I grew up watching the 1988/1989 Season Review VHS, resplendent with horrific graphics and a distressingly short pair of shorts on Paul Merson. It meant I was familiar with Mickey Thomas's last minute goal even before I really understood exactly what it meant.
This Sunday, I had a wedding that I had belatedly been invited to. The ceremony started at 3.30. You have to be kidding me I thought. The missus wanted me to drive into town and so I told her that the deal was that no talking whilst the football was on the radio. Apparently missing the ceremony and arriving later after the final whistle was not an option. This is how my afternoon went:
Spurs scored approaching Baker Street. No worries....I was concerned with only one result. A minute later, I got the news I was waiting for. Yossi (accordingy to Radio 5, Gervinho. Idiots) had put us ahead at WBA. Then another goal from the Hawthorns made me punch the steering wheel. Stuck in traffic, moving about 40 metres in 10 minutes and the football going all wrong.
Needless to say, my reaction to going 2-1 down was even less dignified. We then parked up and went in to wait. I would say there were maybe 80 women waiting, and around 15 men, most of whom were over 70. So I settled down, had a look at Twitter - Santos. Boo Ya. Rooney & Zabaleta. Boring...City gonna walk this one. Newcastle collapse - care...it's all about our win. My stomach had woken up in knots, and by this point was doing it's best Red Arrows impression. Half-time - right, I thought, let's get this wedding sorted, you have 15 mins. GOOOOOOOO.
That was wishful thinking. It took over 45 minutes in the end. I (along with 70% of the male guests, who had arrived literally at the last minute) flitted between the ceremony and my phone, subtly located inside my jacket. Koscielny. GTFI. Keep it tight boys.
Ah, balls. I've been clocked and getting the death stare from the missus. Phone into pocket. Come on. come on....yes yes happily ever after. COME ON. Ceremony finishes, and as we head to the reception, I checked the scores. Spurs 2-0. Forget that then. Man Utd still 1-0. City are losing? Lol...but never mind that. We're still 3-2 up. 10 to go. My heart's joined the protest now. I went into the reception and found a corner, all alone.
Gunnerblog tweets "WBA put the ball in the net....offside". My howl of anguish dies in my throat. Full times come in. Bolton are down. Boo Hoo. Spurs win. Newcastle lose. Gibbs makes a block. Twitter goes mad. Must be some block. This is killing me. 5 minutes of injury time. I'm going to explode. Seriously, who puts a wedding during the final matches of the season. 3 to go. City score. Even so, can't believe they bottled it at the last. 2 to go. Free kick to Arsenal in the Arsenal half. Now is the time Szcz, for a yellow for time-wasting. COME ON....I can't refresh fast enough.
FT: WBA 2-3 Arsenal. Ah thank the lord, the tension literally melts away. The breathing gets deeper. My heart slows. We didn't screw it up. Refresh to see the comments.
Shut up. Shut up. No bloody way. Aguero? 2 goals in 4 minutes? City ripping the red ribbons off the trophy, tearing Fergie's hand away like the playground bully....can't touch this. Bloody hell. Amazing. I don't care - we've got 3rd place!!!!
Time for alcohol.
As the comedown continued, it sunk in. City's win wasn't a surprise, but what a manner to do it in. It's been talked to death, but I suppose if you have to wait 44 years for a title, why not do it in a fashion memorable outside your own fans. Cruel on Man Utd, but they've been there before. Spurs fans apoplectic with their season's conclusion. Understandable. A lesson on when to give it out duly delivered by the fat lady. Liverpool, er yeah. 14 losses. More than 1 in 3. Big decision there on Dalglish's future. I'd get rid, but I didn't grow up idolising him. Emery is available after leaving Valencia and I'd go with him.
Chelsea have the chance to ruin Spurs' dreams but I'll be supporting Bayern all the way. If only Fat Frank had told Terry to do one when he asked about lifting the trophy. Norwich did well all season, Wolves shuffled away (great left field appointment by them with Solbakken). Joey Barton is a disgrace and I don't understand why the police rarely get involved in stuff like this.
Enough talking, time for results. It was a record-breaking week this week, fittingly, in many way.
This week, 24 people played (RECORD)
Most popular predicted result: Chelsea WIN (24/24 or 100% concordance)
Most disputed result: Everton vs Newcastle and Swansea vs Liverpool (7-11-6 and 7-6-11split respectively)
Longest odds: Josh Daniels (6166/1)
Shortest odds: Sam Ruback (347/1)
Average odds: 2448/1
Best predictor: JT (9/10) (Levelled RECORD...well done mate!)
