A Draw for West Brom

In the Championship, WEST BROM drew 1-1 at home to WATFORD. Both teams have now scored two goals in their first two games of the season.

  

Week Two

Here we are with Week Two of the competition and this weekend we had a full league fixture, which gave us two winners who won on a score of 9 goals each.  They share our first Rollover prize money of £10. Our winners are VINCENT CRUICKSHANK and MARK LIPMAN. 

Vincent has been with us since the 2010/11 Season where he finished in 94^th place out of 109 with a total of 228 goals. Last season, Vincent finished in the winning frame in 10^th place with a total of 309 goals. He also had one shared weekend win on 9 goals. Could this be his lucky number? 

Mark is one of our new players this season and he has not only moved in to the winning frame this weekend but he has also won some cash. Their teams are 

Vincent  PETERBOROUGH 3, RANGERS 2, TOTTENHAM 4 

Mark  CELTIC 3, LIVERPOOL 2, TOTTENHAM 4 

100 MIDWEEK GOALS JACKPOT 

We can now have our first look at who is in the lead for our 100 Midweek Goals Jackpot worth a total of £40 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 LUCIFER (John Wood) out in front with a total of 18 goals. In second place we have HAYLEY ADKINS with 12 goals. In third place with 10 goals we have DAVID BARRETT and our 2009/10 Champion DAVE SOMERVILLE. In fourth place is GUY DOWSETT (2) with 7 goals and again GUY DOWSETT (1) in fifth place with a total of 5 goals. 

WEEKEND RESULTS 

So we had our very first full weekend fixture and not a bad start to the season. We had just five teams with no game over the weekend with another eleven of our teams that failed to score any goals. So for our very first weekend the average score was 5 goals. So if your combination picked up more than that, then you have done very well this weekend. The Highest score over the weekend was 4 goals and they came from three of our teams, ABERDEEN, BRISTOL ROVERS and TOTTENHAM. Lets get on with the results to see how your teams have performed this weekend. 

PREMIER LEAGUE 

So the Premier League played their first league game of the season and most of them had a good start. TOTTENHAM go straight to the top after they won 4-1 at home to Southampton. Arsenal are in second place after their win on Friday night. Last season’s champions MANCHESTER CITY won 2-0 away to WEST HAM. BORNEMOUTH won 2-0 at home against ASTON VILLA. EVERTON lost 1-0 at home to CHELSEA. FULHAM drew 2-2 at home to LIVERPOOL. LEEDS UTD won 2-1 at home to Wolves. NEWCASTLE won 2-0 at home to Nottingham Forest. LEICESTER CITY drew 2-2 at home to Brentford. MANCHESTER UTD lost 2-1 at home to BRIGHTON. 

CHAMPIONSHIP 

After two games now, SUNDERLAND are up to second place after they won their first league game 3-2 away to Bristol City. Sunderland are on a total of 4 goals. BURNLEY drew 1-1 at home against LUTON to pick up their second goal of the season. Luton picked up their first. MIDDLESBROUGH lost 3-2 away to QPR to take their goals total to three. READING picked up their first goals with a 2-1 home win against Cardiff. SWANSEA lost 3-0 at home to top of the table Blackburn Rovers. That is their first blank of the season.  

LEAGUE ONE 

PETERBOROUGH are top here with their second win of the season as they win 3-0 at home to Morecambe. Borough have now netted six goals in two games. BRISTOL ROVERS picked up their biggest win to date as they win 4-0 away to Burton. CHARLTON won 2-0 at home to DERBY. Charlton are on 3 goals while Derby picked up their first blank score sheet. PLYMOUTH lost 2-1 away to Fleetwood and that is their second goal of the season. FOREST GREEN lost 2-1 at home to IPSWICH. Both teams are on 3 goals each. MK DONS lost 1-0 at home to SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY to pick up their second blank of the season. Wednesday are on a total of 4 goals. OXFORD UTD picked up their first goal of the season as they win 1-0 at home to Cambridge Utd. LINCOLN CITY drew 0-0 away to Portsmouth and that is their first blank of the season. 

