*** EFB Zeitung ***
Read all about it, Read all about it, the EFB Zeitung is back, yes its back!
We've reached around the mid-point of the very first season of EFB2, all things have been going very smoothly indeed and has so far been very successful, the new and old players have mixed together very well indeed and are in the making of yet another high flying edition of EFB.
So the season began........
FA Barclaycard Premiership
With the rules set as they are, we currently have no human managers in the top flight of English Football, I'm sure this will change with seasons to come. Still, there is no reason why it should be kept out of the first edition of the Zeitung.
Well Man Utd are once again
top of the Prem with a small lead, there is a real battle for champions league places and even Pompey could be a suprise european qualifier for next season if they keep up their well battled 5th place. Relegation favourites Leicester and Wolves are both enjoying mid table positions but this can easily change as they are only within 5points of the drop zone. Talking of the
drop zone both Southampton and Charlton find themselves in it and will need to start a good winning run to get out and stay clear of it, otherwise its the dreaded drop to the First Division.
The top goal scoreres so far in the campaign belong to Chelsea's front line as Hernan Crespo (13) and Adrian Mutu (12) head the group. In the
assist rankings Simon Davies (Spurs) is leading the way with 11 followed by Ruud van Nistelrooy (Man Utd) with 9. The best performing player at the moment is Gunners French striker Thierry Henry, his
Average Rating makes him a class above the rest at the moment but he's closely followed with good performances by Chelsea striker Adrian Mutu and Leicester keeper Ian Walker.
Nationwide Division 1
Well we originally had two managers starting in the first division, Steve Riddell and Paul Rouch started as managers of two relegated teams, WBA and
West Ham respectively. However due to other commitments Steve Riddell an original EFB player had to retire from the game. This left Paul Rouch and his West Ham squad (link) to battle it for the first division crown and bring back top flight football back Upton Park.
Enjoying a lot of very good results and aiming to be the first in top flight football, West Ham manager Paul Rouch is doing a good job so far, currently
top of the league however is WBA but only by two points from West Ham who will be happy to take either one of the top two automatic promotion spots although preferably first if manager Paul Rouch can get his way.
As always the rest of the play off places are very close a quite a number of teams are within a chance of snatching a place, at the
bottom half of the table its also very close and once again quite a lot of teams are facing the drop if they dont start winning, these include Reading, Walsall, Ipswich and Watford.
Current
Top Scorer in the First Division is on loan at West Ham, none other than Massimo Maccarone who has already notched up 20 goals, he's followed by West Brom's Daniel Braathen (14) and Geoff Horsfield (14). Goals have been created from everywhere, Chris Sedgwick has been setting them up for Rotherham as he current leads the
Assists Rankings with 11 followed closely by West Ham's Kjell Andre Thu with 10. Every league has a star, the first division is currently being lit up by another on loan star at West Ham, this time Richie Partridge has been putting in some dazzling performances and currently has the
highest average rating ,Daniel Braathen (West Brom) and Gary Breen (Sunderland) are two more players who have been performing very well so far this season.
Nationwide Division 2
As we get further down the tables, we seem to find more managers trying to take part in some kind of lower league managment, well smack bang in the middle of the Nationwide leagues are two more managers hoping to advance one step closer to top flight football. They are Mark Brown who takes over
Queens Park Rangers andd Edan Waldman who takes the reigns at
Peterborough.
Both managers were confident after securing some signings throughout the summer, Q.P.R made the better start of the two teams and are currently in a well deserved third place in the
top half of the table. They need to keep up their good performances though if they want to finish in the play offs and will have to play really well to try and break into the automatic promotion spots. Its not been so good for Edan at Peterborough though, a very bad run of form has seen his side slip down the table into their current position of 16th, although it doesnt sound bad they are actually only 3points from the drop zone at the
bottom half of the table and will be hoping for a change of fortune if they want to avoid that drop zone.
Rushden's Ornadi Lowe is currently banging the goals in for Rushden as he's the leagues
leading goal scorer with 20, he's followed up with another goal machine in QPR's Cherno Samba with 17 goals and keeping his manager very happy. Goals don't always come by themselves and it shows as Rushden's Paul Hall has made the most assists so far this season with 13 and tops the
Assists Rankings. Port Vale's Marc Bridge Wilkinson and Blackpool's Martin Bullock both have 9 assists to their name. The star of the Second Division so far is Ornandi Lowe as he's put in some fantastic displays and heads the
average ratings table, he's closely followed by QPR pair Porarinn Brunjar Kristjansson and Carlos Arturo Marinelli.
