Last League Games of 2022

In the Premier League WEST HAM lost to London rivals Brentford 2-0 at home. West Ham have now had a total of eight blank score sheets and now just one goal in their last three games. LIVERPOOL won 2-1 at home to LEICESTER CITY and are on a total of 35 goals to Leicester’s total of 32. 

In the Championship top of the table BURNLEY won 1-0 away to Stoke and they are on a total of 54 goals. NORWICH are on 36 goals as they drew 1-1 at home to READING who are on a total of 30 goals. SWANSEA picked up their biggest result of the season as they win 4-0 at home to WATFORD. Swansea are now on a total of 37 goals while Watford picked up their 9^th blank and now two games in a row. 

In League One DERBY won 1-0 at home to Cambridge Utd and it was their 41^st goal of the season. LINCOLN CITY drew 1-1 at home against Bolton. Lincoln are on a total of 31 goals. 

In League Two CRAWLEY TOWN lost 3-1 away to Stevenage. Crawley are on a total of 29goals.

  

More League Results

In the Championship LUTON won 3-0 away to QPR and they are on a total of 31 goals. MIDDLESBROUGH won 2-1 away to Blackburn and they have taken their goals total to 38. They have also now scored in all of their last nine games. HUDDERSFIELD won 2-0 at home to Rotherham and they are on a total of 24 goals. SUNDERLAND picked up their biggest result of the season by winning 4-1 away to Wigan. Sunderland are now on a total of 37 goals and a goal run of six games. WEST BROM have now scored in all of their last six games as win 2-0 at home to Preston and they are on a total of 34 goals. SHEFFIELD UNITED won 2-1 away to Blackpool and they are on a total of 43 goals. 

In League One BRISTOL ROVERS lost 4-3 at home to Exeter and they are now on a total of 39 goals. After failing to score in their last two games, FOREST GREEN are now on a total of 26 goals after they lost 2-1 at home to Burton. OXFORD UNITED have not scored in their last two games by they won 3-1 at home to CHARLTON to take their goals tally to 37 goals. Charlton picked up their 43^rd goal of the season. PETERBOROUGH won 2-0 at home to MK DONS and they are on a total of 45 goals while the Dons picked up their 10^th blank of the season. PLYMOUTH are on 44 goals as they win 1-0 at home to Wycombe. IPSWICH drew 2-2 away to Portsmouth and are on a total of 53 goals. It’s 50 goals for SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY as they win 2-0 at home against Port Vale. 

In League Two BRADFORD CITY have failed to score in their last two games but they are now on a total of 30 goals as they win 1-0 at home to Harrogate. AFC WIMBLEDON won 2-1 away to Colchester and they are on a total of 32 goals. SALFORD CITY picked up their biggest win of the season by winning 4-1 away to Grimsby. Salford are now on a total of 29 goals. MANSFIELD won 2-1 away to Hartlepool and they are on a total of 35 goals. SWINDON won 2-1 away to Northampton and they are on a total of 28 goals. SUTTON won 2-1 at home to GILLINGHAM and they are on a total of 23 goals while Gillingham picked up goal number 16 after they had failed to score in their previous two games. STOCKPORT won 2-0 away to Walsall and they have taken their goals total to 43.

 

Celtic Still Top, City Second

In the Premier League MANCHESTER CITY are now in second place and 5 points behind leaders Arsenal as they win 3-1 away to LEEDS UNITED. City are now on a total of 48 goals and have now scored in all of their lasts eleven games. Leeds picked up their 26^th goal of the season. 

In the Scottish Premiership top of the table CELTIC won 4-0 away to HIBERNIAN. Celtic have scored in all of their last thirteen games and they are now on a total of 69 goals. Hibs picked up their 6^th blank of the season. RANGERS in second place won 3-0 at home to Motherwell. Rangers are now on a total of 48 goals and they have scored in all of their last fourteen games. HEARTS in third place won 3-2 away to St Johnstone and they are now on a total of 32 goals. ABERDEEN in fourth place lost 2-1 away to Kilmarnock and are on a total of 53 goals. 

