Hearts Through to Next Round

In the Scottish Betfred Cup Second Round, HEARTS are through to the next round after they won 2-1 away to Motherwell. Hearts are now on a total of 10 goals.

In the English Championship, FULHAM won 2-1 away to HUDDERSFIELD and that takes their goals total 4 while Huddersfield hit goal number three.

Carabao Cup First Round

In the first round of the Carabao/League Cup, we already know that Portsmouth are through to the next round, but who is going to join them. Well we had a total of thirty-one of our teams in action but only half have made it through to the second round.

SUNDERLAND are one of them as they beat ACCRINGTON STANLEY 3-1 away. With their biggest score to date, Sunderland are now on a total of 5 goals while Accrington are out after picking up their first goal of the season. BLACKBURN ROVERS are through as they win 3-2 at home against OLDHAM. Rovers take their goals total up to four goals while Oldham are now on 3. PRESTON won 4-0 away to BRADFORD . Preston with their highest score to date are now on a total of 7 goals. Bradford picked up their second blank out of three games played. LINCOLN CITY won 1-0 away to HUDDERSFIELD and that is their fifth goal of the season as Huddersfield picked up their first blank score sheet. NOTTINGHAM FOREST won 1-0 at home to Fleetwood. Forest have played three games and scored three goals. LEEDS UTD won 3-0 away to SALFORD CITY to take their goals total up to seven while Salford picked up their second blank score sheet in a row. DERBY won 1-0 away to SCUNTHORPE with a very late goal. Derby are on 3 goals while Scunthorpe picked up their second blank score sheet after three games. ROTHERHAM scored their highest result of the season as they win 4-0 away to Shrewsbury. Rotherham have taken their goals total up to 6 goals. STOKE won 1-0 away to Wigan and that is now three goals in three games. MK DONS are through after they drew 2-2 against AFC Wimbledon and then won 4-2 on penalties to go through to round two. The Dons are now on a total of 3 goals. FOREST GREEN drew 0-0 away to Charlton but went on to win 5-3 on penalties. Forest Green picked up their first blank of the season. LUTON won 3-1 at home to IPSWICH and they are now on a total of 7 goals to Ipswich three. PLYMOUTH won 2-0 at home to LEYTON ORIENT and they are now on 6 goals while Orient picked up their second blank score sheet in a row. QUEENS PARK RANGERS drew 3-3 after the full 90 minutes and then went on to win 5-4 in penalties against Bristol City. With their highest score of the season to date, rangers are now on a total of 6 goals. SOUTHEND won 2-1 away to Stevenage and they are now on 3 goals.

The other teams that went out are BARNSLEY after they lost 3-0 at home to Carlisle to pick up their second blank in a row. BLACKPOOL drew 2-2 at home to Macclesfield but then lost 4-2 on penalties. But Blackpool are now on a total of 7 goals. DONCASTER are out after they lost 1-0 away to Grimsby to pick up their first blank of the season. MANSFIELD drew 2-2 against Morecombe but then lost 6-5 on penalties. Mansfield are now on a total of 6 goals. MIDDLESBROUGH drew 2-2 against Crewe and then lost 4-2 on penalties. Brough are now on a total of 5 goals. BRENTFORD drew 1-1 at home to Cambridge Utd but then lost 5-4 on penalties. Brentford’s goal gives them a total of two goals in three games. PETERBOROUGH picked up their second blank score sheet after they lost 1-0 away to Oxford Utd. WEST BROM lost 2-1 at home to Millwall to pick up goal number four.

Please remember that Penalty Shoot-Outs do not count.

Week Two

Here we are with Week Two of the competition and this weekend, we had our second winner of the season who won on a score of 16 goals. Our winner was CLIFF BAMBRIDGE and collects the full £6 cash prize money.

Cliff has been with us for four seasons now as he started in the 2016/17 Season. Last season he finished in 8th place with a total of 325 goals. With one shared weekend win, Cliff won £22 in cash. Cliff  has started off  this season in great style and with the highest weekend score so far for this season. His teams are

CELTIC 5, FALKIRK 6, MANCHESTER CITY 5

100 MIDWEEK GOALS JACKPOT

At last we can have our first look at who is in the lead for our 100 Midweek Goals Jackpot worth £30 this season. The prize money will go to the first person to reach 100 goals from their three teams.

