Back-to-back wins for Craig Johnson (aka Bouncebackability) sees him become the 2019/20 Head-to-Head champion!
Craig has a four-point lead over Simon Vazquez and with one round to go, he can’t now be caught. Many congratulations to him on claiming the Head-to-Head crown!
The Liverpool fan is set for his best FPL rank since he came 64th in 2014/15. It will be his tenth top 10,000 finish in a 14-year career.
Craig has led since Gameweek 10, when he went ahead of Owen Walker (aka Amateur Pundit Zan) on rank difference.
However, Owen wasn’t able to sustain his early season form – he started with seven wins out of seven – and now finds himself one point above the drop zone.
The bottom ten teams in each division will be relegated and any one of five managers in League 1 could still go down, from Glynn Sherwood in 11th to Olavi Oja in seventh.
Owen is the only member of this quintet to have his Free Hit chip available, although unfortunately for Owen, so does his Gameweek 38+ opponent Ryan Gallagher.
Nine managers are already relegated. And despite their valiant attempts to escape the drop, this includes Harry Vernon (aka Horse) and Liam McAllister (aka batmaniac).
Harry has the third-best FPL rank in the division and looked to have turned his season around following a poor start.
The Portsmouth fan was bottom of League 1 after the early season fixtures and by Gameweek 9 found himself 1,131,146th in the overall standings.
But as his FPL fortunes improved, so did his position in the table and by Gameweek 27 he occupied a place in the top ten.
However, lady luck hasn’t been on his side since the restart and five defeats in the first seven matches sealed his fate. Harry must now plan for life in League 2 despite a top 10,000 rank sitting tantalisingly within his grasp.
For Liam, it all came down to a crunch clash with Meet the Manager guest Richard Clarke in Gameweek 37+.
A point separated the pair in tenth and eleventh heading into the match, but Raheem Sterling’s haul together with 33 points from his defence, helped Richard claim victory in the relegation six-pointer.
Among those battling for promotion to the top flight is Geoffrey Dance (aka Geoff).
The King of the Fantasy Canucks (copyright GreyHead) is one of four managers hoping to join David Arblaster, Cam Black, and Tim Hill in advancing to League 1. But first Geoff must overcome fifth-placed Ville Tuominen.
In Division 2 of League 2, Mike Udberg, Milan Mihajlovic, and Peter Murphy have secured their spots in the premier division for 2020/21.
Meanwhile three managers find themselves simultaneously in a promotion race and a relegation scrap! It’s sure to be a tumultuous final weekend for Sakari Uutela, Ian Emamalie, and Shaun McGrath.
A reminder that if managers are tied on points, rank difference will be used to decide league position.
Leading Performers & Unlucky Losers
Managers in the Head-to-Head leagues continue to get better: there’s been an increase to 23 bosses in the top 1,000 and 211 in the top 10,000.
And we have three managers in the top 100 overall. Well done to Kristoffur Sørensen, Damjan Rupnik, and Adam Warner who are all, coincidentally, in League 6. In Divisions 1, 5, and 15 respectively.
Out of the 5,983 taking part in the mano-a-mano competition, none have amassed more points than Abdullah Tamin. Currently ranked 30,914th in FPL, Abdullah leads Division 1 of League 8 with an impressive 93 points out of a possible 111 despite a rare defeat in Gameweek 37+.
Among the unluckiest managers is Kimi Ahtinen in Division 52 of League 7.
At 1,442nd overall, the unfortunate Manchester United fan will be relegated to League 8 as he is five points from safety with only three available. Kimi has 127 more FPL points than Tony O’Donovan, the Division 52 champion.
And a top 10,000 rank hasn’t been enough to save Neil Preston from dropping down to League 6. Neil’s only managed 48 points in Division 16 of League 5.
Finally, spare a thought for Sigurd … who despite five wins since the resumption, hasn’t been able to overturn a 15-point pre-shutdown deficit in Division 19 of League 7. Ranked 2,001 in FPL, the elliptically-named manager will be slugging it out in League 8 in the forthcoming campaign.
A fixtures table will be published in the Scout’s Guide to Gameweek 38+ ahead of the deadline. However, if you can’t wait to find out who you are playing next, follow this link. Use your browser’s find in page function (Ctrl+F) to locate managers.
All this information and more is contained in the main Head-to-Head leagues page, which will be updated with results shortly after the Gameweek ends.
Fantasy Football Scout Mini-Leagues & FPL Title Race
Chris McGowan (aka Queens of the South Age) is the World number one heading into the final Gameweek of the season. And Chris was kind enough to speak with Neale ahead of what promises to be a nerve-racking last day of the season.
With his Triple Captain to play, Chris has a two-point advantage over second-placed Joshua Bull. Although Joshua has his Wildcard available.
Third-placed Aleksandar Antonov appeared on this week’s Scoutcast sharing his thoughts on how to bridge the nine-point gap to first – without the help of a chip.
World chess champion Magnus Carlsen is fourth and, like Aleksandar, chip-less for the final round.
The Fantasy Football Scout mini-league is second in the table of the Best Leagues in FPL, just two points off the top.
An average score of the first five teams is used to rank the mini-leagues, so congratulations (and thanks) to Chris McGowan, Aleksandar Antonov, Mathew Brigham, Mark May, and Bill Wilkins. Bill replaces Rok Krasna in our top five after captaining Sterling for a score of 93.
Impressively, all five managers feature in the top 13 overall.