Burnley Still Top of Championship

In the Premier League after failing to score a goal in their last three games, CHELSEA won 2-0 at home to BOURNEMOUTH. Chelsea have taken their goals total to 19 while Bournemouth picked up their 9^th blank score sheet and now two games in a row. MANCHESTER UNITED won 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest. United are on a total of 29 goals and have extended their goal run to eight games. 

In the Championship top of the table BURNLEY won 3-0 at home to Birmingham and they are on a total of 53 goals. READING won 2-1 at home to SWANSEA and they are on a total of 29 goals. Swansea picked up goal number 33. 

In League One DERBY drew 0-0 away to Bolton and that is their 10^th blank of the season.

Boxing Day Results

In the Premier League ARSENAL are still at the top after they won 3-1 at home against London rivals WEST HAM. Arsenal are now on a total of 37 goals and they have now scored in all of their last fifteen games to keep their 100% scoring record. West Ham picked up goal number 5. TOTTENHAM drew 2-2 away to Brentford after going two goals down. Tottenham are on a total of 33 goals. CRYSTAL PALACE lost 3-0 at home to FULHAM and that is their 7^th blank of the season and they have now failed to score in their last three games. Fulham have taken their goals total to 27. EVERTON lost 2-1 at home to Wolves and they are on a total of 14 goals. LEICESTER CITY lost 3-0 at home to NEWCASTLE and they have now had a total of five blank score sheets. Newcastle are now on a total of 35 goals. BRIGHTON won 3-1 away to Southampton and they are now on a total of 32 goals. LIVERPOOL won 3-1 away to ASTON VILLA and that now gives them a total of 33 goals. Villa are on a total of 23. 

In the Championship WATFORD lost 2-0 at home to Millwall and that is their 8^th blank of the season and just 2 goals in their last four games. SUNDERLAND won 2-1 at home to Blackburn and they are on a total of 33 goals. WEST BROM won 2-0 away to Bristol City and they have taken their goals tally to 32 and they have now scored in all of their last six games. MIDDLESBROUGH won 4-1 at home to Wigan and they are now on a total of 36 goals. After failing to score in their last three games, HUDDERSFIELD are on a total of 22 goals as they win 2-1 away to Preston. SHEFFIELD UNITED won 3-1 at home to Coventry and are now on a total of 41 goals. LUTON won 2-1 at home against NORWICH and are on a total of 28 goals. Norwich are on 35 goals.

 In League One top of the table PLYMOUTH won 1-0 away to Cheltenham and they are on a total of 43 goals. IPSWICH are in second place and won 3-0 at home against OXFORD UNITED. Ipswich are now on a total of 51 goals while Oxford picked up their 7^th blank of the season and now two in a row. LINCOLN CITY lost 3-0 away to Burton and that is their 10^th blank of the season. CHARLTON drew 1-1 at home to PETERBOROUGH and they are on a total of 42 goals to Borough’s total of 43. SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY won 2-1 away to Fleetwood and they are on a total of 48 goals. MK DONS won 1-0 at home to FOREST GREEN and they are on a total of 35 goals while Forest Green picked up their 10^th blank of the season. BRISTOL ROVERS lost 2-1 away to Wycombe and that was goal number 36 for them.  

In League Two it’s 30 goals for AFC WIMBLEDON after they drew 1-1 at home to Newport. BRADFORD CITY lost 1-0 away to Carlisle and that is their 8^th blank score sheet. CRAWLEY TOWN lost 2-1 at home to SUTTON UTD and they are on a total of 28 goals while Sutton are on 21. GILLINGHAM picked up their 17^th blank of the season and no goals in their last two games as they lost 1-0 at home to Colchester. MANSFIELD drew 1-1 at home to Northampton and they are on a total of 33 goals. SALFORD CITY drew 1-1 at home to Barrow and they are on a total of 25 goals. STOCKPORT won 2-0 at home to Crewe and they are on a total of 41 goals. SWINDON lost 2-1 at home to Walsall and that is goal number 26 for them.

  

Week Twenty-Two

Here we are with Week Twenty-Two of the competition and we will soon have all of our teams back in action next week. So once again there is no cash prize money to win this weekend. It was DAVID BARRETT who picked up the most number of goals at the weekend with 8. They came from his teams of Celtic, Hibernian and Sutton United. 

