Fantasy champion

Newly-crowned champ Michael Shipley talks about his side's dramatic Fantasy Football triumph.

The drama of the Premier League final day which captured the imagination of football fans around the world was even more significant to one man - with Sergio Aguero's last-gasp strike earning Michael Shipley the Sky Sports Fantasy Football title. That goal ensured the IT professional turned Fantasy footy boss landed the £25k jackpot after he handed the Manchester City striker the captaincy for the season's climax. Shipley's 'Renmeister Generals' sat third heading into the final weekend of the season, but went on to win the title by a mere six points after Aguero's vital goal and the subsequent Sky Sports man-of-the-match bonus worth five points apiece. With Aguero wearing the armband, that strike actually racked up 20 points for Shipley, who had kept faith with the game's overall top scorer Robin van Persie for most of the season. He said: "I had Van Persie as my captain for the majority of the season but ended up getting Aguero in for the last week, which proved decisive in the end." Unlike the City fans who knew they were champions as soon as Aguero's strike found the net, the 34-year-old from Leeds had to wait until the Fantasy leaderboard was updated before he could be sure the title was his. "I had an inkling that I had a good chance so I was constantly refreshing the leaderboard," he added. "So it was more of a relief from the intense anticipation once the update occurred."

Favouring frontmen

With regards to the rest of his team, Shipley used a combination of finding cheaper defenders from the most stringent backlines and bagging bargains for his midfield - saving plenty of pennies for his big-scoring frontmen. He added: "I tend to go for the value defenders within the good teams like Luis Enrique and Jonny Evans. "I mixed it up quite a bit in midfield with the likes of Gylfi Sigurdsson and Clint Demspey, saving money so I could get the best strikers - at one point I had Aguero, Wayne Rooney and Van Persie." Shipley will now turn his attention to the Sky Sports Fantasy Football Euros campaign, with another £5k up for grabs amongst other various prizes. The Fantasy champion will be following in the footsteps of fellow managerial master Pep Guardiola in taking a bit of time off before sorting his side for the summer, but has already identified a few targets. He said: "I'm going to take a bit of a break now and get my team sorted once I get a better idea of the first choice players for the favourites. "A team out of Group A will be good to back with Poland's Robert Lewandowski looking in good form while Croatia's Nikica Jelavic might be worth a punt after finishing the season in good form for Everton." Picking your Euro 2012 Sky Sports Fantasy Football team here.