Strikers Keepers, Losers Weepers – The Grand Final

Crash! Bang! Whallop! The Community Tournament ends with a flurry of goals, gasps and even a smidgeon of controversy as the 2021/22 Champions were crowned.

All this and there was still individual glory to be claimed with the race for the golden boot and glove to be decided and everyone wanting to avoid the dreaded spoon.

There were even final day street parties amongst the teams to either celebrate or commiserate with their newfound comrades, Boris sensibly steered clear, perhaps his namesake should have taken the same approach.

THE RESULTS ARE IN …

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Shearer’s bunch of Flowers 6-0 Fantastic Mr Fox

The Flowers bloomed on finals day as Danelius led his pollen-powered superheroes to a comfortable six nil win, the captain’s WhatsApp chat was awash with regular updates as goal after goal went it to see them crowned victors.

The manager’s selection was spot on again and as fitting for their collective approach during the campaign it was a team performance with all the goals coming from the squad with Mreidfelt, Potatoace, FPL_Nitesh and WightBear all scoring in the 80s.

The H2Hs saw Pedersen act as a human wall to stop anything getting past him and my player of the tournament AJ, he scored 2020 over the course of the competition, more than anyone else and came 41st in the world overall, will be disappointed he didn’t score on the final Sunday.

You can see the full glory of the team below, and the trophy as provided by our sponsors here at Fantasy Football Scout will be winging it’s way to you shortly.

A nod here to the defeated finalists Fantastic Mr Fox, they stayed out of the limelight, shunned the MVPs and instead kept together their tried and trusted squad of wily FPL managers and were very unlucky not to win it all! Commiserations on getting so close but I’m sure you will be back next year to try and outfox us all again.

YOU’RE ROPEY LEAGUE OF GLORY (formerly known as Shame)

Toxic Seaman 11-0 Carroll’s Christmas Island

This is where the controversy kicks in as the runners up competition was hastily renamed, pretty much against everyone’s wishes apart from mine. Boris and the Hamsters are busy consulting their legal team but in return I am playing the “it’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to” card.

Whatever the trophy is called this was a proud victory for the Toxic Seaman with the “Perfect One” Giles Wanlin scoring a hat-trick, Top Marx getting, well, top marks for keeping a clean sheet and FPL Corf finally getting some pitch time after spending most of the season on the bench to score 89 and help us score 8 squad goals.

A disappointing end to a fine season from the Carroll’s Christmas Island led by FPL Hints, although I suspect his decision to bench LTFPL Andy’s 82 points in such a big game will not leave him with much festive cheer.

THE WOODEN SPOON

Rooney Tunes 0-4 Hanging by a Fred

This was a tale of desperation with the two teams squabbling like naughty children to avoid ownership of the dreaded kitchen utensil. Pete Richards, captain of the dangling Freds made himself goalkeeper and kept a clean sheet and then in a masterstroke made Harvard his striker who scored a goal.

It was then over to the squad, could Speedy and the Tunes strike up the right notes and turn it round? No. No, they couldn’t, and more goals flooded in with PeteGriff an outstanding performer on 97 points.

The spoon is yours Speedy, you can run but you can’t hide.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK AND THE TOURNAMENT

The week belonged Gilles Wanlin for his last day of the season hat-trick which lifted the You’re Ropey League trophy for the Toxic Seaman, he was also the only manager to hit triple figures.

As for the battle for the Golden Boot and Golden Glove, you can see below that while Suvansh (Krul Intentions) finished second in the race for FPL glory he was the king of our particular castle with an impressive 18 goals over the season. TedTalks was said to be fuming!

Recognising our spectacular shot-stoppers, we see Haydn Owens (Ayew Lonesome Tonight) was the worthy winner of the golden glove, the trophy is on it’s way to you sir, so I hope to have reserved a place for it on your mantlepiece or at least your downstair toilet.

Finally, I can share the top FPL point scorers over the competition, obviously Suvansh was up there but was beaten to no.1 by AJ, as for the rest there are some notable names in the high echelons and I suspect that Lateriser, Fabio and Seb Wassell will be high on the shopping list come next season’s draft.

THE OSCAR SPEECH

With a tear in our eye, we wave goodbye to this year’s competition, so allow me this self-indulgent Oscar moment to thank friends and family, although I suspect Boris will turn it into the Will Smith slap moment when he realises, I’ve changed the name of the You’re Ropey cup.

Anyway, on a serious note it’s been a brilliant competition and I wanted to thank the team captains for running their squads, submitting their teams, some “interesting” banter on the various WhatsApp chats. You have made the competition!

A big thank you to Geoff and the team at Scout for sponsoring and funding the silverware this year, all the MVPs that got involved, Az and Mark for broadcasting the first-ever live draft on BlackBox, Lord for his epic weekly bulletins, Top Marx and FPL Panda for stepping in with some spreadsheet technical know-how and the tournament committee Nino, Toby and Arywn for keeping us to the rules.

I know I am going on a bit, but the biggest note of appreciation should go to Boris Bodega, he puts hours into the competition and makes it what is, whilst I just taking the mickey out of his obsession with Ben White.

That’s it for now, enjoy the rest and we’ll be back…..