Why Pardew went

I think I have mentioned this before but I have an old mate close to goings on at Southampton, close both financially and emotionally so after various snippets of information over the summer it was no surprise to me when I heard on the radio of Pardew's sacking early this morning.

Everyone's outright favourites, the Saints have had a sketchy, if hardly disastrous start to their Div 3 campaign but the timing of the dismissal of Pardew (his 3rd in 4 years) after their 4-0 stuffing of Bristol Rovers the weekend is odd to say the least.

There isn't much doubt that Pards' ego is as big as Hampshire but whilst his mind games and convincing turn of phrase got him his own way at The Valley Pardew came up against a fierce adversery in Saints' CEO Nicola Cortese.

Cortese came to St Mary's after new owner Markus Liebherr appointed Pardew as manager last summer and the two did not hit it off. Pardew liked the fact that Liebherr was going to be an absent benefactor but he didn't account for the fiercely ambitious and fiery Italian.

When Liebherr tragically died a couple of weeks ago, things changed for the worse for Pardew, who as one has come to expect had surrounded himself with a myriad of support staff (a couple of whom were fired last week). Since Liebherr's death Pards' has been on countdown and once the mourning was over the CEO's focus was on the manager, who insider's felt would get the boot at the end of last season.

I was told that Markus Liebherr was the restraining hand on the aggressive young Italian CEO who didn't bond with Pardew and disliked his self conceit.

Saints' fans appeared shocked and disappointed on Sky Sports News today. As we know Pardew was easy to love, easy to follow. We hung onto his rhetoric until we became mistrusting. Reading and Hammers' fans likewise.

Southampton sold their full 2,500 allocation out at Bristol Rovers on Saturday, my mate was one of them. This despite a poor start but the fans showed up because the general feeling amongst them was they looked good but had been unlucky and there was still plenty of confidence that under Pardew promotion was to be a certainty.

Before Saturday Cortese's mind was made up and Pardew was history. He walks away with his reputation further tarnished but with another big cheque burning a hole in his pocket and ironically most Addicks probably feel today's news has only enhanced one of our rival's promotion chances.

Photograph of the week

Craig Bellamy blocked by Man City to join any Premiership rivals, shocked the football world by joining home town club Cardiff City (who haven't got a pot to piss in) in the Championship and scored on his debut.

Odds

I popped down to my local Ladbrokes* and picked up the betting odds for the 2010/11 N&R FL. They were as follows:

N&R FL Div 1

Keith Read 5/2

Neil Reynolds 7/2

Greg Foulger 4/1

Kirsty Baillie 4/1

Barry Paull 5/1

Mark Simmons 5/1

John McGowan 11/2

Steve Black 6/1

Brett Davey 8/1

Barry Plummer 8/1

Ryan Saveall 9/1

10/1 the field

N&R FL Div 2

Feldbruegge/Malloy 3/1

Ben Guarino 4/1

Sarah Sheron 9/2

Brian Rutter 5/1

Glenn Francis 5/1

Hilary Flynn 6/1

Andrew Cassell 7/1

Danny Stock 7/1

Alan Waters 8/1

Steve Merchant 8/1

Chris Waterman 9/1

10/1 the field

Remember these are Ladbrokes* prices! If you fancy a flutter, then Keith may give you some of his own odds!

Hand of Godd

Week 1 - Manager of the Week

We wonder how many MoW Pete Godfrey has won over the years? But his 61 points from the opening week of the 15th N&R Fantasy Football season gave Godders another fiver to add to his retirement fund.

Two managers were second in the week's standings. Danny Stock and Sarah Sheron (considered by my local Ladbrokes as one of the favourites for promotion). They both scored 53, new boy Andrew Cassell scored 51 and Davor Duvancic and Steve Merchant hit 50.

Emma Sadler had an excellent first ever N&R week with 49, a point more than Feldbruegge & Malloy. Week 1's scores made a mockery of the divisional splits as it was only in 9th place that we got our next Div 1 manager and that was Ian Kennett.

On that note, the week's worse score came from the top echelon, Richard Nathan is an early candidate for the season's lowest weekly score with 13, four less than Aaron Barden.

