Fantasy Football has descended upon Oxford. On the face of it, any football fan should relish the prospect of picking himself or herself in a fantasy football team, and, despite amounting to about twenty seconds of Wayne Rooney’s pay packet, the top prize of £150 is extremely exciting. If nothing else, as with real fantasy football, this could just prove to be a handy way to procrastinate next time you’re trapped in the Gladstone Link on a sad Thursday night. Regardless of what your motivations are for playing Oxford Fantasy Football, here are a few things to keep in mind in order to maximize your bragging rights next time you’re at the pub with your one or two mates who, like yourself, have nothing much better to do.
Have a ridiculous team name in mind. Cherwell Sport recommends classics like ‘All Souls Campbell’, ‘Corpus/Lineker’ and ‘St Peter Crouch FC’ – names that make an embarrassment of the huge potential for football and Oxford-related chat, but that’s exactly what you want.
One difference to the original Fantasy Premier League is that everyone starts on the same price, meaning some players are much better value than others. On one end of the spectrum, as an amateur footballer at best, I would have scored a remarkable -6 points in my only appearance as a stand-in goalkeeper last year; the eight goals I conceded against Worcester 2nds still haunt me to this day, finding it difficult to keep clean sheets on and off the pitch. Absurdly, I would be the same price as last year’s top goal scorer in the collegiate system, Matt Hill of St Hugh’s, who cuts a very different figure to his ‘real world’ footballing namesake, formerly of Wolves and Sheffield United. Hill’s 42 goals and 23 assists last year would have earned well over 200 points for anyone picking him in their XI and should be the first name on your team sheet this season.
Another particularity that novice game-players may miss is that some players will play far more games than others, allowing more opportunities to score points. Men’s and women’s Blues players can also play for their college team, providing multiple chances to pick up points and a good way of following the progress of the University teams. Pembroke’s Alex Tsaptsinos, who has started the 2015/16 season in especially impressive goal-scoring form for the Blues team, will be keen to avenge his college’s Cuppers Final defeat last season. Players who play in both the JCR leagues and Reserves leagues can also be a significant source of points. Regent’s Park’s Jonny Streatfeild and Julius Lehmann also ply their trade for LMH first team and can rack up a lot of points from more defensive positions. Therefore, those who don’t know the ins and outs of college football may find it difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Finally, a message to the silly fresher who decides to shoot rather than square it to his mate with an open goal in order to score more points for his own fantasy team. Your captain will bench you and the drinks will be on you in the college bar that evening. You have been warned.
