       14           13              G. PHILLIPS                                  123               208            331            

       15              -              G. GREENHILL                            99                 230            329            

       16              -              D. GOODSON                              118               208            326            

       17              -              R. HARROD                                  94                 230            324            

       18              -              B. BARNES (2)                              81                 240            321            

       19              -              P. REEVE (1987/88 & 2011/12) 89                 232            321            

       20              -              D. NICHOLLS                               136               184            320            

       21              -              T. WARWICK                                112               206            318            

       22           23              K. SETNA (2005/06)                   83                 234            317            

       23           22              J. WISE                                           112               204            316            

       24              -              S. DICKINSON                             88                 226            314            

       25              -              S. CADWELL                               120               194            314                            

       26           27             T. GUY (1) (2010/11)                   80                 233            313               

       27           26             B. HAYES                                      109               203            312              

       28              -             C. DICKER                                     85                 225            310               

       29              -             C. NUNN                                        99                 211            310               

       30              -             R. NETTING                                  75                 233            308           

       31              -             J. DOVE                                          78                 230            308            

Two Games Left

As you might know that we here in Golden Goals that we have just two more games to be played before our 34^th Season is finally finished. The two games are both cup finals one for our English teams and the other for our Scottish teams.

The English have the FA CUP between ARSENAL v CHELSEA while in Scotland we have ABERDEEN v CELTIC in the WILLIAM HILL CUP. Both games are to be played on this coming Saturday.

These two remaining games will affect the Golden Goals table and the outcome to who will be our 34^th Champion. The votes for the four teams are as follows. Arsenal have a total of sixteen votes while Chelsea have fifteen. In Scotland Aberdeen have just one vote while Celtic have sixty-nine.

But some players here at Golden Goals have one, two or three of those four teams in their combinations.

At the top last weekend we have LEE CLARK, now Lee has just Celtic left to play. In second place is STEPHEN STUBBS who has Celtic and Chelsea.

So we are left with 1 player with Aberdeen and 55 with Celtic. Arsenal have 10 players while Chelsea have 6.

We then have 5 players with part combination of Arsenal and Celtic while 7 players have Celtic and Chelsea.

We will be keeping an eye on JOHN WOOD in fourth place who has Arsenal, Celtic and Chelsea. Could John be our next champion although he is just two goals behind Lee Clark?

Week Forty-Two

It’s Week Forty-Two of Season 34 and  we are left with just four of our Golden Goals teams left to play and they are all in the cup competitions this weekend. They are ARSENAL v CHELSEA in the FA CUP and ABERDEEN v CELTIC in the WILLIAM HILL CUP.

100 MIDWEEK GOALS JACKPOT

We have finished with thirty-nine players that have scored 100 or more midweek goals and that is a Golden Goals record. So it is congratulations to DARYL NICHOLLS who has finished on a total of 136 midweek goals and has beaten our highest midweek score set by Paul Davey in our 2013/14 Season with a total of 132 goals. Daryl had Brighton, Celtic and Newcastle.

WEEKEND RESULTS

We only had twenty of our teams in action over the weekend,  and the good news is that only two of them failed to pick up any goals. The highest score that we had over the weekend was seven goals and they came from the English Premiership. That team was TOTTENHAM once again as they pick up a total of 13 goals in their last two games this season as they beat Hull 7-1 away in their very last game to pick up their highest score of the season. Tottenham finished on a total of 109 goals.

PREMIERSHIP

The very last Premiership games have now been played and Champions CHELSEA won their last league game 5-1 at home to Sunderland and they are on a total of 108 goals. Chelsea finished seven points in front of TOTTENHAM in second place. MANCHESTER CITY finished in third place after they won 5-0 away to Watford. City finished on a total of 98 goals. LIVERPOOL won 3-0 at home to finished in fourth place with 92 goals. ARSENAL landed in fifth place as they win 3-1 at home to EVERTON. Arsenal are on 99 goals while Everton finished in seventh place with 67 goals. In sixth place was MANCHESTER UNITED who won 2-0 at home to Crystal Palace and finished with a total of 78 goals. WEST HAM won 2-1 away to Burnley and they finished on a total of 51 goals. STOKE won 1-0 away to SOUTHAMPTON and end their season on 49 goals. Southampton picked up their sixteenth blank score sheet of the season and they had scored just two goals in their last six games. LEICESTER CITY finished on a total of 57 goals as they drew 1-1 at home to BOURNEMOUTH who finished on a total of 59 goals.