Godders does his very best Ian Holloway impression

N&R FL Division 1 - Week 1

Old fantasy stalwart Godders is the early leader in Div 1 and our very own Ian Holloway after the first week's scores. 61 and a 13 point lead for Pete and whilst his team are yet to be titled, 2nd placed Ian Kennett wins the prize for the longest team name. Nortius Maximus and the Wody Webels lie in a nose-bleed inducing 2nd place with 48 points.

In joint 3rd are two of last season's title challengers Steve Black's Guinness & eggs and Johnny Mc's Loads of Roubles. Last season's runner up Kirsty Baillie's Glasgow kiss is 5th alongside Chris' Brox Branditos and a whole host of dodgy looking characters share 7th place.

They are Mark Simmons' AON United, Jimmy 5 Bellies, Rob's To Elland Back, Scott Morgan's Machines and Francey's Keep the faith.

Ex-champions Neil and Gooner win league and Soozie's Sizzlers are in close contact with Dewbs' Racing Hiccups, Ryan's Hip Hip Hooray, Greg's Boys on tour and reigning N&R FL winner Hannoi Utd all settling in well.

At the arse end of the table and in an early relegation battle is Razor's Red Roy's Rovers, Torres Rosso, Arsene Knows and the yet unnamed effort from Jason Syrett.

Double S - Sheron and Stock lead the way

N&R FL Division 2 - Week 1
Out of the gate first in week 1 was Sarah Sheron's Suffolk n good and Danny's Stocky's Starlets both scoring 53 points in the first seven days. Can they keep it up?

Andrew Cassell's Blunty 11 was two points short of the early leaders with Davor's Calculated Risk and Steve Merchant's FFC 4 ever in joint 4th. Our latest dame, Emma Sadler and her Superstars start well on 49 points with one of the division's favourite's the Windy City duo Feldbruegge and Malloy in 7th.

Wardy's Bingo FC, Chris' experienced Californication, Richard's Capello Index, Alastair's Chart This Int'l and Neville's Still not a chance all had sprightly starts.

Down at the bottom is Michael's No Hopers with 18 points. Just above are Muzza's Hammer Nation, Hill's Pure Irish and Richard's Mad Ricks XI. Don't worry, it's a marathon not a sprint.

Week 1 review

Chelsea kicked off week 1 where they left last season smashing six goals past yo-yo experts WBA. Drogba scored a hat-trick and Malouda got two.

Villa without the principled if slightly wacky Martin O'Neill still beat West Ham 3-0. The Hammers were toilet mind and Milner scored on his farewell. Kalinic scored for Blackburn in their win over Everton, Late goals from Dann and Ridgewell gave the Bluenoses a 2-2 draw at Sunderland.

Wolves beat Stoke 2-1, whilst Spurs and Citeh kicked the season off with a 0-0 draw, Joe Hart fully deserving his clean-sheet added points. Bolton and Fulham played out the most boring game of the week and the result that brought the biggest smile, was Blackpool's 4-0 stuffing of Wigan. the Tangerines went top for a few hours in the process and the sale of the Seasiders' Gazette hit record numbers.

On the Sunday 10-man Liverpool drew with Arsenal and on Monday Man U, proudly wearing Aon shirts beat Newcastle 3-0 with goals from Greg Case (2) and Steve McGill.

Movers and shakers

Mark Wenman after working for 16 Fac brokers after leaving Aon around about 5 years ago, has finally run out of employers and went back to the beginning of the yellow pages and recently rejoined Aon Benfield working with Rutts.

I for one am happy to have him back in the Aon family. Good luck Wenners.

Welcome

Welcome back those of you that are old N&R friends, and also a warm welcome the many of you that are newbies.

Keith and I are very happy to have back in our man bosoms old N&R FL mates Alan 'Muddy' Waters, Tony Murray and past champion Brett Davey.

Also new to all of this fun and frolicking are Ken Cobbett, Neil Addington, Neil Bixby, Mark Gregory, Neil Wallis, Alastair Bigg, Emma Sadler, Andrew Cassell, Danny Stock, Richard Stirland, Ricky Wood and in case we don't have enough Richards, Richard Richards! Welcome all.

