Monday 7 August 2023

Week One

Well here we are with our 41st Season of Golden Goals and a very big welcome to you all and what a season we are going to have once again. We have ended up with a total of 109 entries in this seasons competition and I would like to thank everyone who has helped us to get to that magic figure which just managed to get in to the top ten best season’s of  Golden Goals once again. It is with great regret that we did not reach our record total of 149 from the 2017/18 Season. Although we have seen some names missing from last season, we have gained another nine new ones. So who is going to be our 41st Champion and win that £100 prize money? We will find out in the next forty-two weeks time but I wish you all the very best of luck. 

We have a total of fifteen past Champions playing this season. Our last season Champion is also back and that was Tony Guy. Tony has changed his winning combination from last season to Arsenal, Celtic and Liverpool. We also have a total of 21 ladies playing this season competition. 

So how did the voting of teams for this season finally end up. It was MANCHESTER CITY that picked up the biggest number of votes once again with a total of 44. Last season they had a total of 56 and scored a total of 118 goals so this was no surprise that they would be the most voted teams this season. With our Scottish teams, CELTIC after picking up 25 votes last season, they picked up more this season but with just 39.

Staying with the Scottish teams the second highest voted team comes from the Scottish Premiership again and they are RANGERS with just 15 votes which is down from last seasons total of 17. The Scottish teams had a good turn out this season with a total of  12 teams being picked. We have six teams from the Scottish Premiership, and  3 each from League One and Two. 

With the English teams things have changed as they always do in this competition. We have a total of  just 13  Premiership teams in this years competition with MANCHESTER CITY our top team again this season.  Next comes ARSENAL with 37 votes. They were our sixth most voted team last season with 12 votes. In third place with 28 votes we have LIVERPOOL. They were our second most voted team last season with 51 votes. In fourth place up from seventeen last season is LEICESTER CITY. They have 18 votes compared to 3 last season. Our fifth voted teams are MANCHESTER UNITED and MIDDLESBROUGH with 12 votes each.

In the Championship we have picked up 12 teams compared to 10 last season,  while in League One we have 7, with 6 teams taken from League Two. 

We have the two teams that are back into the football league this season. They are  NOTTS COUNTY and WREXHAM.

So on with the competition and this weeks sheet shows you all the games that have been played up to and including the 6th August. Any games that have been played before and up to up to Friday the 4th August, have all been counted as midweek goals, so some of you have a bit of a lead already for the Midweek Cash Jackpot of £25.

Week One we had our very first winner of the new season who won on a total  of 13 goals to win the first £5 weekend prize money. Our winner is PETER PORTER. Peter started with Golden Goals in our 7th Season of 1989/90. In that season he finished in 40th place with 182 goals and picked up a shared weekend win. Last season Peter finished in 56th place with a total of 261 goals and one weekend win. So it’s a good start for Peter and his teams for this season are 

BARNSLEY 7, CELTIC 4, LEICESTER CITY 2 

WEEKEND RESULTS

The lower English leagues were all in action in our first weekend of the new season as the Scottish played their first full league fixture. We had a good start to the season with plenty of goals but we had one of our team picking up the highest score over  the weekend with 7 goals. They were from League One  BARNSLEY. Barnsley won their first league game 7-0 at home to Port Vale. This is Barnsley’s 9th Season with Golden Goals and they became our 91st voted English team when they started with us in the 1998/99 Season where they finished on a total of 79 goals.  Their highest score was in the 20108/19 Season with a total of 89 goals. Last time out was in the 2021/22 Season where they finished on a total of 38 goals. Over the years they have now netted a total of 518 goals which gives them an average score of 57 goals per season. They have a total of 8 votes this season. So lets see how the rest of our teams that were in action, got on over the weekend. 

CHAMPIONSHIP

In no particular order, BRISTOL CITY drew 1-1 at home to Preston. MIDDLESBROUGH lost 1-0 at home to Millwall. NORWICH won 2-0 at home to Hull. PLYMOUTH won 3-1 at home to Huddersfield. STOKE won 4-0 at home against Rotherham while SWANSEA drew 1-1 at home to Birmingham. LEICESTER CITY won 2-1 at home to Coventry. LEEDS UTD drew 2-2 at home to Cardiff City. SUNDERLAND lost 2-1 at home to IPSWICH. 

LEAGUE ONE

We already know about Barnsley’s big win, but BLACKPOOL won 2-0 at home to Burton. CHARLTON won 1-0 at home to Leyton Orient while DERBY lost 2-1 at home to Wigan. BRISTOL ROVERS drew 1-1 away to Portsmouth and READING lost 1-0 at home to PETERBOROUGH. 

LEAGUE TWO

SALFORD CITY won 2-0 away to Forest Green and AFC WIMBLEDON drew 0-0 away to Grimsby. SUTTON UTD won 5-1 at home to NOTTS COUNTY. WREXHAM lost 5-3 against MK DONS on their opening game. 

SCOTTISH RESULTS

Now you might already know that the Scottish have already played their first round of their League Cup, if you have been following our blog and with their group format once again, so most of our teams have already played more than four games this weekend. But here is the results of their first league games. 

In the Premiership last season Champions CELTIC won their opening game 4-2 at home against ROSS COUNTY. County have now scored in all of their five games played which includes the league cup games. They are now on a total of 15 goals.

RANGERS lost their first game 1-0 away to KILMARNOCK. Kilmarnock have now extended their goal run to five games and are on a total of 10 goals. ABERDEEN drew 0-0 away to Livingston. HIBERNIAN lost 3-2 at home to St Mirren.

In League One FALKIRK won 3-0 at home to Annan and that has taken their goals total to 11. COVE RANGERS lost 1-0 away to Hamilton  and that is now their 2nd blank of the season. KELTY HEARTS won 2-0 away to Montrose and have a goal run of five games. They are on a total of 13 goals.

In League Two EAST FIFE lost their first league game 3-0 at home to Peterhead and that id their 4th blank score sheet. STENHOUSEMUIR drew 0-0 at home to Forfar. Stenhousemuir picked up their 2nd blank score sheet. CLYDE drew 1-1 away to The Spartans and they are on a total of 5 goals. 

Here is our top ten in the first week. This will all change next week as the Premier League starts.

        FIRST                                           M/WEEK      W/END       TOTAL

       WEEK NAME                                GOALS       GOALS      GOALS

             1         CHARIE FARLEY                 25               3        28

             2         R. WILLIAMS (2015/16) 21               5        26

     3         D. BARRETT                         10               7       17

     4         P. PORTER                                     13       13

     5         R. WOOD (2007/08)*           2             11       13

     6         M. LIDDLE                          11               2       13

     7         M. GREGORY                             11       11

     8         J. WOOD (2016/17)                             11       11

     9         J. WISE                                             10       10

    10 A. EYLES                                       9         9

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