100 MIDWEEK GOALS JACKPOT

All but three of us that managed to pick up some midweek goals this week with another small change in the leading pack this week. MARK JOHNSTON and ME (Steve Reeve) both of us picked up the most number of midweek goals with 8 goals each. For Mark they came from Leicester City, Liverpool and Manchester City. Mine came from Liverpool, Manchester United and Rangers. Back in the lead we have HAYLEY ADKINS with a total of 45 goals. Hayley has Aberdeen, Liverpool and Manchester City.  In second place we have last weeks leader NICK HORTON on a total of 42 goals. In third place we still have JAMES BLYTH and RICK WOOD our 2007/08 Champion now with a total of 38 goals each.  In fourth place we still have BARBARA BARNES (2) with MARK GREGORY moving down from five both with a total of  37 goals. In fifth place with a total of 35 goals we now have JACQUI RATTLE moving down from three with TOBY BICKNELL, GUY DOWSETT (1), CHRIS NUNN and KEITH THOMSON all coming into the race.

WEEKEND RESULTS

This weekend just five of our teams in action and they all came from the Scottish Leagues and they all scored goals.

SCOTTISH LEAGUE RESULTS

In the Scottish Premiership top of the table CELTIC won 4-1 at home against St Johnston. Celtic are now on a total of 65 goals and now on a goal run of twelve games. ABERDEEN lost 3-1 away to St Mirren and that was their 52^nd goal of the season. HEARTS drew 2-2 away to Dundee Utd. Hearts are on a total of 27 goals. HIBERNIAN won 4-0 at home to Livingston and they are now on a total of 34 goals.

In League One KELTY HEARTS lost 2-1 at home to Dunfermline and they are on a total of 23 goals.

Our BEST three teams this week

CELTIC (65) ABERDEEN (52) BURNLEY (50) Total of 167 goals   

Our WORST three teams are

EVERTON (13) WEST HAM (14) GILLINGHAM (15) Total of 42 goals

Our best performing team are BURNLEY as they have now scored in all of their last 22 league/cup games played. They have a total of 50 goals. That gives them an average score of 2 goals per game.

Our worst performing team is GILLINGHAM this weekend as they have picked up sixteen blank score sheets out of 28 League/Cup games played.

Our highest goal scorers in our 40^th Season are CELTIC who won 9-0 away to Dundee Utd in the league and LIVERPOOL who won 9-0 at home to Bournemouth in the league both from Week Five.

Our 2010/11 Champion TONY GUY with his second selection, has remained at the top for his 9^th consecutive weekend. Tony picked up 6 goals this week from Celtic. His other teams are  Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday. Mango (Paul Moran) has moved in to second place this weekend. Paul picked up 9 goals from his combination of Celtic, Manchester City and MK Dons.

At the other end at 108 we have SANDRA NICHOLLS has one of her teams back in action and they were Leicester City with 3 goals. Sandra has now been here for seven weeks and now ten over the season. Sandra’s teams are Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Leicester City.

Here are our Christmas top Ten.

           THIS      LAST                                                     M/WEEK       W/END        TOTAL

WEEK     WEEK         NAME                                GOALS         GOALS        GOALS 

      1             -             T. GUY (2)                               30                  115               145

       2                 4            MANGO                                 32                  112               144

       3                 5            M. GREGORY                       37                  107               144

       4                 2            GRANT PHILLIPS                26                  116               142              

       5                 6           S. DICKINSON                      32                  109               141              

      6                 3            J. BLYTH                                38                  101               139

      7                 -             J. WISE                                   30                  107               137              

      8                 9            G. DOWSETT (2)                   28                  108               136              

      9                 8            G. DOCKERILL (1994/95)    22                  113               135              

               10              -             M. LAVER                              28                  106               134 

Golden Goals would like to wish you and your family 

      A Merry Christmas              

Rangers Keep up Pace

In the Scottish Premiership, RANGERS are keeping up with Celtic as they win again 1-0 away to Ross County. Rangers are on a total of 45 goals and have extended their goal run to 13 games now. 