As a recap, over there on the left of this page we have various links for you to peruse, and use in helping you become the newest N&R FL champion. This blog is the go-to place for all N&R FL news and opinion and general piss taking. If your employer blocks it for whatever reason, then let us know.

I will email you the latest weekly tables around and about Thursday of each week, with a link to all of the latest news and screws on the blog. Don't be alarmed if you don't get the table by Thursday as occasionally I have to do some work. As well as the league(s), we will have prediction competitions, cups, company team trophies and allsorts of wasteful activities. The prize monies will be announced later in the season.

That reminds us, if you have not yet paid your 25 notes or 40 greenbacks, then please get them to me or Keith as soon as possible. I would rather you paid me online either into my UK, US or offshore bank account.... details on request but Keith is more than capable (sometimes) of collecting hard cash and not forgetting!

The transfer deadline is 6pm BST and 1pm CST each Tuesday. You are only allowed 12 transfers over the course of the season.

And finally, we like the N&R FL to be as interactive as possible, email us with any suggestions, funnies, announcements, gossip, photos, articles, links.. whatever and we will publish or use if suitable or funny.

The very best of luck to you all.

Nobby 441 504 0215
Ready 07921 700549

N&R FL Divisions 1 & 2

Ask me to find a policy wording and I might look at you a bit funny like, but ask me for the Nobby & Ready Fantasy League table from the 1998/9 season, then I will have that not too far from hand.

I spent a couple of plane journeys last week going through 14 years of final N&R FL league tables to decifer which managers will contest the two divisions for this season. Using average placings I managed to split the 60 managers into two divisions of 30 in the fairest way, with any new managers having to start on the bottom rung.

In previous years, most of you will know that Keith and I have split the managers into all sorts of formats at different times in the season, mainly to keep the interest up and also further spread the prize money around. It wasn't always the fairest way but if you were 30th of 60 managers in March, then at least you had a crack at winning a few quid and in the end the best manager always won the most money.

This season will be different. There will be no mid-season split as we have split the managers already. But there will be competitive promotion and relegation battles which will result in where you play next season as well as title and other prize money challenges. We expect also, to run some sort of play-off's towards the end of the season.

We hope you accept what we have done, tough titties if you don't and the first week's scores will instantly tell you which league you qualified for.

The very best of luck for the season.

Road to Wembley - The Poachers scramble Teversal

After holding Teveral to a goalless draw away last Saturday, Bottesford Town dispatched the team from Nottinghamshire on Wednesday night 3-1 at Birch Park in front of a huge crowd of 85 people and 3 dogs (13 more than watched the first game) and were rewarded with a home tie against Barrow Town of the East Midlands Counties League.

The Preliminary Round game will be played at Birch Road on Saturday 28th, August.

N&R Road to Wembley - Bottesford Town

Usually the first blog post of the new N&R FL season is our pick for the Road to Wembley. For newcomers basically we pick a team and then follow them or their conquerors all the way to the final in May at Wembley

This year's luck entrant is Bottesford Town, who play their football in Div 1 of the Northern Counties East League. They are based in Scunthorpe and nicknamed the Poachers.

They take on Teversal, which is an old miners sports and social club from Mansfield away in the FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round on Saturday at 3pm.

It goes without saying if you are in the Mansfield area on Saturday afternoon, then please pop along to cheer on the Poachers and especially watch out for Mark Anderson, whom I have it on good authority will score on Saturday!

My South Africa 2010 thoughts

I will admit it was hardly matadors versus total football, but I found the World Cup Final quite riveting. Blood, thunder, sweat and tears.... it was all there and I was glad it was won within the 120 minutes and not have to go to the lottery of a penalty shoot-out.

Of course I was saddened by the Dutch defeat but less bothered by the way the Dutch played than almost everyone else. 'It was dancers versus thugs' screamed Italy's La Repubblica.... Kettle. Black. The Dutch were the inferior side but they set out to win the game, in fact Robben's pace nearly brought them the title. Some of the tackling was X rated, but the constant diving by the Spanish in my mind destroyed any moral high ground the Spanish may have deserved.