LEAGUE TWO 

The highest team that we have here is AFC WIMBLEDON in sixth place. They drew their second league game 0-0 away to Hartlepool and that is their first blank score sheet. BRADFORD lost 3-2 away to Barrow to pick up their first goals of the season. CRAWLEY TOWN lost 1-0 at home to Leyton Orient and that is their 2^nd blank score sheet. SUTTON UTD lost  2-1 away to Doncaster and are now on 2 goals. GILLINGHAM won 1-0 at home to Rochdale to pick up their first goal of the season. MANSFIELD won 1-0 at home to Tranmere and they also have picked up their first goal. STOCKPORT COUNTY lost 2-1 away to Stevenage and they are on 3 goals. SWINDON drew 0-0 at home to SALFORD CITY. Swindon have failed to score this season as Salford picked up their first blank score sheet. 

SCOTTISH LEAGUES 

In the Premiership CELTIC are top on goal difference after they won 3-1 away to Ross County. With their biggest win of the season so far, Celtic are now on a total of 5 goals. RANGERS are in second place after they won 2-1 at home to Kilmarnock. Rangers are on a total of 4 goals. HEARTS are in third place after they drew 1-1 away to HIBERNIAN. Hearts are on a total of 3 goals while Hibs are in fourth place with a total of 12 goals. ABERDEEN are in fifth place after they won 4-1 at home to St Mirren. Aberdeen are now on a total of 16 goals. 

In League One ALLOA won 3-1 at home to KELTY HEARTS and they are now on a total of 9 goals while Kelty picked up their 4^th blank of the season. 

In League Two, new boys BONNYRIGG ROSE are sitting on top of the league here after they won 3-0 away to East Fife. They have now won both of their league games and have scored a total of 10 goals. They have also now scored in all of their six league/cup games. STENHOUSEMUIR lost 2-1 away to Anna. They have now scored in all of their six league/cup games and are on a total of 9 goals. 

So lets have a look at our BEST three teams this week 

ABERDEEN (16) HIBERNIAN (12) BONNYRIGG ROSE (10) Total of 38 goals

Our WORST three teams are

CRAWLEY TOWN (0) MK DONS (0) SWINDON (0) Total of 0 goals

Our Best performing teams are BONNYRIGG ROSE and STENHOUSEMUIR after both teams have now scored in all of their six cup/league games.

Our worst performing team is KELTY HEARTS this weekend as they have picked up four blank score sheets in their first six games of the season.

Our highest goal scorers in our 40^th Season are ABERDEEN and HIBERNIAN who have both picked up five goals each from their League Cup first round group stage. Aberdeen won 5-0 away to Stirling in their third league cup game. Hibernian won 5-0 at home to Clyde in their first league cup game. Both from Week One. LUCIFER (John Wood) is still at the top this weekend after picking up 7 goals from the weekend. Lucifers teams are Alloa, Bonnyrigg Rose and Stenhousemuir.  Lucifer is now pulling away from the rest of us and 8 goals in front of Hayley Adkins who moves up to second place this weekend with Aberdeen, Liverpool and Manchester City.

At the other end at 108 we had Terrence Warwick there last weekend but we now have SANDRA NICHOLLS who picked up just 2 goal this weekend. Sandra has Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Leicester City.

Here are our top ten for this weekend. 

  THIS      LAST                                                            M/WEEK       W/END        TOTAL

WEEK     WEEK           NAME                                     GOALS         GOALS        GOALS 

      1            -                LUCIFER                                     18                   10                     28

       2                 3             H. ADKINS                                  12                   8                       20

       3                 2             D. BARRETT                               10                   9                       19

       4                 5             G. DOWSETT (2)                         7                     9                       16         

       5                 4             D. SOMERVILLE (2009/10)        10                   5                       15

       6                 8             V. CRUICKSHANK                                          14                     14

       7                 11            GRANT PHILLIPS                                            13                     13

       8                 6              G. DOWSETT (1)                         5                   8                       13

       9                 15            G. DOCKERILL (1994/95)                               12                     12

        10              16            J. WISE                                                              12                     12

Watford's First Game In Championship

In the Championship WATFORD won their first game 1-0 at home to Sheffield Utd. Watford are one of our original teams when we started Golden Goals and they were our 5^th team to join in the 1983/84 Season. This is their 23^rd Season with us. Their highest score came in the following season with a total of 102 goals. It’s the only time that they have picked up over 100 goals. Their lowest score came from last season with just 37 goals. Over the years they have scored a total of 1539 which gives them an average score of 66 goals per season to date.