Taking the lead after two weeks of football we have three at the moment all with 7 goals each. They are TOBY BICKNELL, MICHAEL FISHER and JED WEARDEN. In Second place we have CLIFF BAMBRIDGE, GUY DOWSETT and GRAHAM HARRIS all with 6 goals each while in third place with 4 goals each we have a total of 36 players.

WEEKEND RESULTS

So we had our very first full weekend fixture and what a fantastic start to the season. We had just three teams with no game over the weekend with another fifteen teams that failed to score any goals. So for our very first weekend the average score was a massive 8 goals. So if your combination picked up more than that, then you have done very well this week.

The Highest score over the weekend was six goals and we had two of our teams that reached that figure. They were RANGERS from the Scottish Premiership where they won 6-1 at home to Hibernian. Rangers have scored in both of their league games to date and they are now on a total of 8 goals. They have a total of 35 votes. FALKIRK from the Scottish League One won 6-0 at home to Dumbarton to pick up their highest score of the season. Falkirk are now on a total of 12 goals. They have just one vote this season.

The premiership for the very first time is using the “VAR” and it has already been controversial. We first saw this in the World Cup 2018 and it was criticized for the confusion it caused then within stadiums and the time it took to make decisions at this year’s Women's World Cup.

The Premier League has vowed to ensure its use would have minimum impact on the game. That was certainly true at Anfield on Friday night, where its use did not disrupt the flow of the game. But I can see this affecting our top team’s goals totals this year with Manchester City already having a goal disallowed against West Ham on Saturday match and a few others results have now been affected by the VAR.

PREMIERSHIP

So the Premiership played their first league game of the season and most of them had a great start. MANCHESTER CITY went straight to the top of the league after they won 5-0 away to WEST HAM. MANCESTER UNITED are in second place after they won 4-0 at home to CHELSEA. Liverpool are in third place after their Friday game.

ARSENAL picked up their first goal as they win 1-0 away to NEWCASTLE. LEICESTER CITY drew 0-0 at home to WOLVES while SHEFFIELD UNITED drew 1-1 away to Bournemouth. EVERTON drew 0-0 away to Crystal palace. TOTTENHAM won 3-1 at home against ASTON VILLA.

CHAMPIONSHIP

After two games now SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY are top after they win their second game 2-0 at home against BARNSLEY. Wednesday are now on a total of 5 goals while Barnsley picked up their first blank of the season. LEEDS UNITED are in third place after they drew 1-1 at home to NOTTINGHAM FOREST. Leeds are now on 4 goals to Forest’s 2. BIRMINGHAM drew 1-1 at home to Bristol City to pick up goal number 2. CARDIFF won 2-1 at home to LUTON both teams are on 4 goals each. STOKE lost 3-1 away to Charlton and they are now on 2 goals. DERBY picked up their first blank score sheet after they drew 0-0 at home against Swansea. FULHAM picked up their first goals of the season by winning 2-0 at home to BLACKBURN who picked up their first blank score sheet. BRENTFORD won 1-0 away to MIDDLESBROUGH to pick up their first goals while Brough picked up their first blank sheet. PRESTON picked up their first goals with a 3-0 home win against Wigan. QUEENS PARK RANGERS drew 1-1 at home to HUDDERSFIELD and Rangers are now on 3 goals to Huddersfield’s 2. WEST BROM drew 1-1 at home to Millwall and that was their third goal of the season.

LEAGUE ONE

BLACKPOOL are top here with their second win of the season as they win 3-1 away to SOUTHEND. With their biggest win of the season they are now on 5 goals while Southend hit their first goal of the season. LINCOLN CITY are in second place and they have won both games as they win 2-0 away to ROTHERHAM. Lincoln are now on 4 goals while Rotherham picked up their first blank score sheet. IPSWICH drew 1-1 at home to SUNDERLAND and both teams are now on 2 goals each. MK DONS have played their first game and they won 1-0 at home to Shrewsbury. It’s their first blank score sheet as PETERBOROUGH lost 1-0 away to Oxford Utd. PORTSMOUTH won 2-0 at home to Tranmere and they are now on a total of 5 goals. DONCASTER drew 1-1 away to Rochdale and they are now on 2 goals.

