Monday 26 September 2011

Week 6 Results

Trusted stay top but Fred and the Aardvarks are making their moves.

Athletico Phoenix 2 v 0 The Cheese Makers
Final Fantasy XI 3 v 2 Claymore Athletic FC
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 4 v 1 Real Muppets
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 0 v 0 Trusted By Millions
San Dimas High School 0 v 1 Aardvark Abacus
The Fabulous Artisans 2 v 1 Mega Buck Bandits
York’s Returning Glory 1 v 2 The Dead Parrots
You Know Your Boston Rock FC 2 v 2 The Cow-Faced Juniors

Because of the PCMT and international break we won't be in league action until October 15th. Which is a bit of a shame because we've got an exciting-looking league table on our hands. Trusted stay top but drew for the second week running. Javier Hernandez limped off after 11 minutes and after that there was no sign of Beef's team breaching a determined Nil Satis rearguard. Trusted are the last unbeaten team in the league after York's fell to the Parrots. Peter Crouch battered a header home early in the second half for Julian but couldn't kill the game off and ultimately went down to Hart and Riise cleans for Dean.

It's the Aardvarks that are up to third after notching their third straight win. It wasn't much of a match against San Dimas with a Vincent Kompany clean the only item on the scoresheet but Ady won't mind how the points come. The Artisans have arrived in third place without anyone really noticing. Ben's team did go a goal down to Mega Bucks but Mario Balotelli's deflected shot and a Kieran Gibbs clean got the Artisans their fourth win of the campaign.

Biggest scorers of the week were our defending champions. Fred's team were 3-0 up against the Muppets inside half an hour, Rafael van der Vaart, Nani and Fernando Torres all finding the target. Torres' red card for a reckless lunge before half-time should have given Ryan's team some momentum but Alex Song made it four for Fred in the last knockings of the game. Despite Joleon Lescott's clean the Muppets fall to the bottom of the table (can you believe it?) on goals scored. Ryan's loss is Sheriff's gain as Boston Rock climb a place. It was only draw for the 'Sky Heroes' but it was looking like another defeat . The CFJs were in front from a Gareth Bale header and some Luis Suarez near-post trickery but a crazy last couple of minutes saw the points shared. James Milner raced onto a (cliche alert!) defence-splitting throughball to poke home on 89 minutes and then a freakish deflection off Richard Dunne in injury time made it 2-2.

Claymore's strikers have been dishing out pain in hat-trick form over the early weeks of the season but were on the wrong end of one this week. Demba Ba looked quite handy for Final Fantasy last season and he opened his season's account for Ceri with three goals inside the hour.A Barry Bannan penalty pulled one back for Clive and a Bacary Sagna clean made for a nervy few minutes but Final Fantasy hung on. Robin van Persie had been a bit quiet so far this term but scored both goals as the Phoenix beat the Cheese Makers 2-0. Two defeats in a row see Matthew's team down to seventh, Brian is ninth.

Sunday 18 September 2011

Week 5 Results

Trusted's 100% record goes but Beef's team are still two points clear.

Aardvark Abacus 6 v 1 Athletico Phoenix
Claymore Athletic FC 3 v 1 The Cow-Faced Juniors
Mega Buck Bandits 0 v 4 York’s Returning Glory
Real Muppets 1 v 4 The Fabulous Artisans
San Dimas High School 3 v 3 You Know Your Boston Rock FC
The Cheese Makers 2 v 3 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
The Dead Parrots 2 v 3 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Trusted By Millions 1 v 1 Final Fantasy XI

Trusted not striding off into the distance just yet. Beef's team, ahead early through Titus Bramble, were pegged pack and held by Final Fantasy through Seb Larsson's strike. The point is enough to keep Ceri off the bottom. Two points behind Trusted are our only other unbeaten side, York's. Julian's team put in their best performance of the season and, with a little help from a Tuncay own goal, went on to turn over Mega Bucks 4-0.

The Aardvarks are up to third after a 6-1 beating of Athletico Phoenix. In a year when their historical rivals are not firing could Ady's team get back on the honours board? A settled Luca Modric and a happy Emanuel Adebayor could be big players this season. The Cheese Makers suffered their first defeat of the campaign but made the reigning champions work for it. Franco Di Santo had Matthew ahead but Nani's rocket and Fernando Torres had Fred in front just after the break. Alex Song nudged one past his own keeper to square the match at 2-2 but a Younes Kaboul clean won the points and gets Fred moving in the right direction.

On the subject of own goals the Muppets managed to score two as they fell 4-1 to the Artisans. Jonathan Woodgate and Laurent Koscielny both managed to score at the wrong end to steer Ben towards a third win of the season. Guess who scored for Claymore this week? Did you say Aguero and Rooney? You were right! Those two have 17 between them already this season. Martin Petrov's reply from the spot for Chris was too little, too late.

Yakubu scored twice on debut for the Dead Parrots but finished on the losing side. Mikel Arteta equalised his first goal and then Nil Satis new boy Royston Drenthe struck late to make it 2-2. John O'Shea got the winning clean for Paul to haul him into the top ten. Still no win for Boston Rock this season. Sheriff must have thought he was home and dry at 3-0 up, big summer signing Scott Sinclair opening his account along the way, but San Dimas found three clean sheets from somewhere to grab a point. Boston Rock and the Muppets in the bottom three after five games. Whatever next?

Saturday 17 September 2011

San Dimas Deal

San Dimas manager Peej has been looking at his squad and found it a little unbalanced and striker-heavy.

Agreement has been reached for Michael Owen to leave the club. Owen joined the club just over a year ago and found the net once.

The departure of the former England striker has freed up a squad space at Tesco Car Park Stadium which was quickly filled by former Real Muppets and Mega Bucks defender David Wheater.

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Week 4 Results

Trusted stay stop, the Claymore goal spree continues...

Athletico Phoenix 2 v 1 San Dimas High School
Final Fantasy XI 1 v 2 The Dead Parrots
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 0 v 2 Aardvark Abacus
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 0 v 1 Mega Buck Bandits
The Cow-Faced Juniors 0 v 2 Trusted By Millions
The Fabulous Artisans 1 v 2 The Cheese Makers
York’s Returning Glory 2 v 1 Real Muppets
You Know Your Boston Rock FC 2 v 7 Claymore Athletic FC

Despite the international break and various transfer deals we're pretty much where we were at the end of August. Trusted are still top, York's and The Cheese Makers are still unbeaten, Final Fantasy and Boston Rock still winless and Claymore are still banging them in 'for fun'. (Does anyone score for 'disappointment' or 'misery'?)

Most of the games this week were settled by clean sheets. Exceptions being Trusted who got Javier Hernandez back scoring with a brace against the CFJs (Chris's first defeat) and Claymore who again had a hat-trick from Wayne Rooney and Sergio Aguero in their win over an unlucky Boston Rock. Sheriff and Fred, top two last year, have won win between them so far this. Athletico Phoenix, the Parrots, The Cheese Makers and York's all won by notching clean sheets after trailing to goals from their opponents. Mega Bucks and the Aardvarks both picked up wins without conceding.

You might have been able to tip Beef's team as being top after four weeks but Matthew, Julian and Dean filling the next three places? No one would have suggested that.