It was a terrifically hard game to referee but I thought Howard Webb did pretty well in the circumstances, although how it took until the 109th minute for a red card is a mystery. I felt that Webb tried hard not to be centre-stage but it was difficult when he was (mostly correctly) blowing for a free-kick every 3 minutes.

In many ways the Final summed up the whole tournament. It often took us to the periphery of something special but the competition never took off. South Africa will be remembered as magnificent hosts, but despite home advantage the nation's teams made no impression, although South Africa's victory over France was one to cherish and Ghana are young enough to come again.

France were rubbish, Italy and England just abysmal, but that wasn't entirely unexpected in Italy. We just got a reality check, but don't worry 'the best league in the world' starts in a few weeks and the FA can go back to finding that hole in the sand their head was buried in before June.

South Africa 2010 will be remembered as the stage the big stars flopped with the world watching. Rooney, Torres, Kaka, Ronaldo, Drogba, Eto'o even Messi each saw their stock fall.

Mexico, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand all left good impressions. The young Germans were scary good and must be a shoe-in for the Euro's in 2012. Spain were worthy winners although they passed the ball impeccibly for such long periods that when the ball was finally moved into a goalscoring position, their forward men were half asleep. Impressive that David Villa was, he still missed plenty of good chances. Anyway wasn't it Catalonia that won the cup?

For people like me that think Brazil and Holland should throw tactics out of the window and just play expansive kamikaze attacking football, then we were disappointed, especially with the Brazilans and Dunga paid the price. Perhaps we are seeing a seismic shift in South American football following the admirable displays from Paraguay, Chile and especially tiny Uruguay.

Of course Diego Maradona did not let us down. Passion, desire, humour, he's a complete wacko and obviously has never taken a coaching course in his life. Too busy having 'fun' I suppose?

So lasting memories for me was the god-awful television coverage we had to suffer in Bermuda, although the commentator who did every game, I suspect from his front room, did a first-rate job.

The 'round' jabulani ball ruined almost every long distance shot and pass, unless you were Diego Forlan. Even in yesterday's game, the 64th of the tournament Casillas mis-judged a long distance free-kick when the Dutch turned the ball back after a stoppage. Now that would have been funny and one in the tentacles for Paul the octopus.

Despite some horror stories of wet concrete, empty seats, terrorist attacks and crowd trouble we were given a wonderful spectacle from some magnificent stadiums and settings. I just hope the poxy vuvuzela doesn't travel so well.

Sepp Blatter may have brought the World Cup to South Africa but the way he held off President Jacob Zuma to present the trophy to Spain last night reminded us all of what an egotisical chauvanist suit he and others at FIFA are. The FA aren't much better.

Anyway to finish, I have picked my World Cup XI based on the games that I saw. What do you think?

GK: Maarten Stekelenburg (Netherlands)
DEF: Sergio Ramos (Spa) - Carles Puyol (Spain) - Ryan Nelson (New Zealand) - Philipp Lahm (Germany)
MID: Xavi (Spain) - Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany) - Arjen Robben (Netherlands)
ATTACK MID: Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands)
FOR: Diego Forlan (Uruguay) - Thomas Müller (Germany)
MANAGER: Joachim Low (Germany)

Photographs of the week

Ready drinks (a lot) to his success last Thursday in Leadenhall Market and is joined by Ryan Saveall in the 2nd photo celebrating Bluefin's team trophy.

Correction

Firstly let me just say how much fun last Thursday was. Thanks to all of those for coming out, and those that missed it, well at least you didn't have to endure Ready drinking Cider out of his 3 trophies.

Now importantly on the morning of the End of season prize giving and piss up, it came to our attention rather embarrassingly that one of Kirsty Baillie's Glasgow Kiss transfers was inputted incorrectly resulting in the last couple of week's scores being incorrect.

This was a big clanger. It didn't affect any MoW's, Team Challenge or the Europa League but it did change the top 6 positions of the Champions League, as Kirsty moved from 6th place to Runners Up! Huge apologies then to Steve, Tim & Dennis, Barry and Lee, this was a rare slip up.