LEAGUE TWO

PLYMOUTH are top here as they win their second game of the season with a 1-0 win over Colchester at home. Plymouth are now on 4 goals. SCUNTHORPE picked up their first goal of the season but lost 4-1 away to Cheltenham. New boys SALFIRD CITY lost their second game 2-0 away to Crawley to pick up their first blank score sheet. BRADFORD drew

1-1 away to Grimsby to pick up their first goal of the season. LEYTON ORIENT picked up their first blank score sheet as they lost 3-0 away to Macclesfield. MANSFIELD drew 2-2 at home to Morecombe and they are now on 4 goals. OLDHAM get their first goal of the season but lost 2-1 at home to Crewe. FOREST GREEN drew 1-1 away to Walsall and they are now on 2 goals.

SCOTTISH LEAGUES

In the Scottish Premiership, CELTIC are still top after they won their second league game 5-2 away to Motherwell. Celtic are now on a total of 12 goals. Just to give you some idea how Celtic are doing, in the first nine league/cup games played last season, they were only on a total of eleven goals. Rangers are in second place. HEARTS drew 0-0 at home to Ross County to pick up their first blank of the season after a goal run of five games.

In League One, FALKIRK have moved up to third place after their big win on Saturday. PETERHEAD drew 1-1 away to East Fife and they are now on a total of 4 goals.  

In League Two, New boys COVE RANGERS are sitting on top of the league after they drew 4-4 away to Albion and they have now scored in all of their last four games and have a total of 15 goals.  STENHOUSEMUIR drew 1-1 away to Queen’s Park and they are now on 7 goals and they have also scored in all of their last four games.

So lets have a look at our BEST three teams this week with Golden Goals. They are

COVE RANGERS (15) CELTIC (12) FALKIRK (12) Total of 39 goals

OUR WORST THREE TEAMS ARE

ACCRINGTON STANLEY (0) CHELSEA (0) EVERTON (0) Total of 0 goals

Our Best team is CELTIC after scoring in both of their League games with a total of 12 goals.

Our worst team is PETERHEAD this weekend as they have picked up three blank score sheets in six games played.

Our highest goal scorers in our 37^th Season are CELTIC who won 7-0 against St Johnstone in their first league game in Week One.  

GUY DOWSETT is still at the top this weekend after picking up fourteen goals all coming from the weekend. Guy’s teams are Celtic, Ccove Rangers and Manchester City. Guy is now just three goals in front of Cliff Bambridge.

At the other end at 123 we have Jacqui Willimas this week with just one goal. Jacqui has Arsenal, Chelsea and Leicester City.

So this is how the top ten looks this week

        THIS      LAST                                               M/WEEK       W/END        TOTAL

        WEEK     WEEK             NAME                      GOALS         GOALS        GOALS

             1            -                  G. DOWSETT                6                    26                  32

              2                 -                 C. BAMBRIDGE          6                    23                  29

               3                 47              I. SMITH                        3                    19                  22

              4                 3                F. CARTHY                                           21                  21

              5                 35              C. DICKER                                           21                  21

              6                 5                D. GOODSON                                      21                  21

              7                 12              D. NICHOLLS                                      21                  21                

              8                 15              M. STUBBS                                          21                  21

              9                 16              S. THOMSON (1)                                 21                  21

               10              8                B. SAWYER                   3                    18                  21

Liverpool Win Their Opening Game

The very first English Premiership game has now been played and the first goals go to LIVERPOOL who won 4-1 at home against newly promoted Norwich. Liverpool are top for now, and they are our second most voted English team with 38. They are also our highest English scorers for now.

Carabao Cup First Round

The very first game of the League Cup was played last night and it was the only game as the rest of the first round will be played next week. The game was between PORTSMOUTH and BIRMINGHAM where Portsmouth won the game 3-0 at home. It’s the first goals for Portsmouth and the first blank score sheet for Birmingham.

Derby Win First Game

In the English Championship, DERBY have won their opening game 2-1 away to HUDDERSFIELD. The win  has put Derby in fifth place in the league. Derby are in their sixteenth season with Golden Goals and they have only picked up a total of two votes this season, compared to ten last season where they finished on a total of 90 goals.