In League One ALLOA drew 2-2 away to Clyde and they are on a total of 43 goals. Alloa have drawn three of their last five league games.

In League Two BONNYRIGG ROSE won 3-2 at home against Stranraer and they are now on a total of 30 goals. It’s their first win in their last five league games. 

Last Game of League Cup 4th Round

In the last game in this round, MANCHESTER CITY are in the next round after they won 3-2 at home to LIVERPOOL. Manchester City are now on a total of 45 goals and have now scored in all of their last six games, while the holders Liverpool are out and they are on a total of 30 goals.

 

More League Cup 4th Round

 

We had more League Cup 4^th round games in which we had another four of our Golden Goal teams in action and two have made it through to the next round. They are MANCHESTER UNITED who won 2-0 at home to BURNLEY. United are on a total of 26 goals and they have now scored in all of their last seven games. Burnley after a goal run of 22 games have now picked up their 2^nd blank score sheet of the season. CHARLTON drew 0-0 against BRIGHTON and then went on to win 4-3 on penalties.  Charlton picked up their 6^th blank of the season. Brighton after a goal run of 5 games, picked up their 5^th blank score sheet. 

In the Premiership top of the table CELTIC won 2-1 at home to Livingston. Celtic are on a total of 61 goals and they have now scored in all of their last 11 games.

League Cup 4th Round

 

In the fourth round of the League Cup we had six of our teams in action. Out of them only two have made it in to the next round. LEICESTER CITY won 3-0 away to MK DONS. Leicester are now on a total of 31 goals while MK Don picked up their 9^th blank of the season after a goal run of eight games. NEWCASTLE won 1-0 at home to BOURNEMOUTH and they are on a total of 32 goals while Bournemouth picked up blank number 8. Other teams that went out are GILLINGHAM lost 2-0 away to Wolves and that is their 16^th blank of the season. Its 30 goals for LINCOLN CITY after they lost 2-1 away to Southampton. 

In the Scottish Premiership, after RANGERS went a goal up, ABERDEEN came back and was winning 2-1 before Rangers scored two late goals in added on time. Final result Rangers win 3-2 away. Aberdeen are on a total of 51 goals and remain in 3^rd place in the league. Rangers are on a total of 44 goals and have extended their goal run to 12 games. They are now 6 points behind leaders Celtic.

Win for Sheffleld United

In the Championship SHEFFIELD UNITED keep their second place in the league after they won 2-1 away to Wigan. United are on a total of 38 goals and they have won four of their last five league games.

Golden Goals World Cup 2022

 

                                     

                          SEMI                                                    GOALS     PRIZE

            FINAL    FINALS     NAME                                TOTAL    MONEY 

                        1                5            C. SETFORD                          49          £40.00

                   2            1            D. HARRINGTON                  48          £27.50

                   3            7            AMANDA STUBBS               48          £27.50

                   4            2            R. WOOD                                47          £21.00

                   5            3            J. BLYTH                                46          £18.00

                   6            4            M. LIDDLE                             46          £18.00

                   7            6            LUCIFER                                45          £12.75

                   8            11          K. SETNA                               45          £12.75

                   9            8            S. STUBBS                             45          £12.75

                   10          12          J. WOOD                                45          £12.75

                   11          9            B. BARNES (2)                       44          £10.00

                   12          10          T. KING                                  43          £ 9.00

                   13          16          D. BARRETT                          41          £ 7.50

                   14          13          D. MORBEY                           41          £ 7.50

                   15          26          M. LIPMAN                            40          £ 3.00

                   16          15          MORAN                                 40           £ 3.00

With the most famous football saying “They think it’s all over….It is Now” we come to a close on the 22^nd World Cup tournament from Qatar and start to think about what if?

We started off this World Cup with our fifth best number of entries in our ninth World Cup Golden Goals 2022 and we have ended up with a total of sixteen winners. 

Congratulations to CHRIS SETFORD on winning our ninth World Cup with his winning combination of Argentina (15) Brazil (8) France (16) Netherlands (10). It was Argentina and France that gave him the cash in the final as Danny Harrington who had been top for most of the tournament, had just Argentina in the final. His teams were Argentina, Brazil, England and Portugal.

