Written by member: Big B 1970
Despite playing in nearly every one of the 45 seasons of the AG Fantasy League, a league title has always eluded me..... until now. After 10 seasons of avoiding relegation, often by the skin of my teeth, the trapdoor to Division 3 finally opened for me last season, and the pundits had made me one of the favourites to come back up. You still have to live up to the expectations however and deliver results.
The season didn't have the most auspicious start, with only a 3 point haul from Wizzfox who I often struggle to beat, and it always surprises me that he doesn't finish higher up the table. The indifferent start prompted me to abandon last seasons 4-2-2-2 formation, and try out some variations of 4-3-3, which seemed to produce more attacking play. Next matchday had me take all 6 points from Amen Raz with me getting more than my fair share of lucky breaks in the games. I think Red Rhinoceros went into our games in a confident mood, having got the better of me in friendly games for the previous couple of weeks, but doing it in a league game can be a different matter. I didn't go as gung ho as I might when theres no points at stake, concentrated on stopping Højlund and then launching my own attack. The pace of Maxi Beier proved very effective as he scored 5 over the two games to give me maximum points. Keeping it tight in defence was the plan in Matchday 4 against TR00PER1919 but this time Sørloth was my main threat through the middle as my opponent did a good job in stifling my wing play. Another haul of 6 points put my Tromsø team in a great position in the thick of the promotion race. Myself and deareststorm had been the highest goalscorers in the division up until this point, but when we met we cancelled each other out. He nicked the first game 1-0 when it looked more like it would finish goalless, but I just edged the return game 2-1 to make it honours even.
The goals started flowing again against the next two opponents, and it resulted in a 6 point haul against Nuuthatch and the Gazgrass. As other teams faltered and took points of each other, the automatic promotion was within touching distance with two matchdays left. I'd said to a few people that playing an in-form Harryn9000 could be a potential banana skin, and that proved to be the case as I had to come from behind to grab a point in a 4-4 draw, then I had no answer to the pace and power of Brian Brobbey as I lost 3-4. If only Brobbey had played like that when I had him in my team a couple of seasons ago! Despite only picking up a point, other games had gone my way, and it was enough to not only secure automatic promotion, but hand me the Div 3 title as well! The final games wer academic but it was still a free scoring affair in both games against payne wales, whose season had started well and just petered out. A hat-trick in each game for Sørloth helped prepare him up the scoring charts, but it wasn't quite enough to bag the Golden Boot. The celebrations could now begin up in the Arctic Circle as the Division 3 trophy was paraded to the Tromsø faithful under the northern lights.
I always seem to do well in the first stage of the Champions League, and the trend continued this season with 3 good wins helping me qualify for the next round comfortably. it didn't go as well in Round 2, as despite having a handicap advantage against all 3 opponents I could only register the one win, and I was out of the competition. The other two cups featured swift exits, as I went out of the Division 3 Cup to Nuuthatch on a golden goal (revenge would be mine in the league though), and I went out of the League Cup in the first round to CCFC_Coxy.