Week One

 Well here we are with our historic 40^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 108 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. It is with great 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 four new ones. 

So who is going to be our 40^th Champion and win that £240 prize money? We will find out in the next forty-one weeks time but I wish you all the very best of luck. 

The most popular selections for any combinations was Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City, and Chelsea, Liverpool and Rangers. 

We have a total of fifteen past Champions playing this season. Our last season Champion is also back and that was Julia Wood. Julia has changed her winning combination from last season to Celtic, Chelsea and Liverpool. We also have a total of eighteen 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 56. Last season they had a total of 41 and scored a total of 121 goals so this was no surprise that they would be the most voted teams this season once again. CELTIC after picking up just 9 votes last season, they picked up more this season but with 26 this season. Staying with the Scottish teams the second highest voted team comes from the Scottish Premiership again and they are RANGERS with just 17 votes which is down from last seasons total of 54. The Scottish teams had a good turn out this season with a total of  nine teams being picked. We have five from the Scottish Premiership, and  just two each from League One and Two once again. 

With the English teams things have changed as they always do in this competition. We have a total of  16  Premiership teams in this years competition with MANCHESTER CITY becoming our top team again this season.  Next comes LIVERPOOL with 51 votes. They were our third most voted team last season with 30 votes. In third place with 20 votes again we have CHELSEA. They were our fourth most voted team last season.  In fourth place up from ten last season is TOTTENHAM. They have 19 votes compared to 7 last season. Our fifth team is NORWICH CITY with 13 votes. 

In the Championship we have picked up 10 teams compared to 17 last season,  while in League One we have 11, with 9 teams taken from League Two. 

We have one new team to join Golden Goals this season. They are  Bonnyrigg Rose from the Scottish League two and they have two votes. 

So on with the competition and this weeks sheet shows you all the games that have been played up to and including the 31^st July. Any games that have been played before and up to up to Friday the 29^th July, have all been counted as midweek goals, so some of you have a bit of a lead already for the Midweek Cash Jackpot of £40. 

Our first English game was played last Friday night where HUDDERSFIELD took on BURNLEY in the English Championship and Burnley won 1-0 away to pick up their very first goal of the season. Both teams have one vote each this season. 

Huddersfield are in their eight season with Golden Goals and they are our 96th team to join in. Their first season was in 2001/02 where they finished with a score of 68 goals. Their highest score was in the 2010/11 Season with 94 goals. Last time out was in the 2019/20 Season where they finished on a total of 52 goals. They have scored a total of 500 goals over the seventeen seasons which gives them an average score of 71 goals per season. Burnley are our 75^h English team to join us and this is their 13^th  season. Burnley started in the 1989/90 Season finishing with 61 goals. Their highest score is 84 and they reached that in thr 2002/03 Season. Last time out was in the 2015/16 Season and finished on 75 goals. Over the years they have netted a total of 853 goals which gives them an average score of 65 goals per season.

Week One in our very first weekend of the new season and we go straight in to a Rollover for next weekend worth a total of £10.  As you have seen that we had a total of five players who picked up this weekends highest score of  just 5 goals each. 

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 two of our teams picking up the highest score over  the weekend with  three goals each. They were from League One  PETERBOROUGH and SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY.

Peterborough won their first league game 3-2 away to Cheltenham. This is Peterborough’s 17^th Season with Golden Goals and they became our 90^th voted English team when they started with us in the 1997/98 Season, they finished on a total of 73 goals.  Borough have only hit 100 goals once and that was in the 2010/11 Season with a total of 129 goals. That is our third highest ever score with Golden Goals. Last season they finished on a total of 47 goals. Over the years they have now netted a total of 1282 goals which gives them an average score of 75 goals per season. Sheffield Wednesday drew their game 3-3 at home to Portsmouth. Wednesday are in their 19^th Season with us and they are one of our original starting team coming in at number 21 in the 1983/84 Season. they then finished on a total of 95 goals. They have also hit 100 goals just once and that came in the 1990/91 Season with 101 goals. Last season they finished on a total of 81 goals. Over the years they have netted a total of 1391 goals which now gives them an average score of 73 goals per season. So lets see how the rest of our teams that were in action, got on over the weekend. 

