Sunday, 2 August 2026

Scottish Results

In the Premiership, ABERDEEN won their first league game 2-1 against HEARTS with two late goals. Aberdeen are on a total of 13 goals and have now scored in all of their 5 league/cup games. Hearts get their first goal of the season. HIBERNIAN lost 2-1 at home against Motherwell.

In the Championship, AYR UNITED go top, after they won their opening game of the season 2-0 at home to ARBROATH. Ayr are on a total of 13 goals and have now scored in all of their 5 league/cup games. Arbroath picked up their third blank of the season. LIVINGSTON are in second place after they won 2-0 at home against Queens Park. They are on a total of 13 goals. PARTICK are in third place after they won 1-0 away to Greenock and are on a total of 14 goals and a goal run of 5 league/cup games. DUNFERMLINE drew 0-0 away to Inverness CT and picked up their second blank of the season. STENHOUSEMUIR drew 1-1 away to Raith Rovers and are on a total of 7 goals.

In League One, EAST KILBRIDE are in second place after they won their first game 5-1 at home to Queen of the South. Kilbride are on a total of 18 goals and have scored in all of their 5 league/cup games.

In League Two, CLYDE won 3-1 at home against Stranraer and are now on a total of 9 goals.

Saturday, 1 August 2026

Rangers Draw First Game

In the Scottish Premiership, the first game of the season has been played. RANGERS have drawn their first league game 1-1 away to Dundee Utd. Rangers, who finished in third place last season in the table, have a total of 17 votes this season, where last season, they had just 10 votes and a total of 96 goals.

Tuesday, 28 July 2026

Book Now Closed

 

The book is now closed on our 44th Season of Golden Goals. We have ended up with a total of 124 players, which makes it our 4th best season, in our top ten. But the good news is that it’s our 14th consecutive season of 100 or more players. A BIG thank you to all who have entered.  

How the team selection finished 

We have ended up with just 46 English teams this time round with Manchester City leading the votes this season with a total of 38 votes. Last season they had just 19 votes. West Ham United are second with 36 votes. In third place with 31 votes we have Arsenal. In fourth place we have Liverpool with 29 votes. In fifth place with 20 votes we have Chelsea.

With the Scottish teams we have a total of 13 teams this season with Celtic leading the votes once again with just 41. last season they had 70. Rangers are second again with just 17 votes. Hearts are third with just 3 votes. We have another two teams with 2 votes and the rest have one vote each. 

We welcome back into the football league, and Golden Goals, York City with 1 vote this season.  

The first News Sheet should be with you on Monday 10th August with all this seasons facts and figures.

Sunday, 26 July 2026

Scottish Cup First Round Results

 

In the Scottish League Cup 1st round stages, all of the games have now been played. We had a total of 9 of our teams in action, and out of them, only 5 have made it through to the Second Round knock-out stage. The teams through are ABERDEEN, AYR UNITED, DUNFERMLINE, PARTIC THISTLES and STENHOUSEMUIR. 

All of this season’s Golden Goals teams are in BOLD CAPS. 

In Group A. ABERDEEN have finished top of the group after they won all of their four games. They won their first game 2-0 away to Boa Rangers, 2-1 at home to Queens Park, 4-1 away to Queen of the South. In their last game they won 3-0 at home to Kelty Hearts. Aberdeen are on a total of 11 goals. Queens Park finished in second place. 

Group B Dundee Utd finished top with Montrose in second place. ARBROATH finished in third place after they won their opening game 2-1 away to the Spartans. Then lost their next two games, 3-0 away to Dundee Utd and 2-0 at home to Montrose. In their last game they won 1-0 at home against Stirling. Arbroath are on a total of 3 goals 

Group C St Mirren finished top. DUNFERMLINE finished in second place after they won three of their games. They lost their first game 3-0 away to East Kilbride. In their second game they won 4-0 at home against Dumbarton, then won 5-0 at home to Cove Rangers. In their last game they won 1-0 away to St Mirren. Dunfermline are on a total of 10 goals. EAST KILBRIDE finished in third place after they won their first game 3-0 at home against Dunfermline they then lost 3-2 away to Cove Rangers. In their third game they won 5-3 at home to Dumbarton. Their last game they lost 4-3 away to St Mirren. Kilbride are on a total of 13 goals. 