Huddersfield on the other hand are starting their seventh season with us. They first appeared in the 2001/02 Season and finished on a total of 68 goals and became our 96^th English team to join in. Their highest score came in the 2010/11 Season with 94 goals. Last time out was back in the 2013/14 Season where they finished on a total of 58 goals. This season they have just one vote. Over the seasons they have now scored a total of 449 goals which gives them an average score of 64 goals per season.

Week One

Here we go our 37th Season of Golden Goals. If you have been following us over the past years, then you will know what this competition is all about. If not then you have missed out on this unique Football Competition. The teams for this season are in bold caps as usual. 

Well here we are with our 37^th Season of Golden Goals and a very big welcome to you all and what a season we are going to have once again. As you can see that we have ended up with a total of 123 entries in this seasons competition and I would like to thank everyone who has  helped us to get to that magic figure which becomes our fourth best Golden Goals season. It is with regret that we did not reach our previous record of 149 from the 2017/18 Season. Although we have seen some names missing from last season, we have gained another seven new ones. So who is going to be our 37^th Champion? We will find out in the next forty-two weeks time but I wish you all the very best of luck. So here we go once again with another kick-off for our 37^th consecutive season of GOLDEN GOALS…… 

The most popular selection for any combination was once again the Celtic and Manchester City combo with either Sunderland, Tottenham or WBA . 

Our last season Champion is also back and that was Kellie Stratton. Kellie has not changed her winning combination from last season and they are once again Celtic, Manchester City and WBA.  We also have a total of nineteen ladies playing this season. 

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 as they came in with a total of 73. Last season they had a total of 81 and scored a total of 132 goals which is their best score with Golden Goals. So this was no surprise that they would be the most voted teams this season once again. CELTIC after picking up 70 votes last season, but they are now down to just 49 this season. Staying with the Scottish teams the second highest voted team comes from the Scottish Premiership again and they are RANGERS with 35 votes which is a lot better than last seasons of  just 17. The Scottish teams had a very poor turn out this season with a total of  just seven teams being picked. We have just three from the Scottish Premiership, and just two 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  13  Premiership teams in this years competition with MANCHESTER CITY becoming our top team again this season.  Next comes LIVERPOOL with 38 votes. They were our seventh most voted team last season with 19 votes.In third place with just 15 votes  we have SUNDERLAND. They were our fifth most voted team last season with 13 votes. In fourth place down from three last season is TOTTENHAM. They also have just 15 votes compared to 23 last season. Our fifth team is LEEDS UNITED with 14 votes. They were our fourteenth most voted team last season with just 5 votes. In the Championship we have picked up 17 teams compared to 13 last season,  while in League One we have 12 with 8 teams taken from League Two. 

We have two news teams to join Golden Goals this season. They are  SALFORD CITY from the English League Two and COVE RANGERS from the Scottish League Two. Both have one vote each.

So on with the competition and this weeks sheet shows you all the games that have been played up to and including the 4^th August. But any games that have been played before and up to up to Friday the 2nd 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 £30. 

Our first English game was played last Friday night where LUTON took on MIDDLESBROUGH in the English Championship and they drew 3-3 at home to pick up their very first goals of the season. Luton have a total of just 3 votes this season while Middlesbrough have just one. Luton are in their seventeenth season with Golden Goals and they are our second most voted team in our very first season of 1983/84, Luton finished with a score of 61 goals. Their highest score was in the 2017/18 Season with 101 goals. Last season they finished on a total of 93 goals. They have scored a total of 1251 goals over the seventeen seasons which gives them an average score of 73 goals per season. Middlesbrough are our 58^th English team to join us and this is their eighteenth season, but they started in the 1986/87 Season finishing with 78 goals. Their highest score is 92 and they reached that in two consecutive season’s in 1996/97 and then again in the 1997/98. Last time out was in the 2017/18 Season and finished on 75 goals. Over the years they have netted a total of 121 goals which gives them an average score of 67 goals per season. Week One in our very first weekend of the new season, we are already starting to pay out the prize money as we had just the one winner for our first £6 weekend prize money this season. 

Our winners is GUY DOWSETT who picked up this weekends highest score of  12 goals from just two of his teams. Guy is in his nineteenth season with us and he started way back in the 2000/01 Season, where he finished in 35^th place with a total of 269 goals. Last season he had two combos and they finished in 55^th and 114^th place. So here are his teams for this season. 