So a new table was attached to the email and the revised top 6 is as follows:

1. Hannoi Utd 1,476
2. Glasgow kiss 1,465
3. Guinness & eggs 1,457
4. Frank & Beans 1,453
5. Paris Eagles 1,451
6. Tanus Terriers 1,438

For those of you that haven't been paid prize money, I will be in contact individually shortly.

Apologies once again, but thanks for another great N&R season.
Nobby & Ready

Revised honours table

Following on from the stewards enquiry, the prizes will now be distributed as follows:

The N&R Champions League
Champion - 220 and the famous N&R FL trophy KEITH READ
Runner Up - 150 KIRSTY BAILLIE
3rd place - 110 STEVE BLACK
4th place - 85 FELDBRUEGGE/MALLOY
5th place - 60 BARRY PAULL
6th place - 50 LEE HORNE
7th place - 40 NEIL REYNOLDS
8th place - 30 MARK SIMMONS
9th place - 25 JOHN McGOWAN
10th place - 15 ALAN OAKLEY
11th place - 10 GREG FOULGER
12th place - 10 SCOTT MORGAN
25th place - 10 CHRIS WRIGHT

The N&R FL Europa League
Winner - 60 MARK DEWBERRY
2nd Place - 40 SOOZIE SYRETT
3rd place - 30 RICHARD NATHAN
4th place - 10 SARAH SHERON
58th place - 10 STUART KILPATRICK

Others Prizes
N&R Cup Winner - Trophy KEITH READ
Benfleet Bet Winner - 25 MARK DEWBERRY
Team Challenge winner - Team trophy BLUEFIN
Best weekly score - 25 SARAH SHERON
Worst weekly score - 25 ALEX BOSWELL
N&R Celebrity Death Pool - 25 TO BE CARRIED THROUGH 2010
Oldies Qualification winner - 25 KEITH READ
Young 'Uns qualification winner - 25 FELDBRUEGGE/MALLOY

40 x Manager of the week - 5 each, shared equally if tied and listed below:
LEE HORNE (2), HILARY FLYNN, DAN MARTIN, JOHN McGOWAN (3), TIM HARRIS (2), DAVOR DUVANCIC (2), KIRSTIE BAILLIE, SCOTT MORGAN (2), ALEX BOSWELL (2), MARK SIMMONS(2 + 1 shared), GLENN FRANCIS (1 + 2 shared), STEVE BLACK, STEVE MERCHANT, LEE BAUGHAN, ALAN OAKLEY (shared), SARAH SHERON, FELDBRUEGGE/MALLOY, BRIAN RUTTER, NIGEL TATLOCK, CHRIS WATERMAN, IAN KENNETT, CHRIS WRIGHT, BARRY PAULL, PAUL KELLEHER, NEVILLE WHITE, MARK DEWBERRY.

*All denominations in GBP
**Nobby and Ready will retain GBP 25 or USD 40 for next season's entry fee unless you state otherwise.

Thank you

Well there it goes.... Whoosh! Another season gone. Thank you to everyone that took part, the winners, the losers, the nearly's, the if only's, the quiet ones, the noisy ones, those abroad, those of you that call the beautiful game football and if you must those of you that call it soccer.

We had 59 managers this season, and some of those have been there since the mid-90's and most have hung around for most of the past decade. The Nobby & Ready's Fantasy League is not just any old fantasy football competition, it is about friendships, it's about connecting old mates around the world, it is a laugh and we get a kick out of it otherwise we wouldn't do it.

As I have said before, for Keith and I the N&R FL has been for many years a vein between our various times living overseas. Those veins now stretch as far as Australia, Mexico, USA, France and frequently Thailand. Thanks for keeping in touch, it means a lot.

A big thank you to Mark Simmons for keeping score. Simply we couldn't do this without him.

Thank you also to Aon for sponsoring Man Utd to the tune of $100m. I didn't get a pay rise but at least everyone will now know who the fcuk I work for.

Enjoy the South African World Cup and we will see some of you tomorrow night.