Group D Ross County finished top with Dundee in second place. CLYDE finished in third place after they won only two of their games. They won their opening game 1-0 at home to Airdrieonians. They lost their second game 3-1 away to Ross County. They then won their third game 4-1 at home to Annan. In their last game they lost 4-0 away to Dundee. Clyde are on a total of 6 goals. 

Group E STENHOUSEMUIR finished top after they had won their opening game 2-0 at home against Forfar and then they won again, 2-1 away to Brechin City. They drew their third game 2-2 away to Partick and then won 5-3 on penalties. They also drew their last game 0-0 at home to Livingston but won 3-1 on penalties. Stenhousemuir are on a total of 6 goals. PARTICK THISTLE finished in second place. They had won their first couple of games, 6-0 at home to Brechin, 4-0 away to Forfar. They then drew 1-1 away to Livingston, then won 3-2 on penalties. In their last game they 2-2 against Stenhousemuir and lost 5-3 on penalties. Partick are on a total of 13 goals. LIVINGSTON finished in third place after they won their first game 2-0 away to Brechin City while in their second game, they drew 1-1 against Partick and then lost 3-2 on penalties. They they won their third game 8-0 at home to Forfar. In their last game they drew 0-0 away to Stenhousemuir and then lost 3-1 on penalties. Livingston are on a total of 11 goals.  

Group F Inverness CT finished top with East Fife in second place. 

Group G AYR UNITED have finished top of the group after they had won all of their four games. They first won 3-2 away to Stranraer, 1-0 away to Falkirk, 3-0 at home to Edinburgh City. In their last game they won 4-1 at home against Alloa. Ayr are on a total of 11 goals. Falkirk finished in second place. 

Group H Kilmarnock finished in first place with Hamilton in second place. 

The Second Round Draw 

ABERDEEN v Dundee

Dundee Utd v CELTIC

DUNFERMILNE v Ross County

HEARTS v Inverness CT

HIBERNIAN v PARTICK THISTLE

Kilmarnock v AYR UNITED

RANGERS v St Mirren

STENHOUSEMUIR v Motherwell 

Ties to be played on the weekend of 15/16 August

Monday, 20 July 2026

World Cup Golden Boot 2026

 

Mbappe - France

The Golden Boot has been won by Kylian Mbappe from France with a total of 10 goals from eight games played. He has become the first player to win the Golden Boot in two consecutive World Cups.

Mbappe is the first player to reach double figures for World Cup goals since Gerd Muller 10 goals for West Germany in 1970. Mbappe is also now the World Cup all-time top scorer with 22 goals - one ahead of Argentina’s Messi.

Here are the top ten players

1.  Kylian Mbappe (France) - 10

2.  Lionel Messi (Argentina) - 8

3.  Jude Bellingham (England) - 7

4.  Erling Haaland (Norway) - 7

5.  O. Dembélé (France) - 6

6.  Harry Kane (England) - 6

7.  Mikel Oyarzabal (Spain) - 5

8.  Ismaila Sarr (Senegal) - 4

9.  Julian Quinones (Mexico) - 4

10. Vinicius Junior (Brazil) - 4

Final Sheet 8

 

Here is our final sheet for our Golden Goals World Cup 2026 with our 16 winners.

                        SEMI                                          GOALS    

             FINAL    FINALS    NAME                        TOTAL   

                  1               -           D. HARRINGTON        73 

                  2              4           B. BURROUGHS            70 

                 3               6           R. WOOD                        69 

                 4               2           RICHIE WILLIAMS       67 

                 5               3           A. STUBBS                     66 

                 6             14           A. NEWMAN                  65 

                 7             16           K. SETNA                       64 

                 8               5           I. SMITH                         64 

                 9             10           B. SOPER                       64 

               10               7           M. GREGORY                63 

               11               9           M. LIDDLE                     63 

               12             11           B. MORAN                     63 

               13               8           P. REEVE                        63 

               14             20           J. BLYTH                        62 

               15             12          K. RATTLE                      61 

               16             23          J. WOOD                          61 

With the most famous football saying “They think it’s all over….It is Now” we come to a close on the 23rd World Cup tournament from joint co-hosts Canada/Mexico/USA and start to think about what if? We started off this World Cup with our joint third best number of entries in our tenth World Cup Golden Goals 2026 and we have ended up with a total of sixteen winners. 