Nationwide Division 3
Well the third Nationwide league see's just one manager taking part in a lower league challenge, its the host of the clan Andrew Hepburn who takes charge at
Hull.
Well at the
top of the league its Cheltenham and fully deserved as they are yet to lose a league game this season, although its not been plain sailing for them as Hull and Swansea are only 1point behind them, but all three teams will certainly settle for a top 3 position as they are all automatic promotion places. Well at the other end of the
table its not going too well for Darlington as they are at the foot of the table, the other relegation spot is being held by Yeovil who could easily get out of it if they get some good results as its still quite close and a number of teams could still be in that drop zone come the end of the season.
The Golden Boot of the Third Division is currently in James Thomas's favour as he leads the
Goal scoring chart with 15 goals, he's closesly followed by Stuat Douglas (Boston) and Dave Kitson (Cambridge) both with 14. In the
Assists Rankings there is no run away performer as Francis Green (Lincoln), Martin Devaney (Cheltenham), Danny Allsopp and Stuart Elliot (both Hull) are leading the way with 9. Lee Harrison has been so far the best performer in the league, his
Average Rating is very good, also with very good performances are Hull players Richie Appleby and Stuart Elliott.
Nationwide Conference
Well the Conference has two managers taking part in the lowest league possible and going true llm style, these two managers are Gareth Jenkinson who takes over at
Accrington Stanley and Stephen Gold who takes the reign at
Stevenage Borough.
Well at the
top of the table its a run away leader at present with Stevenage appearing to rip through the league and banging the goals in at any given chance. It's then a close battle for second place between Dagenham and Aldershot, both teams appear to have secured themselves the first two play off places with their current form continues. Unfortunately the good fortunes have not been happening as much for Gaz at Accrington, they have been slowly slipping down the table since a good start and will be hoping to turn it around and snatch a last minute play off place, they certainly appear to have easily cleared relegation from what can be seen at the
bottom of the table.
The
Goal King of the Conference is currently Stevenage Striker Chris Humphreys with 21 to his tally, he is being chased by Chester's Kevin Rapley with 19 and Stevenage team-mate Scott Huckerby on 18. With so many goals already Stevenage also head the
Assists Rankings with Lee Matthews having 14 already, Aaron Webster (Burton Albion) has 12 and is closely followed by another Stevenage player in Jamie Cook on 11. The league leaders enjoy more success as they've easily had the best performers in the league as the
averag ratings of Chris Humphreys and Scott Huckerby have certainly been noticed in every game.
League Cup
The league cup saw very small success for everyone apart from Mark Brown's QPR side, they managed to get a fantastic result against Southampton in the 3rd round but unfortunately then lost against Middlesborough (fourth round) in a game that really should of gone into QPR's favour but the Premiership side managed to hold them out.
QPR give a free football lesson to Southampton on how to score goals. FA Cup
The magical cup of the beautiful English game, its certainly still got all its magic this year as there have been some absolutely fantastic results for the managers of EFB.
Most noticeably its been Hull manager Andrew Hepburn making all the headlines in the 3rd Round as they made their dreams come true in "the theatre of dreams" by completely trashing Man Utd at Old Trafford. An absolute shocker for all fans and giant killing at its best.
Hepburn and Hull Fans enjoy the reading of the headlines in the morning paper Premiership Champions Man Utd no match for Hull.
Its not just been Hull who have had their fair share of Giant Killing as also manager Stephen Gold and his Stevenage side are also following the trend. They played Crewe in the 3rd round and also showed them that they should not under estimate the conference teams.
Crewe killed off by Stevenage in the 3rd round. Head to Head
Well with managers being across all the different leagues there have only been a couple of clashes were fellow EFB managers faced each other.
The first clash saw Mark take on Edan, high flying
QPR vs Peterborough. Well it was a close encounter on the score sheet but QPR were unlucky not to have doubled or even trebled it with good chances being wasted.
The second clash saw
Accrington take on Stevenage, Gaz against myseft. It certainly wasnt a close clash at all and certainly could of been a lot lot more than what the score line actually was, despite Gaz's tactical changes they didnt help and he got one hell of a trashing.
Manager Profiles (Midpoint :Season 1)
We're half way through the season and below is the track record of how each manager has been getting on so far in the EFB careers.
West Ham :
Paul Rouch aka rouchie
QPR :
Mark Brown aka mebubcat
Peterborough :
Edan Waldman
Hull :
Andrew Hepburn aka Andy H
Accrington :
Gareth Jenkinson aka gazjuk
Stevenage :
Stephen Gold aka Goldy 
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