Tit-bits (not what you think) Gameweek 9

English: Fernando Torres playing for Chelsea F.C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tit-bits to Gameweek 9

Total goals 23 (10 of them in two matches) (6th highest of the 9 weeks). 8 clean sheets ( 3rd highest).

At the mid-point of the next Gameweek (No 10) we will have completed 25% of our Fantasy Game for 2013-14 season.
QED

Fernando's - no longer in Hideaway?

Gameweek 9: Does anyone have Torres?

Español: El Fandi, Tercio de Quites, en Corpus Christi. Feria de Granada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

No change given by the top two in the Gardens.

The leader of the Allotments is now Little BLOOMING Wonders with the same wins as HelloJoAllStars but with a higher overall points  score (I wish I had something blooming in the Allotments .... or the Gardens)

Top scores: a bullish 78 for El Fandi, and Super Rams 75, Dynamos 71 and Li.....there is another team with 70.

Allotments league: the usual tricky results with 49 points scoring a win and a score of 59 losing.

Does anyone have Torres in their squad?

League tables below.

Did you see the gloves .....?

English: Brine lacrosse gloves (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Did you see the gloves on de Gea the ManU goalie? The size of those on a bear mascot's walk-in costume. And the thumbs were the size of Cumberland sausages.
They were clearly unfair. But no comments were heard on Match of the Day or in the press so far. (I do skim a lot, especially Glanville and my recorded Match of the Day)
Man U in their desire to improve their season have started with bigger gloves for the goalie. Maybe they'll end up giving him a bat.
Obviously de Gea, has not got used to the whopper gloves yet as he let in two goals but they did come in handy when he flapped away a long shot skimming off the ground. Probably the draught.
Behind for most of the match, they only just beat Stoke, 3-2!

5 more matches today,

Dynamos rev up. Gameweek 8 review.

HelloJoAllstars (or something like that) with a score in the forties managed to win her match and go top in the Allotments (above). Scores of 48 points and 46 won games - so don't give up hope in this league.

Or the other?

However, Dynamos' 62 was not enough to win in the Head to Head league.

 In the Gardens, Little grew bigger, Songs pitched lower, Slickers were stickers and Dynamos revved up. Aguero of Manchester City holed a few putts and his manager had him as captain for a round of 32.

There were 34 goals, the highest of the season so far by 5. There were only 4 clean sheets: one more than the lowest in Week 6.

(Aguero = Hole)

Where we stand after Gameweek 8

Dimitar Berbatov - biulgarian football player (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With 2 Fulham players, I was one of the few (or alone?) in having a stake in last night's final game of the week. A quick calculation showed that if Berbatov (no goals so far this season) and Reither, full back, scored 6 each and had a few assists, say half a dozen, and each got maximum bonus points  then I would be third in the league.

Crystal Palace started off and scored in very quick time.

Then Fulham got two remarkable goals - the first of which was a lifetime best (no matter how long he lives) for Kasami, a Swiss national team player. The second goal was a one in a thousand by Sidwell - who scored all of 3 last season. So it began to look like a game in which any beautiful thing could happen. I might get all those points and lie second in the table. From 15th.

Final score: C Palace 1 Fulham 4.

Will 'No Wonders' stay at the top .....in Gameweek 8?

English: Daniel Sturridge playing for England U21 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is great to see teams of some character leading the league. Little Wonders, I notice, has 3 Everton and 3 Arsenal players plus 2 Spurs. BouWow has 6 players from the Mersey teams. Si Si Songs has 3 Chelsea plus 2 more with Chelsea connections.

What do I mean by a team of character?
 I mean that there are 3 players from any one team
Plus a theme.

When you play your Wildcard you can choose a team of character or you can do it gradually with fortnightly transfers.

Which other teams of character do we have in our league?

With two more matches to play we won't know until Monday night how the table will finally look.
But with 2 Spurs players yet to register points it looks like there's No Wonder who will be at the top.

Si Si Songs also has 2 players to register points but only one Spurs player. If Sigurdsson ssscores and Soldado and Paulinho don't, then Nick might manage to stay top but it doesn't look likely from here.

Thank Hodgson: England will go to Brazil for 2014 World Cup competition

Between Gameweeks 7 and 8 England played two world cup qualifying matches and won both. The first was against Montenegro and the second was against Poland. The result means that we can watch England play on TV next summer biting our nails as usual.

We owe a lot to Roy Hodgson whose face during the match expressed the way the English supporters were feeling: worried until England scored then desperate in case Poland scored while England bombarded the Poles for a second goal.

It came a few minutes before the final whistle when Gerrard in a scene I will never forget shrugged off two defenders to reach for the contact to score the goal that made England top of the group and put us in Brazil.

Hodgson's face now showed the joy of a man who had just found out he was not going to be hanged for something he didn't do. A kind of joy but hey...!

In London on Tuesday (the day of the match with Poland at Wembley) it was impossible to get hold of an electrician, a plumber, a locksmith, a joiner or a builder. They were all at the match shouting for Poland.

Other odd facts

1. Poland's goalkeeper was Arsenal's 'Chesney' - a good-old cockney name spelt 'Szczensy'.

2. Montenegro, England's penultimate opponent has a population the size of Bristol.

3. 'Penultimate' is not the last man to take a penalty in a shoot-out.

Related articles

•  England's World Cup Place Roy Hodgson's Proudest Moment