SESL season 28 kicks off 4th February 2012

 See Wiki now for full season 28 schedule,  

and a rough guide to player values on Wiki click here

David Blair shall be the official Assistant Commish for SESL season 28. 
Managers may email the EF coach with any questions or concerns, and can ask David advice on a potential trade.

Click here for OLMEC INVITATIONAL launched March

Send your friends to ODFL training league: season 4 March-April  2012

League Match Reviews from Matches 41 and 42 by Peter @ HEA

 THE KING IS BACK !!!!! MISTERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR DAVE “the king” Dowson (is this enough mention Dave ?????)  Ok back to the serious stuff, 3 weeks ago Motherwell had 5 league points and were rooted to the bottom of the table, most people would have bet their wives errr girlfriends on Dave winning the wooden spoon. If the league had started 3 weeks ago Mot would be top of the table, they have scored 16 out of 18 points. Mot need to make up 8 points to escape the drop is this possible???  I personally think Dave has left it too late, THERE IS ONLY ONE that I would put money on escaping and that’s the MASTER ABE’s Mr Ross – but all the best Dave

Let’s have a look at the top of the table as that is where the king of kings will be crowned, GM is still flying high and have managed to keep their 5 point gap over AI and even gave up the cup run to focus on the league, AI are matching them win for win and are still in the cup but they have the players and backup players to win both, its going to be a great run in with AI playing GM in the last week of the season

The battle at the bottom is very exciting, between the last relegation place, position 13 and position 7 there are 6 points separating them so 6 teams outside the bottom four could easily get relegated so a nervous 3 session for at least 8 managers !! each point will count !! and it could even go down to goal difference

Some of the important games we had were SM vs QP, SM ran out 2 – 0 winners which I feel has relegated QP and given SM a chance to escape. Then we had Mot vs Hun – Huntly had the chance to move away from the relegation zone but Mot wanted this more and they won it 1 – 0 which has brought Hun so close to the drop and Mot so close to escaping ! Then we had Heart vs Fra – Fra came to get the points and took and early lead but Hearts kicked into gear which makes it almost impossible for Fra to escape and moves Hea further away.

In the second session we had QP vs Mot, Mr DD has got his team firing and they beat QP 2 – 0 to put another nail in that coffin and opened the door slightly to them to escape. Then we had another huge game between Huntly and Hea’s and what a great game !! it end 2 – 2 which was not a great result for either team but it keeps them both just above the relegation zone. Then a very interesting game Dum vs DFA a few weeks ago I said I could see DFA getting relegated , if DFA had of one this game they would have moved clear of the drop zone but Dum who have been creeping towards the drop zone hammer DFA 6 – 0 which kept DUM out of the zone but it pulled DFA into the group of players who are fighting to escape the possibility of playing next season in division 2

We are all set of a great finish to the season with a lot of big games to come !!

This weekend we had 56 goals scored, 24 yellow cards handed out OUCH !! but only 1 red card

Amazingly we only had 1 hat trick and that was Dum Martin McNiff who scored 3 goals in Dum hammering of DFA, Rangers Jelavic is still the runaway leader of the Golden boot with 25 goals, he scored another 4 goals this session and is 7 goals ahead of his closest rival.  

Div 2 League Match Reviews from games 41 and 42 by David @ EF

4 teams took all 6 points today with Clyde making a real stab at promotion after winning at home against Ayr United (Franceour in the 54th minute being the matchwinner) and following up with a brilliant 2-1 away success at Dundee. Nagamura (8) and Franceour (36) being their heroes despite Brown equalising on 22 minutes. This allowed them to close the gap on the top 3 as none of the teams above gained full points today.

Stirling remain top after an indifferent day - they won 2-0 comfortably away to Aberdeen - Wilkins getting both the goals on 27 and 30 minutes, but then they surrendered all the points at home to Queen of the South. Craig opened on 19 minutes for Queens but Cuellar and Bergkamp took the Albion into a 2-1 lead by the 49th minute. Then Reidford was red carded in the 65th minute to change things - Brighton scored from the penalty spot and 2 minutes later McAllister scored what proved to be the winner. By now Queens had already walloped Livingston by 4-1 - Carmichael (1) and Rios (33) had them 2 up at the break before 2 more from Brighton in the 46th and 85th minutes finished the game - even though Wilson pulled a goal back a minute later for the Livvi. 

East Stirlingshire and Celtic were the other 6 pointers and both had wins over East Fife - Celtic scored in the 1st minute through Forrest and then relied on GK Forster to keep the scoreline intact, whilst a similar story at East Stirlingshire saw the Shire score through Sheerin (41) and Donaldson (62) with Docherty pulling one back with 17 minutes left - in both games their opponents GK was MOM on a day the Fifers really found out Olmec doesn't like them.

