Week 17 and (FA Cup 1st round 2nd replay) results

Ben's seven point lead is preserved and he's finally through to the Cup quarters too.

FA Cup 1st Round 2nd Replay

Final Fantasy XI 1 v 2 The Fabulous Artisans

Cameron Jerome's flick-header four minutes from time looked to have sent us into a third replay after Hugo Rodallega's sumptuous free-kick had given the Artisans the lead twenty minutes earlier. There was a final twist however when Mario Balotelli converted an injury time penalty to put Ben's team into the last eight.

League Week 17
 
Aardvark Abacus 2 v 2 Claymore Athletic FC
Athletico Phoenix 2 v 1 Final Fantasy XI
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 1 v 2 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Real Muppets 0 v 1 The Dead Parrots
San Dimas High School 3 v 4 The Cow-Faced Juniors
The Cheese Makers 1 v 2 Trusted By Millions
The Fabulous Artisans 2 v 2 York’s Returning Glory
You Know Your Boston Rock FC 2 v 3 Mega Buck Bandits

Not the Artisans most convincing performance of the season but they retain a seven point lead. Julian got the right reaction from his team after getting stuffed 7-0 last week when Craig Bellamy outpaced the Artisans defence to open the scoring and Samir Nasri lost his marker to double the lead on 56 minutes. The Artisans pulled one back through Hugo Rodallega's free-kick ten minutes later but had to wait until injury time to grab an equaliser. Mario Balotelli, perhaps lucky to still be on the pitch, coolly converted the late, late penalty. There's no change in Ben's advantage because the Aardvark/Claymore game finished all square too. Mark Davies scored for Ady on three minutes and Craig Gardner put him two up with five minutes left but cleans from Bardsley and Luiz got Clive a point. It's the highest Claymore have been since they led the league in week one.

Athletico Phoenix have yo-yoed up and down the top half in recent weeks and are back up to fourth after beating Final Fantasy. James Morrison never minds a dig from long range and he opened the scoring ten minutes before the break. Robin van Persie doubled the lead on 71 minutes and though Cameron Jerome glanced a goal back four minutes from time it was a second narrow defeat for Ceri this week. Fred West were surprisingly knocked out of the Cup by Nil Satis a couple of weeks ago and Paul's team repeated the treatment this week. Tim Cahill hasn't scored in a while but he got the first one in this game after a teammate's handball had gone unnoticed. Bobby Zamora doubled the lead from the spot midway through the second half and although Danny Welbeck pulled one back Nil Satis held on for a welcome three points.

Trusted snapped their recent poor streak with a win at the Cheese Makers. Stephane Sessegnon scored after 14 minutes and Phil Jones limped off with a clean three minutes later to put Beef in a strong position. Nigel Reo-Coker's rare goal pulled one back for Matthew but Trusted saw the game out. Boston Rock missed a chance to close the gap on the leaders when slipping to defeat at home to Mega Bucks. A Darren Bent penalty opened the scoring for Sheriff after 11 minutes but Antonio Valencia levelled for Dave just before the break. Jermain Defoe struck on the hour to restore the lead but clean sheets from the unlikely sources of Russel Martin and Daniel Ayala gave Mega Bucks the win.

A Danny Murphy penalty was the only goal of the Parrots/Muppets game. Dean's win bumps him up to ninth and cuts Ryan four points adrift at the bottom. Highest scoring game of the week was at Tesco Car Park Stadium where San Dimas went down 4-3 to the CFJs. Clint Dempsey was Chris's hero with his second hat-trick in three weeks. Gareth Bale got the other CFJs goal and Heidar Helguson, who'd already scored one spot-kick, missed a penalty which would have earned me a deserved point.