CUPDATE – LATEST AFTER GW14

After one of the craziest Gameweeks in memory, Gameweek 14 of season 20/21, it felt remiss of me not to follow it with a cupdate. What’s even more remiss is that I haven’t put virtual pen to WordPress paper since October! My bad ….

As always, the latest in the cups can be followed on the separate cup pages of this site FFUK.me, for the FFUK Cup click here and for the Milk Plate click here. These have both been updated more regularly, or on the Google sheets for each competition, which for the FFUK Cup is available here, and for the Milk Plate is available here.

After Gameweek 14 we are now four weeks into the December Gamemonth. Most other Gamemonths would be over by now, but this December is a monster with as many as six Gameweeks contested – a marathon not a sprint this one. The FFUK Cup is in and around it’s third round now, so let’s take a look at how things stand:

Manager	Points		Manager	Points		Leader
Michael Moors	282	vs	sean colohan	266		Michael Moors
John Willson	281	vs	John Barry	260		John Willson
Daniel Green	273	vs	Jack Mosley	260		Daniel Green
Liam Green	268	vs	Jez Penn	287		Jez Penn
Shane Newton	234	vs	Mark Harrison	296		Mark Harrison
John Parkinson	241	vs	Clayton Deakin	261		Clayton Deakin
Andy Jackson	277	vs	Tom Ryan	226		Andy Jackson
Alan Flack	241	vs	Daron Russell	300		Daron Russell
Andy Caulfield	230	vs	Marcus Blowers	234		Marcus Blowers
Chris Webb	277	vs	Marc Phillips	228		Chris Webb
Harrison Drake	216	vs	Stuart Allen	305		Stuart Allen
Dean Cummings	263	vs	Toby Glicher	219		Dean Cummings
Liz Colman	236	vs	Vladimirs Voronkovs	247		Vladimirs Voronkovs
Andrew Tracey	226	vs	Tom Galloway	225		Andrew Tracey
Ben Wright	204	vs	Joe Warrington	275		Joe Warrington
Tina Whitehouse	242	vs	John Gleeson	262		John Gleeson
Kevin Ryan	262	vs	Steve Cronin	263		Steve Cronin
Nick Hardie	220	vs	Kevin Trotter	254		Kevin Trotter
grant lawrie	247	vs	Andrew Fogaty	259		Andrew Fogaty
chris galloway	284	vs	Philip Redgrave	252		chris galloway
Ashley Read	234	vs	mark leathem	241		mark leathem
Sam Parker	245	vs	James Downie	256		James Downie
Jim Wheat	271	vs	Peter Hayes	262		Jim Wheat
Stan Packham	254	vs	Sam Blake	288		Sam Blake
Dave Windsor	257	vs	Nick Johns	246		Dave Windsor
Ameet Shah	278	vs	Kevin O’ Reilly	299		Kevin O’ Reilly
Matt Packham	240	vs	jon bryant	232		Matt Packham
Vince .Siracusa	258	vs	Sam Clegg	272		Sam Clegg
Neil Gordon	268	vs	Richard Green	235		Neil Gordon
Jordan Davison	225	vs	Malek Mansour	245		Malek Mansour
Mike Cowans-Kebby	218	vs	Alex Sadlier	247		Alex Sadlier
Danny Burgess	251	vs	Chris Lovegrove	205		Danny Burgess

Stu Allen currently leads the December Gamemonth in FFUK with 305 points, so pity his poor cup opponent Harrison Drake. Harrison has managed just 216 points and trails Stu by 89. Stick a fork in this one – it’s done! Other big deficits abound: Joe Warrington leads Ben Wright by 71, Mark Harrison leads Shane Newton by 62 and Daron “Dazzer” Russell leads Alan Flack by 59. Difficult to see a way back for me, Clive for those trailing any of these fixtures.

Some fixtures are seriously toight though! Both Andrew Tracey and Steve “Statto” Cronin lead their fixtures by a solitary point from Tom Galloway and Kevin Ryan respectively. The average deficit though is 27.25 points, so in most cases there’s plenty of work to do for those in arrears as we head into the Christmas period.

The Milk Plate is currently into it’s second round. After four of six Gameweeks in December there are some really interesting ties being played out:

Round 2 (in progress)		Round 3 (as it stands)
December		January
Manager	Points	Manager
Ross Smith	197
vs		Jamie Cooper
Jamie Cooper	207
		vs
Ally Edwards	193
vs		Josh Paxman
Josh Paxman	278
Glenn Johnson	236
vs		Karl Austen
Karl Austen	253
		vs
Dan Hardwick	269
vs		Justin Mc Carthy
Justin Mc Carthy	283
Bernard Perry	214
vs		Jack Slade
Jack Slade	255
		vs
Mark Tarbox	256
vs		Mark Tarbox
Jonathan Butterworth	206
james simpson	246
vs		Joe Hammond
Joe Hammond	249
		vs
Gareth Taylor	239
vs		Paul Reid
Paul Reid	279
Steven Almond	276
vs		Steven Almond
Danny Finnigan	225
		vs
Cian Walsh	223
vs		Stephen Mealor
Stephen Mealor	261
James Prebble	191
vs		James Sheridan
James Sheridan	295
		vs
Josh Prentice	255
vs		Josh Prentice
Harvey Smith	244
Jack Rackley	218
vs		Jamie Davis
Jamie Davis	264
		vs
Philip Dewsnap	215
vs		Max Walker
Max Walker	248
John Stevens	275
vs		John Stevens
Andrew Russell	216
		vs
Yabah Turnbull	274
vs		Matt Baldwin
Matt Baldwin	280
Iain Sanderson	257
vs		Iain Sanderson
Scott Volker	154
		vs
Christopher Pilling	238
vs		Christopher Pilling
andrew downie	221
Paul Browne	231
vs		Paul Browne
John Gordon	200
		vs
Steven Mountford	208
vs		Dan McBrearty
Dan McBrearty	260
James Nalepa	249
vs		Joseph Mulhern
Joseph Mulhern	280
		vs
Damien O’Neill	239
vs		DRAW
Matthew Shaw	239
Sean Griffin	239
vs		DRAW
Kaine Sinclair	239
		vs
Daniel Gunner	221
vs		tom newman
tom newman	225
Chris Smith	301
vs		Chris Smith
Alex Kassner	264
		vs
Tim McEwan	238
vs		Donald Macaulay
Donald Macaulay	261
Matthew Page-chatton	171
vs		Craig Sharman
Craig Sharman	180
		vs
Oliver Gordon	254
vs		Oliver Gordon
Brendan Ryan	206
Matt Reid	241
vs		Matt Reid
Daron Taylor	222
		vs
Robert Simpson	247
vs		Robert Simpson
Haroon Rashid	221
john Harper	253
vs		john Harper
Chris Norman	252
		vs
Roy Browne	207
vs		Paul Taylor
Paul Taylor	253

