Fantrax NMA-11 Cup: Round-2 Results and Round-3 Draw

DGW-26 saw a lot of points earned in Fantrax EPL’s NMA-11 league. This coincided with Round-2 of the NMA-11 Cup in which the 40 survivors of Round 1 fought it out to join the ‘Big-24’ in Round-3. As with the previous round, even though these were all originally low-ranked teams, there were some seriously impressive scores among them, including three above the magic 200 point mark for a DGW.

As usual, the head-to-head format produced a number of close games and a few that were extremely one-sided. While Team redstoglory (aka Charlton Athletic) strolled walked over Team Pikey666 (Colchester United) by a thumping 102 point winning margin of 172:70, Team Baziu (Port Vale) managed to overcome Cactus Functus (Exeter City) by a mere half-point, 132:131.5!

The lowest winning total for the round (most fortunate team award) goes to [TYF] Coolmend (Aldershot Town), which scored only 104 (119th for the week) but prevailed against Easton FC (Crewe Alexandra) at only 86 points.

Contrast that good fortune against that of MKH (Shrewsbury Town) who scored an excellent 197.5 points (27th for the week) but went up against the aptly-named Killer Quokka (Wigan Athletic) who did kill it with a score of 210 points, the best among the teams taking part in this round, and 16th best overall for the week.

Here are the results in full

Of the 20 teams that made it through this round, four ‘non-league’ teams are left, having so far made it through the qualifying round and the two rounds proper. These are Team CathalDonnelly (Weymouth), Team minhtruong (Eastleigh), Voetbal FC (Hungerford Town) and the most fortunate team of the round [TYF] Coolmend (Aldershot Town).

Round-3 Draw

The Round-3 Draw for the FA Cup is a much-televised event where a really small team already punching above its weight can strike it lucky with a tie against a legendary Premier League team. While there isn’t quite as much riding on our fantasy cup, I’m sure there are one or two managers hoping to draw a ‘top’ team so that they can cause an upset. [Editor’s note: I’m a coward who would rather a minnow and survive to “Die Another Day.”]

The pairings:

~

This random draw has spit out some intriguing fixtures, including two that pit a ‘Premier League’ team against a ‘non-league’ opponent:

• Team stallexpress (Arsenal) vs [TYF] Coolmend (Aldershot Town)
• cincyman (Newcastle) vs Team minhtruong (Eastleigh)

While the ‘big’ two will strongly fancy their chances, they also won’t want to be the victim of a major upset!

Blog editor Jeff will be hoping that his opponent doesn’t repeat the feat of being the top scorer for the round, as his Alehouse WAGs (Barnsley) takes on Killer Quokka (Wigan Athletic).

[

Editor’s note: We’re doomed!

]

I will be hoping that history doesn’t repeat itself, since remarkably my own team The Motley Crewe (Southampton) is pitted against Paphos Toffees (Leicester), the same match as in round three in last year’s competition, when the Toffees ran out comfortable winners.

Round 2 will take place in DGW-28, which runs from the March 5th to the 11th. At the time of writing, there will be six teams playing twice, so there should be plenty of points available, especially to short-sighted tactical teams that sacrifice long-term strategic value to win now.

So now is the time to start planning — at least line up a barn-door watch-list aimed at DGW-28!

~

Did you take part in Round 2? If so, how did you fare? Are you in Round 3? If so, let’s hear from you about your chances. Please log in and share in the comments, and try not to whine as much as editor Jeff! [Editor’s note: Quip written by editor Jeff :) ]

~