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 

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 37th Season we have just seven Scottish teams taking part and five of them have already played in the first round and only one have made it through to the next round.

In Group A, HEARTS finished in top position in this group after they had played all of their four games and won just two of the four. They are at the moment on a total of 6 goals. East Fife finished in second place. STENHOUSEMUIR finished in fourth place with a total of 4 goals and they are out of the cup.

In Group B, Ross County finished top with Forfar in second place so both teams are in the next round.

In Group C, Hibernian finished top with Alloa finishing in second place.

In Group D, Dundee finished top with Inverness CT in second place. We had PETERHEAD here in third place. They won one, draw two and lost one out of their four games. Peterhead are currently on 3 goals. COVER RANGERS finished in fourth place. They Won just one of their four games by winning 3-0 to Raith Rovers and have 6 goals to start the season with both of our teams are now out.

In Group E, Motherwell finished top after they won all four games with Morton finishing in second place. 

In Group F, Partick finished top with Hamilton in second place. 

In Group G, Livingston finished top with Ayr Utd in second place. FALKIRK finished in third place by winning just two of their four games. They are on 6 goals and out of the competition.

In Group H, Dunfermline finished top with Albion Rovers in second place. 

The second round games, which will be back to the knock out rounds, are to be played on the 17th August with the Scottish Premiership teams joining in which will include CELTIC and RANGERS for our Golden Goals fans.

Books Now Closed

The book is now closed for this season’s Golden Goals 37. In the end we had a total of 119 entries back of which seven are new to the competition. Although I am waiting on five players to come back with their sub teams, I hope that we will at least get 120.

The season has really been a bit disappointing as the number tumble down 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 has finished

We now have fifty English teams with Manchester City picking up the most votes with 72.

In second place we have Liverpool with 36 votes. Third place we have Sunderland with 15 votes.

In fourth place we have Leeds Utd and Tottenham with 14 votes each. In fifth place we have Portsmouth with 12 votes. We even have the new two boys to the league and they are Cover Rangers from Scotland and Salford City with just one vote each.

We still have just six teams from our Scottish leagues with Celtic leading the votes once again with 48. Rangers are second with 32 votes. All the others still have just one vote each.

We Still Need More!

After our second week since the new Golden Goals Season 37, we have a total of 107 entries back of which six are new to the competition todate. After Mad Friday on lunch day, things have really slowed down and the season looks like it will be the lowest that we have had for some while which is really disappointing. This means that the prize money will not be as good as the last three previous seasons.

You have just seven days left for you to enter your teams, but we need more players to beat our biggest season’s total of 149 players although we still have a lot of our regular players to send in their teams.

How are the team selection looking now?

We now have forty-six English teams with Manchester City still picking up the most votes with 65.

In second place we have Liverpool now with 34 votes. Third place is now Tottenham with 13 votes while in fourth place is now Sunderland and WBA with 12 votes each. In fifth place we have Leeds United with 11 votes. We even have the new boys to the league and they are Salford City with just one vote to date.

We still have just six teams at the moment from our Scottish leagues with Celtic still leading the votes once again with 44. Rangers are second with 26 votes. All the others still have just one vote each.

It’s also a shame that no-one outside of the competition is even interested in joining in. Not even from the UK.

So if you do want to join in quick, send me an email to goldengoals1983@gmail.com to get your entry form. It cost just £8 to enter.