There are currently 44,151 people participating in the Fantasy Football Scout mini-league, to join them enter code ooyz44 in your Leagues’ section on the FPL site.
Nathan Woollaston is a non-mover at the summit of our Members mini-league. But he’s now level on points with Pro Pundit Lateriser12, Nathan retains first place because he’s made fewer transfers than the upside-chasing manager: 51 v 70.
The code to join the Members League can be found on the Members page.
Ismail Hossain Rase regained the number one spot in The FFScout Charity Shield. He’s eight points ahead of world number seven Mathew Brigham as Baz McCormack drops from first to fourth.
Ismail has scored 703 points in the eight-Gameweek period since the restart, including an excellent 138 points using his Bench Boost in Gameweek 30+.
Free annual memberships will be awarded to the managers who finish in the top five places. Just two points separates Baz in fourth from Tomas Galkus in eighth.
The league started scoring in Gameweek 30+ and was set up, in part, to help raise money for the NHS. Donations have so far reached £720 including a £300 contribution from Fantasy Football Scout. Thank you to everyone for giving so generously. Should you still wish to donate please do so via our JustGiving page.
Fantasy Football Scout Cup
The final of the Fantasy Football Scout Cup took place in Gameweek 37+.
And our congratulations go to Powell, who lifted the trophy after defeating Manisaspor by 81 points to 72. While Sharpey triumphed in the third-place play-off 69-63 over Joax2 to claim a share of the £300 prize money.
Neale brought us a full review of both matches earlier in the week.
Community Mini-Leagues and Competitions
TorresMagic announced on Thursday that Brazilian Eduardo Cruz has been crowned this year’s winner of the Last Man Standing competition.
Huge congratulations to him and the three other finalists: Dylan Penhallurick, Blasting Wand, and John Drinkwater. They were the last four to remain standing out of the 5,108 managers who took part.
Thanks to TorresMagic and also Ragabolly, for allowing managers to keep tabs on the action via his website Live FPL.
Aside from bragging rights, Eduardo will receive a free Fantasy Football Scout Membership for the 2020/21 season.
Unbelievable Jeff FC and BSC Small Boys (in the park) FC will contest the final of the Pundit’s Play-Off Community Tournament in Gameweek 38+. Beaten semi-finalists Nirvana Scott Talent and Blame it on Rio battle it out for the bronze medal.
It’s been a fall from grace for The Keane Fifteen, who finished nine points clear at the top of the overall leaderboard but have since suffered back-to-back defeats in their knockout matches. They now find themselves in the unglamorously-titled “You’re Ropey League of Shame” third-place play-off.
Despite a small red arrow in Gameweek 37+ I’ve managed to slightly increase my lead at the top of the FFS Mods & Cons mini-league. I take an 11-point advantage over Fantasy League maestro Gareth Butler (aka Clouseau) into the final day.
But a special mention to Az, who has moved up to fourth place in the mini-league following an excellent 95 points. The Pro Pundit and Scoutcaster has gained a total of 246 points in the last three rounds to jump from just inside the top 100k to within touching distance of the top 10,000.
Rok Krasna retained his position at the head of RedLightning’s Top 10k Any Season mini-league (league code m0tq9y) with a 21-point lead over Adam Warner (aka Bury94). Both managers are in the top 100 overall.
And Manchester United fan, Rok, continues to reign supreme in PDM‘s Top 1k ANY season mini-league (league code eejnyz), 30 points in front of Shirin Nizar (aka Chelsea Guy), who sits just outside the top 100.
Third in both of the aforementioned mini-leagues, Svein Roald L Usken (aka Firminoooo), remains first in Chaballer’s Top 1,000 HoF League (league code beeps2).
On his tail, 23 points behind, is Tom Stephenson in the silver medal position.
The pair are 722nd and 54th respectively in the Career Hall of Fame.
Champions and Pro Pundits
Pro Pundit Simon March has a comfortable 39-point cushion in the exclusive FPL Champions League. The former FPL titleholder is pursued by 2012/13 winner Matthew Martyniak in second, but with his Free Hit chip in hand, Simon will feel confident of becoming the Champion of Champions.
Az’s 95 points was the biggest Pro Pundit score in Gameweek 37+ but Lateriser12 remains the best ranked of our FPL experts. The high-flying manager moved up a few places to 26th overall.
2020 Mini-Leagues
In RedLightning’s January to July League, which started scoring in Gameweek 21, Dave Dolman (aka Derbydreamers) will be hoping to bridge a 23-point gap in the final round to overtake me at the top.
He’s hotly pursued by Shirin in third and Danny Mallon (aka Pep Pig) in fourth, the three managers are separated by just four points.
The league will remain open for any others who wish to track their progress in the second half of the season, the code you need is aafkpq.
Ria Breeze is just top of The Last Ten, which started scoring in Gameweek 29. But Faisal Idris and Lilstylo Harvard are both now level with her on points. Faisal hit a century in Gameweek 37+ after captaining Harry Kane for an excellent 104 points.
Two hundred and twenty-seven teams, including last season’s winner Ted Maw (aka Rotation’s Alter Ego), have entered so far. The code you need to join is p4unsq.
Submissions
If you are running a community competition and would like the latest scores included in future Round-ups, please email us a summary of the current leaders and a link to your league, spreadsheet or head-to-head competition to geoff@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk
Thank you very much to RedLightning for his contribution to this article.
Best of luck in Gameweek 38+!
3 years, 8 months ago
Another great write-up TM - thanks! 🙂