We have now entered Chris’s name in to the record book with a total of 49 goals, he has now finished in 3^rd place in our World Cup Champions League. The best four teams that we had in the Qatar 2022 World Cup are

FRANCE (16) ARGENTINA (15) ENGLAND (13) PORTUGAL (12) Total of 56 goals

SPAIN holds the record for the highest score in Qatar with that 7-0 win over Costa Rica in Group E in their opening game.

Our worst teams finished with Belgium, Denmark, Tunisia and Wales as they have all scored just 1 goal in their three games in the first round.

The fastest goal was scored by Canada's Alphonso Davies in Group F against Croatia, when they lost 4-1 in their second game in the first round. It took him just 68 seconds.

Top Goal Scorer in Qatar 2022 was Kylian Mbappe from France with 8 goals who won the Golden Boot. In second place we had Lionel Messi from Argentina with 7 goals. In third place we had Olivier Giroud of France and Julián Álvarez from Argentina with 4 goals each. We then have 7 players with 3 goals each. 

So how did your teams do in the Golden Goals World Cup 2022? Below are all of our 22 nations with the number of votes in RED followed by the nations and number of goals in each of the six stages of the World Cup.

FIRST ROUND (15) BELGIUM 1, (1) CAMEROON 4, (3) DENMARK 1, (1) ECUADOR 4, (14) GERMANY 6, (1) MEXICO 2, (1) SAUDI ARABIA 3, (1) TUNISIA 1, (3) URUGUAY 2, (1) WALES 1

SECOND ROUND (1) POLAND 3, (4) SENEGAL 5, (8) SPAIN 9, (1) USA 3, (1) SWITZERLAND 5

QUARTER-FINALS (31) BRAZIL 8, (15) ENGLAND 13, (15) NETHERLANDS 10, (12) PORTUGAL 12

SEMI-FINALS None of our teams went out at this stage.

3^rd and 4^th PLAY-OFF 3^rd (4) CROATIA 8

FINAL (20) ARGENTINA 15, (19) FRANCE 16

Our goals total finished at a grand total of 132 goals for the tournament which is our second highest score. Our top score is from the French World Cup 1998 with a total of 138 goals. 

Well that’s the end to our ninth World Cup Golden Goals. The next World Cup will be held in a joint tournament between Canada, Mexico, and USA in 2026 with a record breaking 48 nations playing. Let’s hope that we will be there again with another World Cup under our belts.

The Golden Boot Qatar 2022

 

Kylian Mbappe - France

The Golden Boot was won by Kylian Mbappe from France with 8 goals in which three of them was scored in the final. He becomes the second hat-trick in a World Cup final, following Sir Geoff Hurst's when England beat West Germany in 1966. Second Place Lionel Messi from Argentina scored twice in the final. 

1. Kylian Mbappe (France) – 8

2. Lionel Messi (Argentina) – 7

3. Olivier Giroud (France) – 4

4. Julian Alvarez (Argentina) – 4

5. Marcus Rashford (England) – 3

6. Alvaro Morata (Spain) – 3

7. Enner Valencia (Ecuador) – 3

8. Bukayo Saka (England) – 3

9. Richarlison (Brazil) – 3

10. Goncalo Ramos (Portugal) – 3

11. Cody Gakpo (Netherlands) – 3

Week Twenty-One

Here we are with Week Twenty-One of the competition and the start of the second half here at Golden Goals. The good news is that the the Scottish Premiership are back. So once again there is no cash prize money to win this weekend. We did have one player that picked up the most number of goals this weekend and they are TONY KING. Tony picked up a total of 6 goals from his combination of Derby, Rangers and Watford. 