Celtic also won 3-0 at home to Clydebank through goals by Commons (6), Stokes (28) and Kayal (87) whilst East Stirlingshire won their 2nd game away in style at Montrose. Gary Hooper scored 4 of them in the 15th, 24th, 50th and 87th minutes and allowed a goal by Turner in the 38th minute to interrupt his scoring spree. A 5-0 drubbing for the Gable Endies and an ordering off for Leyden after 25 minutes made it a day to forget for them.

Bottom club Nairn won another game today to really put the squeeze on the 4 clubs above them. After going down in Perth to St Johnstone by 3-0, Tangukio in the 4th and 27th, and one from Suarez a minute before Tangukio's 2nd was off set by Nairn winning 1-0 at home to Montrose - Bentley in the 22nd minute being the only scorer, and they even had the luxury of Gronkjaer being red carded with 6 minutes left to go. 

Clydebank were thumped by 4 clear goals at home to Arbroath. After Harkins had opened for them in th 17th minute they had Cunningham ordered off with 38 minutes gone. This did not deter them much as Sammon (41 and 89) and Kelly (84) rubbed salt into the wounds.

Arbroath then played out the division's only 0-0 today away at Ayr United. St Johnstone scored first at home to Aberdeen through Duberry in the 39th minute but the Dons came back in the second half with goals from Brown (45) and Rooney (60) to snatch the points.

Livingston won by a single goal at home to Forfar Athletic, Maxi after only 4 minutes was the main man here, and in the last game Forfar had a good home victory over a Dundee team today that gained no points but still managed to stay in 2nd place. The win by Forfar puts them in 3rd place only a point behind the Dens Park men. Kempes (3) and Templeman (18) had them comfortable by the interval and a 2nd from Kempes in the final minute just added to their goal difference.

Stirling remain top on 47 points, with Dundee (43), Forfar (42), and now Clyde and Aberdeen (40) still in contention.

At the foot Nairn still hold everybody else up but have narrowed the gap - they hve 20 points, followed by St Johnstone (21), Montrose (22) and East Fife (on freefall with 23).

In the Golden Boot competition Jovanovic leads with 18 goals (24 matches) followed by Cuellar (STI) on 17 and McIntosh (DEE) on 14.

There were 43 goals scored today - only 4 less as last weekend - with the 4 red cards and 25 yellow ones.

Div 3 League Match Reviews from Match 41 and 42 by Ricky at STE

Only 6 games to play after this weeks results. Still everything to play for across the league. The title race looks like it will remain a two horse race, but looks set to push all the way to the final week. The hunt for promotion places, both automatic and play-off remains tight and at the bottom DEV may not be able to score, but still can save themselves the disgrace of finishing the season as the worst team in SESL.

DEV have scored just 7 league goals in 24 games. Sean Pierce is frustrated and down on his luck, as the lone striker in a club with issues! A light world away from top of the table Stenny who have scored 81.

But Peterhead are struggling in a big way too, not a win in sight for them. The next 5 teams that make up the teams ‘challenging’ for bottom spot have put a little distance between them now. DEV (18 points) and PET (21) have a lot to do if they are going to climb from bottom. With a win over top of the table Stenny this week, Albion are on 24 points. Partick, Brechin and Berwick are all on 25 and Buckie have 26. Cowdenbeath can consider them out of that bottom group, but also out of the top group. Currently sitting in no mans land on 30 points after their first win in 5 (3-0 v Buckie!)

Robins form at Ross County continues to be erratic which will probably cost them a play off place at the end of season. Similarly it may be Annan’s poor goal scoring record that costs them a place. They have conceded barely any, but the strength of the squad deserves to score more.

But at this stage every team seems capable of dropping points, Falkirk, Alloa, Stranraer and Hibs still have a huge amount to do and I think from here managerial skill will play a bigger part than ever. Forget squad strength, there isn’t that much in it, forget endurance, players are going to have to be pushed hard, this will come down to key tactical changes during the match-time. There are some experienced managers in their battling for a place in Division 2, there are many more twists and turns to come, theres no doubt of that!

At the very top Elgin are making a nuisance of themselves, now just 2 points off top. Two more wins, all be them slender wins piles the pressure on Stenny who slipped up against Albion. Stenny persist with the high scoring, high risk strategy, which inevitably costs them on occasions. Only 2 teams in the league have conceded more goals than them!

Craig Frizzell’s odds of finishing leagues top scorer get shorter every week, now 4 clear at the top. The season has been kind to us as far as injuries are concerned and it continues, at this crucial point in the season only 1 current injury (Buckie), but as normal, a lot of suspensions kicking in!