Golden Boot Game Web Log

INTRODUCTION

This weblog is published on the twentieth anniversary of the start of the Golden Boot Game’s first season. Looking back over the twenty years it is amazing how much has changed. In the early years of the millennium not everyone had a computer at home. This was one of the reasons why we didn’t start the Golden Boot Game season when the Premier League season started. We wanted to wait until students had access to college computers before starting the main competition. In those early seasons we didn’t have a separate test area where we could try things out without affecting the user’s website. A Warm Up Game, played between the start of the Premier League season and the start of the Golden Boot Game season enabled us to check out any changes to the website before the main game started. In the first couple of seasons players had to pick just six strikers each Week. Also, there was no blog to read. Players had it easy in those days. Enough of this nostalgia, let’s get on with looking at the current Week’s events.

REVIEW OF WEEK #9

For the second Week in a row a Salah double contributed more points to the Golden Boot Game than any other striker. Even Haaland who had five more selections, only two teams leaving him out, could not match the Egyptian king. Son, whose 24 appearances were one more than Salah, provided just less than half his points. Of the other eleven scorers, only Watkins appeared in more than half our teams (sixteen) but Wilson in twelve teams provided more points. With fourteen scorers, it is hardly surprising that every team found at least three.

Two teams had seven different scorers this Week, Lancashire Rover missing out with Hojlund and Magic Eight Balls with Gibbs-White. As the only team with Wood Lancashire Rover were able to post nine goals for their 41 points which was just enough to give them the Week’s prize ahead of Team Of The Weak whose own 41 points came from seven goals. Magic Eight Balls just missed out on forty points because they had only twelve from Salah against the top pair’s sixteen. It was all incredibly tight at the top of the Week #9 scoring with another five teams scoring over 35 points.

All New Goal Monkeys Deluxe retain their top spot in the overall standings by just two points after a below par Week. Team Of The Weak have to settle for second place overall, as well as this Week, but that’s two places up from last Week. Merrall’s Marauders drop to third but they are now just four points behind the leaders. Three points further back, fdringo have moved into fourth place ahead of Cheshire Town in fifth by a couple of points. The ten teams within two 8-point goals of the leaders are the same as last Week’s top ten in a different order. The good news for the nine chasers in this group is that, whether they moved up or down or stayed the same, they are all much closer to the leaders in terms of points after Week #9.

THE QUANTUM ACCELERATOR GAME

There were almost as many goals scored in the third Week of the Quantum Accelerator Game as in the first two Weeks put together. Magic Eight Balls were certainly not the only team to score most of their goals this Week but in their case eight goals and 24 points took them into a three point lead at the top of the table. Three teams who got seven goals this Week share second place: Weakenders, Bury Wanderer and J1J1. With their nine goals this Week bringing 27 points Lancashire Rover have jumped from thirtieth position to joint tenth. They are now just six points behind the leaders with 28 points.

In Week #10 the quantum value increases to four. Each goal scored by your team will be worth four points regardless of which striker scores it. Every team in the top half is covered by just eight points, the equivalent of two goals next Week. Magic Eight Balls were exactly six points behind last Week’s leaders at the start of this Week, so we know that a two goal swing does happen. At this halfway stage no team has put two good Weeks together which is why the leading teams have changed each Week. With the quantum value ramping up, now would be a good time to change that, especially for those teams in the lower half of the table with more catching up to do.

COMING UP IN WEEK #10

After five successive Weeks which started on Saturday, we open with a Friday night fixture in Week #10. Each Premier League club plays one match giving us the usual ten fixtures in the Week. The Friday night match between Crystal Palace and Spurs means the Golden Boot Game selection deadline for Week #10 is at 19:00 (7 pm) on Friday 27th October.

There are only four matches being played on Saturday, with the other five all being played on Sunday afternoon. The final match of Week #10 is the Manchester Derby. We will be updating our website shortly after the final whistle at Old Trafford.

We will publish our next weblog late on Wednesday 1st November. As usual, this blog will have all the Golden Boot Game news from Week #10. We will also have a look at the Quantum Accelerator Game as we approach the sharp end of this contest.