100 MIDWEEK GOALS JACKPOT

We had 21 of us that managed to pick up some midweek goals this week with another small change in the leading pack this week. JOHN FILTNESS picked up the most number of midweek goals with five. They came from Rangers and Reading. His third team is Liverpool. In the lead we still have NICK HORTON out in front with a total of 39 goals. His teams are Manchester City, Middlesbrough and Norwich. In second place we have HAYLEY ADKINS with a total of 38 goals. In third place we still have JAMES BLYTH, JACQUI RATTLE and RICK WOOD our 2007/08 Champion all with a total of 35 goals each. In fourth place coming back into the race we have BARBARA BARNES (2) with 33 goals. In fifth place with a total of 32 goals we now have MARK GREGORY moving down from four. In sixth place all on 31 goals we now have STEVE AYRES, GEOFF CARTHY, PETER PORTER and TERENCE WARWICK all moving down from five place.

WEEKEND RESULTS

This weekend the weather had a big impact with snow and ice on the football fixtures. We had 23 of our teams that managed to play this weekend including eight teams that failed to score any goals.

The highest score that we had was 4 goals and they came from League One where DERBY won 4-0 at home to FOREST GREEN ROVERS. Derby are now on a total of 40 goals while Forest Green picked up their 9^th blank of the season.

CHAMPIONSHIP

BURNLEY have remained at the top here after they won 3-1 at home to MIDDLESBROUGH. Burnley have taken their goals total to 50 goals and they have now scored in all of their last 22 games. Middlesbrough picked up goal number 32. Sheffield United are still in second place even with no goal this week. After to failing to score in their last two games, SWANSEA drew 3-3 away to Coventry to take their goals tally to 32. HUDDERSFIELD are rooted to the bottom of the table as they lost 2-0 at home to WATFORD. That is Huddersfield’s 10^th blank and now three in a row. Watford are on a total of 30 goals. SUNDERLAND drew 1-1 away to Hull and they are on a total of 31 goals. It’s 30 goals for WEST BROM after they won 3-0 at home to Rotherham.  NORWICH lost 2-0 at home to Blackburn Rovers and that is their 5^th blank of the season.

LEAGUE ONE

PLYMOUTH have moved back to the top this weekend after they won 2-1 at home to Morecambe. Plymouth are on a total of 42 goals after they had failed to score in their previous two games. IPSWICH are down to second place after they lost 1-0 away to Wycombe. Ipswich picked up their 3^rd blank of the season. SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY are still in third place after they drew 0-0 at home to OXFORD UNITED. Wednesday have now had a total of four blank score sheets to Oxford’s six after a goal run of 11 games. CHARLTON lost 2-1 at home to BRISTOL ROVERS. Charlton are on a total of 41 goals while Rovers are on a total of 35 goals. MK DONS won 2-0 away to Portsmouth and they are on a total of 34 goals and have now scored in all of their last eight games.

LEAGUE TWO

This is where the weather hit us the most this weekend with only a couple of games being played. The highest team that we have here in the table are SWINDON TOWN in 4^th place. They won 1-0 away to Barrow and are on a total of 25 goals after they had failed to score in their previous three games. SUTTON UNITED lost 2-0 away to top of the table Leyton Orient and that is their 10^th blank of the season.

SCOTTISH LEAGUE RESULTS

Once again the weather has effected the Scottish fixture and here are their results. In the Premiership CELTIC have kept their comfortable lead of nine points as they win their first game back 1-0 away to ABERDEEN. Celtic are on a total of 59 goals and they have now scored in all of their last ten games. Aberdeen after a goal run of seven games, picked up their 3^rd blank of the season. HEARTS won their first game back 3-1 at home to Kilmarnock. Hearts are now on a total of 27 goals and are in fourth place in the league.

In League One KELTY HEARTS won 2-1 away to Queen of the South and they are on a total of 22 goals.

Our BEST three teams this week

CELTIC (58) BURNLEY (50) ABERDEEN (49) Total of 157 goals  

Our WORST three teams are

EVERTON (13) WEST HAM (14) GILLINGHAM (15) Total of 42 goals

Our best performing team are BURNLEY as they have now scored in all of their last 22 league/cup games played. They have a total of 50 goals. That gives them an average score of 2 goals per game.

Our worst performing team is GILLINGHAM this weekend as they have picked up fifteen blank score sheets out of 27 League/Cup games played.

Our highest goal scorers in our 40^th Season are CELTIC who won 9-0 away to Dundee Utd in the league and LIVERPOOL who won 9-0 at home to Bournemouth in the league both from Week Five.