CHAMPIONSHIP 

In no particular order, READING lost their first league game 1-0 away to Blackpool. NORWICH lost 1-0 away to Cardiff. LUTON drew 0-0 at home to Birmingham. MIDDLESBROUGH drew 1-1 at home to WEST BROM. SWANSEA drew 1-1 away to Rotherham. SUNDERLAND drew 1-1 at home to Coventry. 

LEAGUE ONE 

CHARLTON drew 2-2 away to Accrington. FOREST GREEN won 2-1 away to BRISTOL ROVERS. MK DONS lost 1-0 away to Cambridge Utd. DERBY won 1-0 at home to OXFORD UTD. IPSWICH drew 1-1 at home to Bolton. LINCOLN CITY drew 1-1 at home to Exeter. PLYMOUTH won 1-0 at home to Barnsley. 

LEAGUE TWO 

AFC WIMBLEDON won 2-0 at home to GILLINGHAM. BRADFORD drew 0-0 at home to Doncaster. CRAWLEY TOWN lost 1-0 away to Carlisle. SWINDON lost 3-0 away to Harrogate. SALFORD CITY won 2-0 at home to MANSFIELD TOWN. Back in to the fold we have STOCKPORT COUNTY and they lost their first league game 3-2 at home to Barrow. SUTTON UTD drew 1-1 at home to Newport. 

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 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 Premiership last season Champions CELTIC won their opening game 2-0 at home against ABERDEEN. Aberdeen after scoring in all of their four group league cup games, picked up their very first blank score sheet. RANGERS won 2-1 away to Livingston. HEARTS won 2-1 at home to Ross County. 

In League One ALLOA lost 1-0 away to Dunfermline and that is their 2^nd blank of the season. KELTY HEARTS lost 2-0 at home to FC Edinburgh and that is their 4^th blank in five games played. 

In League Two new boys BONNYRIGG ROSE won their first league game 2-0 at home to Forfar and they are no a total of 7 goals and a goal run of five games. STENHOUSEMUIR also kept their 100% scoring record going after they won 1-0 at home to Albion Rovers. Stenhousemuir are on a total of 8 goals and a goal run of five games.

Here is the first look at the top ten in Week One

           FIRST                                                             M/WEEK       W/END        TOTAL

    WEEK          NAME                                       GOALS         GOALS        GOALS 

       1                LUCIFER                                        18                     3                    21

         2                D. BARRETT                                 10                     4                    14

         3                H. ADKINS                                     12                     0                    12

         4                D. SOMERVILLE (2009/10)           10                     1                    11

         5                G. DOWSETT (2)                             7                       3                    10

         6                G. DOWSETT (1)                              5                      2                    7

         7                T. BICKNELL (2014/15)                                           5                    5

         8                V. CRUICKSHANK                                                  5                    5

         9                S. DICKINSON                                                          5                    5

                  10              T. GUY (2)                                                                  5                    5                    

Book Now Closed

The book is now closed for this season’s Golden Goals 40. In the end we just had a total of 108 entries back of which only four are new to the competition. The season has really been a bit disappointing as the numbers fall down once again. After reaching our peek in 2017/18 Season with 149 players, we have failed to get even near that total ever since. 

How the team selection have finished 

We have just forty-six English teams this time round with Manchester City picking up the most votes with 56. In second place we have Liverpool with 51 votes. Third place we have Chelsea with 20 votes and Tottenham with 19 votes. In fifth place we have Norwich with 13 votes and in sixth place we have Arsenal with 12 votes. We now have nine teams from our Scottish leagues with Celtic leading the votes this season with just 26. Rangers are second with just 17 votes. 

We even have one new team to the league and they are Scottish Bonnyrigg Rose with two votes. We also welcome back to the English league, Stockport County who was last with us back in the 2007/08 Season.