First of all, check out the two ties that are currently level. Not only are these two ties next to each other in the draw, the scores their managers are level on ARE THE SAME! That’s four managers, all on 239 points, in consecutive places in the draw. What are the chances! (I’ve checked and it’s kosher). There are two more Gameweeks to separate the Damien O’Neill vs Matthew Shaw and Sean Griffin vs Kaine Sinclair ties otherwise we’ll go back to their scores in the November Gamemonth to separate them.

I’ll tell you who the luckiest manager in the Milk Plate is at present. Craig Sharman. Craig has 180 points in the December Gamemonth. That’s pretty shoddy by anyone’s reckoning. It places him 236th out of 245 in the league. He’s still winning his tie though, by dint of his opponent doing even worse! For shame Matthew Page-Chatton, and your 171 points, for shame! If the winner of this wants to progress against your Oliver Gordons or your Brendan Ryans they’re going to have to do a whole lot better than that!

Top scoring in the Milk Plate so far this round is Chris Smith with 301. That’s better! Alex Kassner trails him by 35, so this one isn’t quite done yet. The Iain Sanderson vs Scott Volker tie is though. Iain leads Scott by whopping 103 points. Ain’t no phoenix rising from those ashes! Most ties could best be described as one-way traffic, frankly, although aside from the draws another one is especially toight: John Harper leading Chris Norman by just a single point.

Time, I feel, for an FFUK Champions League update as well.

I’ve already described in a previous post how the competition works (although I’ll run through this again as we get closer to it’s start point in Gameweek 26) which you can find here, together with details of how to qualify. There are a total of 79 places up for grabs and 40 of these have already been taken:

	Qualifiers	How
1	Grant Lawrie	Top 20
2	Paul Baker	Top 20
3	Jamie Stewart	Top 20
4	John Parkinson	Top 20
5	Tim McEwan	Top 20
6	Justin Mc Carthy	Top 20
7	Pete Cronin	Top 20
8	Damien O’Neill	Top 20
9	Jamie Stephens	Top 20
10	Nick Johns	Top 20
11	Ben Carter	Top 20
12	Jordan Davison	Top 20
13	Samuel Breen	Top 20
14	Chris Webb	Top 20
15	Steve Coffen	Top 20
16	Dean Cummings	Top 20
17	Richard Green	Top 20
18	David Harrison	Top 20
19	Peter Hayes	Top 20
20	Stan Packham	Top 20
21	John Willson	Cup winner
22	James Downie	Cup winner
23	Theo Allen	Junior Champion
24	Nick Maston	MOTM
26	Tom Ryan	MOTM
27	Steven Almond	MOTM
28	Mark Storrar	MOTW
29	Matthew Shaw	MOTW
30	Brian Collins	MOTW
31	Jon Bryant	MOTW
32	Sam Parker	MOTW
33	Rob Latuske	MOTW
34	Rob Harding	MOTW
35	Chris Galloway	MOTW
36	Michael Moors	MOTW
37	Tom Henshall	MOTW
38	Richard Harrison	MOTW
39	Joseph Mulhern	MOTW
40	James Simpson	MOTW

Note that both Joseph Mulhern and James Simpson qualified with their joint league-high score of 105 points in Gameweek 14. Managers who tie for each qualification place (e.g. highest Gameweek score or Manager of the Month) all qualify – there’s no tie-breaker. It’s also worth re-iterating that you can only qualify once. If you qualify via an additional and subsequent route (as three managers have done so far: Grant Lawrie, James Downie and Tom Ryan, that place DOES NOT pass to the next highest-scoring manager. You must qualify by right not by being the next cab off the rank!

The exception to this rule is Gameweek 24. This week represents last opportunity to qualify for the FFUK Champions League before it kicks off in Gameweek 26 (giving us a bit of breathing space to do the draw). There will likely be 15-20 places left in the competition by this week and those places will go to the managers with the highest scores in that Gameweek – so mark your diaries, and if you’re not in by then get those chips at the ready!

Other ways to qualify include being the highest scorer in a Gameweek or a Gamemonth or getting to round 6 of the FPL Cup (this kicks off in Gameweek 16).

Stay tuned for more updates. If you’re still in one of the cups, good luck and keep an eye on the google sheets and cup pages.

This is the way.

Bakes