Our 2010/11 Champion TONY GUY with his second selection, has remained at the top for his 8^th consecutive weekend. Tony picked up one goal this week from Celtic. His other teams are  Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday. Grant Phillips has moved back up to second place this weekend. Grant picked up 1goal from his combination of Celtic, Sheffield Wednesday and Tottenham.  

At the other end at 108 we have SANDRA NICHOLLS as all of her teams still out of action. Sandra has now been here for six weeks and now nine over the season. Sandra’s teams are Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Leicester City.

Due to the weather here in the UK, the top ten has not changed much but as teams are starting to come back in play, this will change next week.

          THIS      LAST                                                        M/WEEK       W/END        TOTAL

WEEK     WEEK         NAME                                  GOALS         GOALS        GOALS 

      1             -             T. GUY (2)                                28                  111                139

       2                 3            GRANT PHILLIPS                  24                  112                136

       3                 2            J. BLYTH                                 35                  101                136

       4                 5            MANGO                                   27                  108                135

       5                 4            M. GREGORY                         32                  103                135 

       6                 -             S. DICKINSON                       28                  105                133

       7                 -             J. WISE                                    28                  103                131

        8                 -             G. DOCKERILL (1994/95)     20                  109                129 

        9                 -             G. DOWSETT (2)                  24                  104                128  

        10               14           M. LAVER                              24                  102                126         

Argentina are World Champions

 

Congratulations on ARGENTINA winning the World Cup for the third time. They last won in Mexico 1986. Argentina won games against Mexico, Poland, Australia, Netherlands, and Croatia on their way to the final. They had to play FRANCE who had beaten Australia, Denmark, Portugal, England and Morocco on their road to the final.

Both teams seem to be very slow at the start of the final game but it did not take long for both teams too settled down. France was giving the ball away so often that they would surely be punished, and they were from a clumsy tackle in the penalty area. Penalty to Argentina in the 23^rd minute and it was scored by Messi his sixth of the tournament and he has now scored in every round of the World Cup. From then on it was all Argentina and another goal which came all the way from their own half and what a goal scored by Di Maria in the 36^th minute. France were all over the place now as half-time was getting nearer. France made two substitutions with Giroud and Demebele coming off and Thuram and Kolo Muani coming on to try and claw their way back into this game. Half-time and Argentina lead 2-0. In the second half the former world champions France were still on the ropes as Argentina pressed for their third goal. France was trying to score that goal with some nice play, so much better than the first half. Then more drama as France got a penalty in the 80^th minute and it was scored by France top scorer Mbappe. More was still to come as Mbappe scored again for his 7^th goal of the tournament, in the 81^st minute and its game back on 2-2 and under 10 minutes to go and now its Argentina that were falling apart.  Both goalkeepers played for their lives which kept the score level. Full time and it’s 2-2.

In extra time, France continued with their attacks and Argentina responded well. The feeling of penalties started to creep in at this stage at the end of the first half of extra time. Second half of extra time and still both teams giving their all. Then out of the blue Argentina score in the 108^th minute from Messi once again. The game got even better as France get another penalty in the 118^th minute as Mbappe gets his hat-trick 3-3. I have never seen such a World Cup final other than 1966. Final score 3-3 and then into penalties, which Argentina won 4-2. 

Argentina had scored in every game they have played in and they end the tournament with a total of 15 goals which is their best World Cup score ever. Their average score is 8.3 goals per World Cup. In Russia 2018 they only scored 6 goals. This is their 9^th World Cup appearance with Golden Goals. 

France finished with a total of 16 goals which is also their best World Cup score. This was their 7^th World Cup with us and their average score is 9.2 goals per World Cup.

Bronze for Croatia

 

In the 3^rd/4^th play-offs CROATIA played against Morocco the dark horse of the tournament. Croatia had won just one of their group stage against Canada which is their highest score of the tournament 4-1. The other two games they drew. In the second round they beat Japan and in the quarter-finals they won 4-2 against Brazil. In the semi-finals they lost 3-0 to Argentina.