CELTIC 7, COVE RANGERS 5, MANCHESTER CITY - 

Out of our 57 teams that have been picked this season, nineteen had no game and another eleven teams failed to score any goals in their first league game. The highest score at the weekend came from the Scottish Premiership where CELTIC with won their opening game 7-0 at home to St Johnstone. This is their 37^th Season with us and last season they scored a total of 100 goals. Their biggest score was back in the 2016/17 Season with 134 goals. So lets have a quick run down on this weekends results starting with the English Championship.

CHAMPIONSHIP 
LEEDS UNITED have started off their season in great style and are top of the table after they won 3-1 away to Bristol City. In second place is SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY who won 3-1 away to Reading. BARNSLEY won 1-0 at home against FULHAM while BLACKBURN lost 2-1 at home to Charlton. BIRMINGHAM won 1-0 away to BRENTFORD and PRESTON lost 1-0 away to Millwall. WEST BROM won 2-1 away to NOTTINGHAM FOREST. Q.P.R won 2-1 away to STOKE and CARDIFF lost 3-2 away to Wigan. 

LEAGUE ONE 
BLACKPOOL are in second place after their first game as they win 2-0 at home to Bristol Rovers. LINCOLN CITY  are in third place as they win 2-0 at home to ACCRINGTON STANLEY. ROTHERHAM won 2-1 away to AFC Wimbledon. IPSWICH won 1-0 away to Burton Albion. SOUTHEND picked up their first blank score sheet as they lost 1-0 away to Coventry. DONCASTER drew 1-1 at home to Gillingham. PETERBOROUGH lost 3-1 away to Fleetwood and PORTSMOUTH lost 1-0 away to Shrewsbury. SUNDERLAND drew 1-1 at home to Oxford Utd. 

LEAGUE TWO 
PLYMOUTH won their opening game 3-0 away to Crewe which puts them top of  the league. New Boys SALFORD CITY are in third place as they win 2-0 at home to Stevenage. BRADFORD drew 0-0 at home to Cambridge Utd. FOREST GREEN won 1-0 at home against OLDHAM. LEYTON ORIENT won 1-0 at home to Cheltenham. MANSFIELD drew 2-2 away to Newport County while SCUNTHORPE lost 2-0 at home to Swindon.

SCOTTISH LEAGUES 
Now you might already know that the Scottish have already played their first round of the League Cup, if you have been following our blog and with their new 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 Scottish Premiership, CELTIC go straight on top with the biggest win of the weekend as they win 7-0 at home to St Johnstone. RANGERS are in fourth place as they win 2-1 away to Kilmarnock. HEARTS lost 3-2 away to Aberdeen. 
In League One, Newly promoted PETERHEAD drew 0-0 at home against FALKIRK.  Peterhead are out of the Scottish League Cup but did pick up three goals in the group games. This is their third blank of the season. Falkirk had scored in all of their cup games netting 6 goals but this is their first blank of the season. 
In League Two new boys COVE RANGERS go top of the league after their 5-0 home win against Edinburgh City. Cove Rangers are also out of the cup but they have now scored ten goals in their last three games. They are now on a total of 11 goals which makes them our top team this week. STENHOUSEMUIR relegated last season, lost 3-2 at home to Albion. Stenhousemuir are now on a total of 6 goals. 

Our Best Three Teams are this Week 

COVE RANGERS (11) HEARTS (8) CELTIC(7) Total of 26 goals. 

So here are our top ten for the very first week.

          FIRST                                                    M/WEEK       W/END        TOTAL

WEEK              NAME                           GOALS         GOALS        GOALS

       1                G. DOWSETT                    6                     12                   18

        2                C. BAMBRIDGE                6                     7                     13

        3                F. CARTHY                                                10                   10

        4                P. COLLINS                                               10                   10

        5                D. GOODSON                                           10                   10

        6                S. PERFECT                                              10                   10

        7                R. WOOD (2007/08)*                               10                   10

        8                B. SAWYER                        3                    7                     10

        9                J. BLYTH                                                   9                     9

        10              C. BOLBERY (2017/18)                            9                    9