Many thanks to Ian Galloway who has supplied me with data for every FFUK season going back to 2010/11.
Let’s get nostalgic! All this passion, all this competition, all this banter, where does it come from? Well as we will see from the names below, it clearly comes from commitment to the game, and a history of performing.
So let’s get to it, let’s find out who these names are!
This article started out as a request by one Tim McEwan, and gives us a chance to look back through the FFUK history books and find out why some of the key players in the FFUK League are considered so.
2010/11
Tim McEwan is my out and out Fantasy God, and here’s why. As far back as 2010/11 Tim was well on my fantasy radar, and I met him back in the 2nd round of the cup that year where he proceeded to beat me, but just by 24 points. Crazy to think that back then, there were just 32 players in the FFUK Cup, and this season we had 192 cup players.
So how did Tim get on that year? Well the likes of Donald Macauley, Olly Wimshurst, Jamie Stewart, Neil Stewart, James Page-Chatton and Mark Leathem all got knocked out in the early rounds, like me (Donald was knocked out by Mr Chris Galloway). Daron Russell did ok, making it through to the quarter finals, but it was Chris Galloway who beat Tim in the final by 39 points. Tim was alright though as he finished 5th in the league overall, with Chris 4th, and Tim also grabbed the Best Weekly Score prize too. Mark Leathem came 2nd that year, with Jamie Stewart taking the FFUK League title (Chris’ Uncle Duncan Galloway was 3rd).
2011/12
And so a pattern arises, from now on we start to see the same names cropping up again and again. The 2011/12 season saw a full deck of FFUK stalwarts finish in the Top 10 (those were the days hey Chris?)
The Top 12 was:
| Team | Manager | TOTAL |
| Auto Complete XI | Chris Galloway | 2,132 |
| Turning on the KYLE | Neil Stewart | 2,112 |
| Circumcision Sanchez | Jamie Stewart | 2,079 |
| PlsHammersdonthurtem | Richard Harrison | 2,071 |
| Mad Fish United | Ian Galloway | 2,025 |
| The Cock & Cider | Daron Russell | 2,018 |
| Boowaahdeahhs | Sean Griffin | 2,009 |
| White Pele | Tom Shepherd | 1,989 |
| Blacky Hawk Down! | Tim McEwan | 1,982 |
| King Kongs Finger | Donald Macaulay | 1,970 |
| All Blacks | Mark Hunter | 1,964 |
| The Jorkster | Olly Wimshurst | 1,957 |
Check that out! All these motherffukers (ahem) rinsing the prizes! Chris, both of Right Said Fred (Neil and Jamie Stewart), Tim McEwan, Daz Russell, and even the grandmaster Ian Galloway getting amongst it!
McEwan won the Cup that year with Chris taking the Best Monthly Score and Rich Harrison having Best Gameweek Score. Life was so easy then. Golden days.
2012/13
Let’s have a look and see if things got a bit more mixed up as time moved on.
WAHEY! I told you I’d won one prize before 2016/17 season and this was my year! Yep, I came runner up in Best Gameweek Score back in 2012/13 for a whopping £20 prize. Have that!!! But who won I here you ask, well Tim McEwan, of course. Tim did pretty well that season, 5th in the league, Semi-finalist in the cup (for £25), Best GW Score and Most number of Goalscorers too (shared). James Page-Chatton (JPC) won £30, and James Amar took £7.50 too. But big prizes went to Allan Tomkins (1st), Chris Galloway (2nd), Daz (3rd, Top Monthly Score, Goalscorers). Neil Stewart won the cup and came 5th in the league. No sight of Jamie Stewart (JDS) that season, maybe next year?
2013/14
By the 2013/14 season, the golden days had expanded and there were 64 people in the cup, although it still reads like a who’s who of FFUK. In January 2014, Round 3 of the cup, James Page-Chatton was playing Daron Russell, Ian Galloway plays Tim McEwan, Mark Leafy’s playing Duncan Hannigan, and so on. In the end Chris G won it, crikey, you’d think he’d get a big head winning all these prizes back in the day!
Ian’s closing headline for the season reads:
Neil pips long time leader Duncan in close fought contest!
Hannigan robbed by Stewart then! Still, 2nd place aint bad Hannigan! And there were Top 10 spots for Mark Leathem, Sean Griffin (his name seems to come up a lot too), Allan Tomkins and Tim McEwan (what’s happened recently?)
Duncan Hannigan also got amongst the other prizes though, winning MOTM, and Daz Russell took runner up in Best GW Score.
Now where did that Jamie Stewart go?
2014/15
Now this was the final season before Chris and I took the helm. Hmm, this is odd. No prizes for Chris for 3 seasons now (2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17), which must be tough considering he’d won prizes in four consecutive seasons prior to that point. I’m now slightly concerned that running the league is having an effect on Chris’s winning style. Strange as it seems to be helping me 😉
But yes, JDS was back in the picture with a bang, coming 2nd in the league in 2015/16, with Neil S taking top spot. This was the season when Neil nearly won the whole thing and I put posters of his baldy face up on my bedroom wall (I thoroughly recommend it). Anyway let’s try not to get too emotional about it all (or is that just me). Allan Tomkins came 3rd (as well as runner up in the Best GW Score prize), and Matt Cox was up there in 4th place too. More prizes for Rich Harrison (3rd in Best GW Score), Neil S (Best GW and MOTM – what a season!), and whodayathink but Tim McEwan finished 7th in the league too.
So seemingly things have changed a bit in the last couple of seasons, 2015/16 saw a whole host of new players getting in the Top 10, Paul Baker won for the first time, and a certain Lester Deeble appeared out of nowhere. Coxy and Harrison finished Top 10 but other than that it was all new names among the prizewinners; Sam Blake, Mark Turnbull, Loz Kelly, Jon Britcher, even Jay Cowpat!!! Harrison had already got runner up in MOTM for his epic December score while Coxy also won the FFUK Cup, beating Donald Mac in the final. Oh and JDS won the Challenge Cup.
So who haven’t we seen in a while? Well primarily Chris Galloway, but Tim McEwan, Daron Russell and Duncan Hannigan have all had a quiet couple of seasons. Any coincidence that Hannigan did particularly well in the season that Liverpool could (should) have won the league? Oh, and Daz hasn’t won anything since Fergie left.
Just trying to find a pattern between Everton’s form and McEwan’s but as there is no high point in Everton’s recent history it’s difficult to find a connection. Of course there’s no correlation between Chelsea and Chris, otherwise you’d think he might have done a bit better this season!
So that’s it, the rest is history, everything from the 2015/16 season onward is archived on this website. If you’re an uber-geek like me you might like to occasionally use the search box in the side menu, and search for particular articles, particular gameweeks, a players name (try Kane for example), or if you want to read every article I have ever written, then you can search by Pete Cronin. If not, well, you probably have something else to do.
We’ll see how everyone gets on next season, as we now have names like Nick Johns and Sean Colohan to engrave into the FFUK history. Will we see the heroes of the golden age rise up once again? I think Chris will come out fighting like a madman, and those under the radar Stewart brothers are sure to be working their dark arts. There’s plenty of room for a Norn Irishman in there, and if United and Liverpool do well we should expect to see some of our old friends. Still, if nothing else, I’d put money on Lester Deeble pulling success out of nowhere for a 3rd season running…
Best of luck to one and all!
FFUK 