Scottish League Cup First Round

The first round of the Scottish League Cup has now been played and they have once again played the first round in group stages. In our historic 40th Season we have nine Scottish teams taking part and out of them six have already played in the first round and only one of them have made it through to the next round. 

In Group A, ABERDEEN finished in top position in this group after they have played all of their four games and won all four. They first won 2-0 away to Peterhead, and then they won 2-0 at home to Dumbarton. In their third game they won 5-0 away to Stirling Albion and then 3-0 at home to Raith Rovers. They are at the moment on a total of 12 goals. Stirling Albion finished in second place. 

In Group B, STENHOUSEMUIR finished in third place winning two of their four games. They first lost 2-1 at home to Partick and then they won 3-0 at home to Fraserburgh. They won their third game 2-0 away to Montrose before they lost again 4-1 away to Kilmarnock. Stenhousemuir are on a total of 7 goals and out of the competition. Partick finished top with Kilmarnock in second place. 

In Group C, ALLOA finished in third place as they won just one of their four games. They first drew 1-1 at home to East Fife and then won 6-5 on penalties. In their second game they won 4-1 away to Buckie Thistle and in their third game they lost 2-0 at home to Ross County. In their last game they drew 1-1 away to Dunfermline and then won 5-4 on penalties. Alloa are on a total of 6 goals. Ross County finished top with Dunfermline finishing in second place. 

In Group D, we had two of teams playing. HIBERNIAN finished on 3^rd place winning two of their games. They first won 5-0 at home against Clyde and then lost 1-0 away to Falkirk. In their third game they won 4-1 away to Bonnyrigg Rose and in their last game they drew 1-1 at home to Greenock and then lost 3-1 on penalties. Hibs are on a total of 10 goals. The other team was new boys BONNYRIGG ROSE. They won just one of their four games and finished in 4^th place. They won their first game 2-1 away to Clyde and then they lost 4-1 at home to Hibs. Their third game they drew 1-1 at home against Falkirk but lost 4-2 on penalties. In their last game they lost 3-1 away to Greenock. Bonnyrigg Rose are on a total of 5 goals. Falkirk finished top with Greenock Morton in second place. 

In Group E, Arbroath finished top with Airdrieonians finishing in second place. 

In Group F, Annan finished top with Queen of the South in second place. 

In Group G, KELTY HEARTS finished bottom of their group in 5^th place winning just one game. They lost their first game 1-0 at home to Inverness CT and then they lost 2-0 at home to Albion Rovers. In their third game they won 3-2 away to Cove Rangers and then lost their last game 2-0 away to Livingston. Kelty Hearts are on a total of 3 goals. Inverness CT finished top of the group with Livingston finishing in second place. 

In Group H, Dundee finished top with Hamilton in second place.

The second round games, which will be back to the knock out rounds, are to be played on the 30/31 August with the Scottish Premiership teams joining in which will include CELTIC, HEARTS and RANGERS for our Golden Goals fans.

Season 40 up and running

 

Golden Goals fans qeueing for their entry form

We did not have another great start for our first day for the New Entry Forms for the Golden Goals Season 40. We have had a total of 48 entries back to date. Last season we had 49 and the previous season 50 entries back on the first day. So could we be looking at a reduced season once again but we still have a long way to go before we close the books on midnight 29th July. 

So how is how the team selection are looking so far 

We have just 29 English teams with once again Manchester City picking up the most votes with 33 already. In second place we have Liverpool with 26 votes. Third place is Chelsea once again with 11 while in fourth place we have Norwich with 8 votes. 

We have just 7 teams at the moment from our Scottish leagues with Celtic leading the votes this season with a total of 10. Rangers are currently in second place with just 6 votes. 

We still have a long way to go yet but we need more players to beat our biggest season’s total of 149 players although we still have a lot of our regulars waiting for their teams. 

We have had quite a few hits now with over 54,600 since we started our blog and I thought that I would be a great idea if players from other countries who would like to help us celebrate our 40 years of Golden Goals. 

Well if you would like to know more or to receive your entry form, then you can email me, Steve at goldengoals1983@gmail.com