Nobby & Ready xx

Reminder - End of season prize giving and drinks

Don't forget and please pass onto anyone that knows me (or blondes that don't), that Keith and I will be hosting end of season drinks and prize giving this Thursday, 27th May from 5pm outside the New Moon.


We both really look forward to seeing you and we will be collecting entry money for the N&R FL 2010/11 season.

The Special One - Ready claims treble

Breaking news8888888The N&R Champions League Final Scores - the top 12

I will take considerable pride and no doubt plenty of ribbing in presenting Ready with 3 (THREE) trophies tomorrow night after he became the first ever N&R manager to win the domestic treble - The N&R FL league title, the N&R Cup and the Team Challenge Trophy.

I feel I need to add that in 14 years I, Nobby, have never won anything, a few quid aside, yet I see all the teams, all the transfers and all the tables. Nor has Mark Simmons, who does all of our scoring. Yet this is Ready's 3rd N&R FL title after winning it in 2001/02, 2003/04 and now 6 years later.

Of course our very own 'Special One' will have trouble getting his head through the door of the New Moon, and I fully expect him to be wearing a Mourinho style Ralph Lauren suit with a blue and black tie with the top button of his shirt undone. The specks of grey hair have been there a while though, in fact specks of hair would be a better description!

Hannoi Utd (and yes he knows it is spelt wrong) were in the top 12 for all but 11 weeks of the season. One week he got as low as 20th but he used his transfers well - a mark of a true champion - and spent 4 weeks in 6th in March biding his time.

A big week 33 propelled Keith into 3rd behind Tanus Terriers and leader's Frank & Beans. Glasgow kiss was next to take the driving seat but Hannoi Utd hung in there as the title race got tighter and tighter. Steve's Guinness & eggs joined the fray as did Paris Eagles but in week's 38 and 39 when it really mattered Keith took advantage of slip-ups by Kirstie and Tim & Dennis to claim what become an unassailable lead and took the 2009/10 title by 19 points. Well done mate.

Vodka Hooligan, Glasgow kiss and Frank & Beans all slipped backwards before the finish line, which allowed Guinness & eggs to come up on the rails to claim a fantastic 2nd place. Steve bettering his 10th finish last season. In 3rd was long time leaders Frank & Beans. The Chicago boys were top for 15 weeks, more than any other managers, but ran out of transfers but Tim & Dennis can be very proud of their campaign.

In 4th was old bar steward Barry Paull. One of our original punters, Paris Eagles spent up until Christmas outside of the top 12, then had a purple patch before dropping back again. But they finished very strong and with an armful of Chelsea players in his team Barry snatched 4th on the last day of the season.

Tanus Terriers had a very strong season. Our first league leader in August, he maintained a top 12 place for each of the 40 weeks (only Frank & Beans managed the same) and moved around the top 5 until the early part of this year periodically claiming top spot. During March and April we thought his title aspirations were done, but Lee came strong again in one last push and finished 5th.

Ah, Petal. What can we say. We once before had a female champion (Soozie in 2005/06) and for many weeks we thought we were going to witness another one as Glasgow kiss gave a lesson on how to play fantasy football. Kirsty was very consistent from around week 15 through to almost the last two weeks. Top for 7 weeks including weeks 36, 37 and 38 and with a fortnight left she had one hand on the coveted trophy but our little haggis stumbled badly and ended up in 6th (she was 3rd last year). Unlucky Pet.

Finishing in 7th was last year's champion Neil Reynolds and Gooner win league. Neil had a very slow start but to me he was always a threat, and he made his move into the top 12 at Christmas but was still very much on the periphery until week 32 but he left himself with too much to do and couldn't emulate the then joint management team of Godfrey and Rose, the only managers to be able to retain this so sought after title.

In March and April Vodka Hooligan was putting in some very solid performances and became a strong contender. Mark burnt his transfers though and as others around him got stronger, he floated backwards slightly and ended up 8th, which was a huge improvement on last season.

I've promised myself that in a dull summer moment I will go back through all 14 years of N&R FL and see who has been our most consistent performer. I will hazard a guess that Johnny McGowan will be very high in that list.