We had a great start to this game as Croatia went in front in the 7^th minute with a header from Gvardiol. Two minutes later Morocco equalised also from a header by Dari. In the first half hour of the game it seemed that the Moroccan defence were all over the place and the goalkeeper did not help either. But the game soon settles down with both sides attacked well. Croatia went into the lead just before half time in the 42^nd minute from Orsic in off the post. Half time 2-1 to Croatia. The second half slowed down after a very fast pace of the first half. Subs came on to help but it made no difference to the game. Croatia picked up the bronze medal and finished on a total of 8 goals while Morocco have done extremely well here in Qatar.

Croatia are in their 4^th World Cup with us and they first joined in France 1998, where they finished with their best score of 11 goals going out in the 3^rd/4^th play-offs. The last time that we had them was in the German 2006 where they scored just 2 goals and went out after the first round. Their average score for a World Cup is 5 goals.

Reading Fight Back

In Championship, READING lost 3-2 away to Birmingham. Reading who went 3-0 down at half time came back with two late goals. Reading are on a total of 27 goals are are currently in 9^th place in the league.

  

Rangers Back with a Win

The Scottish Premiership are back in play with RANGERS taking on HIBERNIAN. Rangers had to come back twice to win 3-2 at home. Rangers continue their goal run to eleven games and they are now on a total of 41 goals. Rangers are currently in second place in the league. Hibs had failed to score in their last two games before the break, but they are now on a total of 30 goals. 

Top Fifteen AfterSemi-Finals

I have printed the nations that you still have left in the 3rd and 4th play-offs and who is in the World Cup Final.. They are in code in RED. If you do not have a red code by your name, then I am sorry to say that you are out of the competition. Again just to re-cap on our rules, that extra time goals DO count, but penalty shoot out’s DON’T!                                

                                       (A) ARGENTINA, (E) CROATIA, (F) FRANCE 

                            SEMI             Q                                                   GOALS     

                    FINALS   FINALS  NAME                              TOTAL   

                                  1                -             D. HARRINGTON (A)           45         

                           2            -             R. WOOD (F)                          44          

                           3            -             J. BLYTH (F)                          43          

                           4            -             M. LIDDLE (A)                      43          

                           5            9            C. SETFORD (A/F)                 43          

                           6            -             LUCIFER (A)                          42          

                           7            11          AMANDA STUBBS (A/F)      42          

                           8            7            S. STUBBS (A)                       42          

                           9            5            B. BARNES (2) (F)                 41          

                           10          8            T. KING (F)                            40          

                           11          19          K. SETNA (A/F)                     39          

                           12          20          J. WOOD (A/F)                       39          

                           13          14          D. MORBEY (A)                    38          

                           14          10          M. LAVER                              37          

                           15          13          MANGO (F)                            37

The best four teams that we have in the 2022 World Cup after the quarter-final games have been played.

FRANCE (13) ENGLAND (13) ARGENTINA (12) PORTUGAL (12) Total of 50 goals

In the last Golden Goals World Cup 2018 we reached a total of 107 goals after the semi-finals, In Qatar our teams have scored a total of 5 goals after the quarter-final games and a total of 124 goals over the tournament to date. 

SPAIN holds the current record for the highest score with that 7-0 win over Costa Rica in Group E in their opening game.

Our worst teams finished with BELGIUM, DENMARK, TUNISIA and WALES as they have all scored just 1 goal in their three games in the first round.

Canada's Alphonso Davies has scored the fastest goal in Group F against Croatia, when they lost 4-1 in their second game in the first round. It took him just 68 seconds.

Top goal scores in Qatar 2022 are in the lead we have Kylian Mbappe from France and Lionel Messi from Argentina both with 5 goals each. In second place we have and Olivier Giroud of France and Julián Álvarez from Argentina with 4 goals each. We then have 7 players with 3 goals each.

We had six players that picked up the highest score over the semi-finals with 5 goals each. All six have Argentina and France as part of their combination.

Danny Harrington has remained at the top after all of the games in the semi-finals have been played. His teams are Argentina, Brazil, England and Portugal.

So we can now confirm that in the 3rd and 4th play-offs to be played this Saturday

between CROATIA v Morocco and in the Final on Sunday it’s ARGENTINA v FRANCE.