Football in Berkshire’s inaugural Team of the Month is Finchampstead FC!
Using points per game (PPG) as the key metric, Football in Berkshire will be putting its Fixtures and Results service to good use by ranking its clubs in a monthly table. Whether it’s league games or cup fixtures, the usual 3 points will be awarded for a win, 1 for a draw and 0 for a defeat. Any games going to penalties will be regarded as a draw. Ultimately, what you are left with is a measure of who’s had a good month and who will be hoping for better fortunes in the following month.
August tends to be a month for teams to find their feet and this bore out across Berkshire’s football clubs with no 100% records in tact. Finchampstead, however, were the best-performing out of the 37 clubs in action, recording a PPG of 2.5 after three wins and a draw from their opening four fixtures in the Thames Valley Premier League. Holyport Reserves boast the same performance in the same division but a goal difference of +6 was four fewer than Finch’s +10.
Also yet to fall to defeat from the same division are newly formed Windsor & Eton, who saw more than 1,000 fans turn out for their opening home fixture, and Burghfield. With far fewer games played, Britwell, Reading City U23s, Mortimer and Reading Women have also yet to taste defeat.
At the other end of the spectrum, Chalvey Sports, Wargrave and Taplow United will be hoping for a better September after failing to register a point.
What else stood out?
If it’s goals you’re after then following Burnham or Tadley Calleva in August would have blessed you with an average of 6 per game – the joint-highest figure across Berkshire. Happily for The Blues, 27 of the 36 goals went in their favour making them the highest scorers in August too. Tadley’s 30 goals in 5 games were spread almost evenly between them and their opponents. Not far behind on the goals front were Windsor with 43 in their 8 games being a little over 5 per game, although more going into their own net.
After narrowly failing to win promotion last season, Reading City look primed to mount another credible attempt to escape the Combined Counties League Premier Division North, being unbeaten in the league and recording a PPG of 2.43 across their 7 games so far. Kudos too to Ascot United who did manage to win promotion from the same division last season and have made a positive start to life in the Isthmian League South Central. Eversley & California also deserve a shout-out for the positive start they’ve made to the season from the Combined Counties League Division One.