Worst predictors: Will O'Doherty, Dan Davis, Naphtali Torrance & Ben Grabiner (5/10 - not bad for the worst performers)
Average Score: A season high 7/10 (6.71/10)
Best predicted result: Chelsea WIN (24/24)
Worst predicted result: Stoke vs Bolton (6/24)
Villain of the week: The only result JT got wrong was the Stoke vs Bolton draw. He went for a Bolton win, and therefore terrible refereeing from Chris Foy (again!) to allow Walters' first goal cost him (and our...shared achievement) a 10, and a win at 1311/1. Is now a good time to mention that I claim 10% of all winnings? Desperately unlucky.
Everyone's results:
As always, only those who played >2/3 of weeks were eligible, so 26 weeks were needed. Ryan Wain just slipped in, but remained rooted to the bottom. Joe Miller is the inaugral champion, with a score of 5.30, the only regular to get >50% right on average. He's been at the top more or less all season and is a worthy winner. I'm still looking for a not extortionately priced trophy for you. Nick stays in 2nd place, whilst JT and myself share 3rd (I'm higher as I played more weeks). Doron Salomon's 1st week in the table sees him jump into 5th spot, followed by Dan Davis and Yanik Joshi. All of whom beat Lawro over the course of a season. Joel Salomon and Feneley stagnated somewhat second half, Will O'Doherty will be disappointed to have slipped so far down that Sam Ruback overtook him on games played. My baby brother ensures that family bragging rights stay in their rightful place for another year.
I've also compiled a second table giving everyone's scores who didn't play enough to qualify above. It's ordered by Games Played, and then Score.
Ben Grabiner did pretty well over 16 weeks, as did Jonathan Chernick over 12. WhoScored.com and the EuroClubIndex also looked good - much better than Lawro! (although rounding up/down, they both are only right ~50% of the time). Marc Joss had a great last 3 weeks...let's see if he can reproduce that over a full season and Tharshan Thavagnanam showed his maths brain off...but only over 4 games 'cos he's also a lazy sod.
Thanks to everyone who played at all this year, obviously, this would have been a total flop without your participation and I hope to see you all again, every week next season!
Finally, I'd just like to ask for a little feedback if you have the time, looking to next season already on how to improve this game.
Everyone's results:
As this graph shows, it was a really good week, with everyone outperforming there average. It was great to have so many people play - 34 players in total this season, and if we exclude Sir Bobby Charlton who's unlikely to play every week in future, that's 70% turnout. I'd love to have you all back next season along with any friends you have who may be interested.
To the final leaderboard:
As always, only those who played >2/3 of weeks were eligible, so 26 weeks were needed. Ryan Wain just slipped in, but remained rooted to the bottom. Joe Miller is the inaugral champion, with a score of 5.30, the only regular to get >50% right on average. He's been at the top more or less all season and is a worthy winner. I'm still looking for a not extortionately priced trophy for you. Nick stays in 2nd place, whilst JT and myself share 3rd (I'm higher as I played more weeks). Doron Salomon's 1st week in the table sees him jump into 5th spot, followed by Dan Davis and Yanik Joshi. All of whom beat Lawro over the course of a season. Joel Salomon and Feneley stagnated somewhat second half, Will O'Doherty will be disappointed to have slipped so far down that Sam Ruback overtook him on games played. My baby brother ensures that family bragging rights stay in their rightful place for another year.
I've also compiled a second table giving everyone's scores who didn't play enough to qualify above. It's ordered by Games Played, and then Score.
Ben Grabiner did pretty well over 16 weeks, as did Jonathan Chernick over 12. WhoScored.com and the EuroClubIndex also looked good - much better than Lawro! (although rounding up/down, they both are only right ~50% of the time). Marc Joss had a great last 3 weeks...let's see if he can reproduce that over a full season and Tharshan Thavagnanam showed his maths brain off...but only over 4 games 'cos he's also a lazy sod.
Thanks to everyone who played at all this year, obviously, this would have been a total flop without your participation and I hope to see you all again, every week next season!
Finally, I'd just like to ask for a little feedback if you have the time, looking to next season already on how to improve this game.
- What was good? What was bad?
- How could this be easier?
- Would you like email notifications? Twitter? Facebook? Too much harassment? Too little?
- If you didn't play that much, why? Was there anything missing for you?
- Would you be prepared to contribute if I looked to build this more? Either skills (ie web stuff) or say £1-2 towards upkeep of a proper purpose-built site?
- Too much waffle from me?
- What stats would you like to see that weren't provided?
- Cup competitions?
Obviously I don't expect huge reports, just any help you can give me to make this even better would be really appreciated.
Thanks once again guys, I really appreciated all your support throughout. Until next time.