Loads of Roubles last four seasons have seen finishes of 9th, 4th, 3rd and 7th. This season he spent oodles of weeks hanging around the prize money positions, but never higher than 4th. John also ran out of transfer opps but a 9th place finish is nothing to sneeze at. In 10th was our only team that is sponsored. Old Bodeanians were a bit of a surprise if I am honest. But then again I don't know why I say that because last year Oakers finished 7th, this year 10th. But for every year before that he was down the bottom. Hmm, nurse check his blood..

11th came our man from Mexico City Greg Foulger. He will be disappointed I am sure. Last season Boys on Tour came 5th, the season before 7th. Some of us would die for a top 10 slot but I am sure Greg will go back to his bottle of Tequila and plot another challenge next year.

And the final prize money went to Morgan's Machines in 12th in Scott's virgin N&R season. He played almost the whole season high up the table and it was a fine effort for the Aon Benfield boy.

The Champions League sob stories

Breaking news8888888The N&R Champions League Final Scores - 13th to 26th
In 13th and just 5 points short of a cash prize was Jason Syrett's Gunner Bag It. Soozie's older brother improved on last season as he did throughout this campaign. Never once featuring in the top 12 others will be more downhearted that they didn't collect a prize. Namely one Henry Williams, a smartly dressed young Villa fan at Chartis who spent 31 weeks mixing it with the hoi polloi in the upper echelons but Aston Globetrotters couldn't dig it and all out of transfers they fell back to 14th place.

15th was yours truly Bermuda Addick, which is actually pretty good for me. A marked improvement on past years, if only I could completely dedicate all my time to blogging, fantasy football, drinking and eating then.... Oh what's that? Oh, I do....

Rather embarrassingly in my shadow was Lamb to the slaughter, who found a superb burst of form for around 16 weeks in the middle of the season. Actually Glenn was top for 5 weeks (longer than Ready) but despite 4 transfers in his closet, he fell steeply away in early April never to recover. 17th was Harry Houdini who showed early promise. 3rd in week 7, Tim also never used all of his transfer options and will be left with what onlys.

In 18th came previous champion and one of the pre-season favourites Pk's Mexican Banana Split. A slight lift in week 15 gave us all false hope but Paul's season never exploded into life. I blame Gemma. In Tatters proved again how consistent Nige can be but he will be hoping to climb to the next step on the ladder next time out.

Another ex-champ Godders looked like reinventing the good old days during the winter months when he reached 2nd place in week 25 but Godders@mobileemail.vodafone.net went backwards from there unfortunately. However his career has gone forwards and we look for a strong challenge next season from one of our first ever managers.

In 21st finished the real Special One. Ben went out on his own this season and had a relatively good season but he will be looking for more luck in the tranfer market next time. 22nd was probably one of the most relieved men in the league! Normally to relieve himself Rob needs to be watched, but that's another story. No stop it, To Elland Back are relieved because finally Dirty Leeds are out of the cesspit that is the 3rd Division. Well done again mate and better luck for the next N&R season.

Davor, my favourite Serbian gypsy was our 6th and final manager who had the pleasure of being top of the N&R FL at one time this season. W Wallace Boys sat tall (very tall) and pretty (not so pretty) on top of all 59 managers for 4 weeks in November and December, but firstly Dav struggled when most of his players left for the African Nations and he didn't react quick enough and then by the end of January he was jettisoned out of the top 12 and could not find a way back.

Arsene Wenger and Danny Rose have something in common. No, not little boys. Yes, they are both trophy-less again! Arsene Knows last real title challenge was way back in 2003/04. Come on Dan, now you have Godders doing all of your work for you there will be no excuses next season!

Chris' Student Ninja had a decent season and won a tenner for making the penultimate place so I'm not going to knock him. Not as good as mine or Ready's (better than Hilary's and Rob's) but his school report will read "can do better." And finally FFC 4Ever. What an incredible season for Steve's Fulham eh? In fact at one point I thought we had a young Woy Hodgson on our hands as Steve excelled himself around Christmas. 96 points he scored in week 20 and was then 3rd. Steve made transfers but sadly he couldn't match Hodgson's achievements, but does he care? Probably not.