Congratulations to DANNY HARRINGTON on winning our tenth World Cup with his winning combination of Argentina (19) England (20) France (20) Spain (14) picking up a grand total of 73 goals.

We have now entered Danny’s name into the record book with a total of 73 goals, he has now finished top in our World Cup Champions League, after smashing my record (Steve Reeve) of 54 from Brazil 2014. 

So who were the best teams that we had in the 2026 World Cup after all of the games played.

FRANCE (20) ENGLAND (20) ARGENTINA (19) SPAIN (14) total of 73 goals

GERMANY held the current record for the highest score, with that 7-1 win over Curacao in Group E in their opening game.

SCOTLAND from Group C were our worst team, as they have only picked up one goal in all of their first round games.

The fastest goal has been scored by Matías Galarza for Paraguay in Group C after they won 1-0 against Turkey in their second game in the first round. It took just 64 seconds (1 minute and 4 seconds)

Top goal scorers in the World Cup 2026 Golden Boot” goes to France’s Kylian Mbappe with a total of 10 goals. In second place we have Argentina’s Lionel Messi, with 8 goals. In third place we have England’s Jude Bellingham and Norway’s Erling Haaland both on 7 goals, In fourth place we have France O. Dembélé and Harry Kane both with 6 goals each. In fifth place with 5 goals we have Spain’s Mikel Oyarzabal. 

So how did your teams do in the Golden Goals World Cup 2026? Below are all of our 28 nations with the number of votes in RED followed by the nations and number of goals in each of the seven stages of the World Cup.

FIRST ROUND  (2) CZECH REPUBLIC 2,   (1) SCOTLAND 1, (2) SOUTH KOREA 2,  (1) TURKEY 3, (4) URUGUAY 3

SECOND ROUND (1) CAPE VERDE 4, (1) CROATIA 6, (20) GERMANY 11, (1) GHANA 2, (2) JAPAN 8, (7) NETHERLANDS 11, (3) SENEGAL 10, (1) SWEDEN 7

LAST 16 (23) BRAZIL 10, (3) CANADA 9, (2) EGYPT 8, (5) MEXICO 10, (1) PARAGUAY 3, (9) PORTUGAL 8, (1) USA 11,

QUARTER-FINALS (8) BELGIUM 14, (2) MOROCCO 10, (3) NORWAY 13, (2) SWITZERLAND 10

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

3rd and 4th PLAY-OFF 3rd (18) ENGLAND 20, (22) FRANCE 20

FINAL (24) ARGENTINA 19, (30) SPAIN 14

Our goals total finished at a grand total of 249 goals for the tournament which is our highest ever score due to the extra teams and round. This beats our previous top score from the French World Cup 1998, with a total of 138 goals.

Well that’s the end to our tenth World Cup Golden Goals. The next World Cup will be held in a joint tournament once again, between Morocco, Portugal and Spain in 2030 with an possibility of 64 nations playing. Let’s hope that we will be there again with another World Cup under our belts.

Join in the Fun!

 

We have just one week before we close the books for Season 44. The good news is that we have had 72 entries back and this is beginning to look like we might pick up the same as last season’s score of 111.

But we once again have no interest from the world outside the UK. Golden Goals is a very simple and unique football competition once again. All you have to do is choose three football teams from any English or Scottish leagues or from both, pay an entry fee of £8. Sit back and watch your three team’s results as it’s their goals that count. The News Sheet will be sent to you each week via email.

The goals come from League games, League Cup and the the FA Cup. Cash prize money is paid out every week with £100 to our next Champion at the end of the season.

If you would like to know more about the rules and entry form, then you can e-mail me Steve at goldengoals1983@gmail.com  once the deadline of midnight 27 July 2026, you will not be able to take part. 

The most popular combination that I have been asked for this season is Celtic, Leicester City and West Ham. PLEASE DO NOT PICK THESE AS THEY HAVE ALREADY BEEN TAKEN.