LEAGUE ONE Play-off Final

In the Play-off  we had both teams in this final and they were BRADFORD CITY who faced MILLWALL. It’s the second season that Millwall have been in this final but they made sure that they won this time 1-0. The single goal gave Millwall their 86thgoals. Bradford picked up their twelfth blank score sheet.

SCOTTISH RESULTS

In the Scottish Premiership last games Champions CELTIC won 2-0 at home to Hearts and they are now on a total of 132 goals. ABERDEEN in second place won 6-0 away to Partick and they are on 88 goals.  RANGERS in third place won 2-1 away to fourth place St JOHNSTONE. Rangers finished on a total of 86 goals while St Johnstone finished on 66.

KILMARNOCK finished on 41 goals as they lost their last game 2-1 at home to Ross County.

In the Scottish League One Play-off Final 2^nd leg, PETERHEAD lost this leg as well 5-1 to Forfar and 7-2 on aggregate. Peterhead finished on a total of 58 goals.

Our Best Three Teams Are

CELTIC (132) TOTTENHAM (109) CHELSEA (108) Total of 349 goals

Our Worst Three Teams Are

OLDHAM (37) KILMARNOCK (41) STOKE (46) Total of 124 goals

Our Best team on form is still CELTIC after they have scored in all of their forty-six League and Cup games played and netting a total of 132 goals which still gives them an average score of 2.8 goals per game.

OLDHAM  have picked up the most number of blank score sheets this season with a total of twenty-six out of their fifty league and cup games played.

Our highest goal scorers in our 34^th Season are  HIBERNIAN after they won 8-1 away to non-league team Bonnyrigg Ross in the Fourth Round of the Scottish WILLIAM HILL CUP in Week Twenty-Five.

We have a new leader at the very top this weekend and they are LEE CLARK. Lee is in his very first season with Golden Goals and this is the first time that he has been top although he has been very close in the last few weeks. Lee has the combination of Celtic, Newcastle and Tottenham and with just two of them teams he has picked up a total of 20 goals with most of them coming from Tottenham. Lee is just one goal in front of  Stephen Stubbs who remained in in second place again this weekend. So how is Lee doing in the Champions league? well he has jumped up to third place but he needs a total of sixteen goals from Celtic in the cup this weekend to beat our record holder Laurie King’s score of 355 goals in the 2001/02 Season.

At the other end at number 136 we have JASON COOPER and the reason for that is that his teams have finished playing a couple of weeks ago. Jason had Bristol Rovers, Derby and Walsall. But Jason has been here before in week eight. He will finish in 8^th place in our Loser’s League.

     THIS      LAST                                                             M/WEEK       W/END        TOTAL        

     WEEK     WEEK             NAME                                   GOALS         GOALS        GOALS     

        1            5                 L. CLARK                                   113                 228                341               

          2                 -                 S. STUBBS                                  121                 219                340                 

         3                 15              M. FISHER                                   89                   250                339                 

         4                 7                JOHN WOOD                             92                   247                339                 

        5                 11              B. CLARK                                    97                   241                338                  

        6                 4                A. STUBBS (2012/13)               103                 234                337                 

        7                 1                J. TIGHE                                       118                 215                333                 

       8                 13              G. DOCKERILL (1994/95)       98                   234                332                 

       9                 8                TIM WOOD                                 94                   237                331                 

       10              6                 M. PEPPERRELL (2002/03)    112                 219                331              

Scottish Premiership Play-off Semi-final 2nd Leg

In the Scottish Premiership Play-off Semi-final 2^nd leg game, FALKIRK drew their first leg      2-2 to Dundee Utd but they could not pull anything else out of the hat as they lost the second leg 2-1 at home and 4-3 on aggregate. Falkirk have finished on a total of 65 goals.