Neil Kelly’s Wet Bandits are beginning to look a tad invincible at the top of the Champion J-League after a weekend where Yakubu was the outstanding performer by a long shot.
Gameweek 14 review
Perhaps it’s a changing of the tide, or it’s simply a blatant exception before normal service resumes next weekend, but this week’s Dream Team featured the unlikely sight of a Blackburn player as top scorer, and by some distance too.
Things ain’t been so good around Ewood Park lately, but Yakubu provided a distraction to Blackburn fans normally preoccupied with the campaign to oust Steve Kean with four goals against Swansea at the weekend for a none-too shabby 21 points. The beefy striker isn’t always the most reliable, but he’s now on nine goals for the season and is a relative snip at just £5.6 million.
Elsewhere, the men in form continued their excellent run, with Robin van Persie landing a goal, two assists and three bonus points for 15 points, a total that was overshadowed by the 16 points scored by Arsenal colleague Thomas Vermaelen, who scored his third goal in four games and landed an assist for good measure.
Nearby in Norf London, Gareth Bale scored and set up another for 13 points, the same total as Wolves’ Stephen Fletcher, who rescued three points in unlikely circumstances against Sunderland with a late brace. Alongside Vermaelen, it was a good week for defenders overall, with both Robert Huth and Phil Jones scoring 15 points apiece for their roles in victories for Stoke and Manchester United respectively.
Champion J-League
There was some magnificent scoring in the Champion J-League this weekend, with only two teams of the top five, Jeff Roller’s ProContrarian and Conor Sheehy’s A Great Bunch’a Lads failing to make the 70 mark. The lead held by The Wet Bandits, marshalled by Neil Kelly, is beginning to get wider and a little more ominous looking for the pacesetters, although Eoin Keane’s Pallas United in second place led the fight this week with an admirable 82 points.
He’s followed by Kenneth Patterson’s Dirty Bagels and Jeff Roller’s ProContrarian tied in third, James Ward’s Hee Haw United and Conor Sheehy’s A Great Bunch’a Lads tied in fourth and Clive Earley’s Derryowen Hawthorns out on their own in fifth place.
This is not normally a forum on which to brag, but my own charges raced to the top of the JOE in-house league after a mighty 89 points at the weekend, a score which deeply frustrated my colleague Sean Nolan, who had both Yakubu and Van Persie and was sure he had the top score for the week only to come up four points short. Maybe next time, Sean.
Champion J-League Top 5
1. The Wet Bandits – Neil Kelly: 887 points
2. Pallas United – Eoin Keane: 865 points
3. Dirty Bagels – Kenneth Patterson, ProContrarian – Jeff Roller: 858 points
4. Hee Haw United – James Ward, A Great Bunch’a Lads – Conor Sheehy: 857 points
5. Derryowen Hawthorns – Clive Earley: 851 points
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
