Week 19 Results

Looks like we've got ourselves a good, old-fashioned title race.

Claymore Athletic FC 2 v 0 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
Final Fantasy XI 1 v 0 York’s Returning Glory
Mega Buck Bandits 1 v 4 Aardvark Abacus
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 4 v 0 You Know Your Boston Rock FC
Real Muppets 2 v 1 The Cheese Makers
The Cow-Faced Juniors 5 v 2 The Fabulous Artisans
The Dead Parrots 1 v 3 San Dimas High School
Trusted By Millions 2 v 2 Athletico Phoenix

Are the Artisans going through their 'blip' or is Ben's team on the slide? The CFJs inflicted Ben's third defeat in a row, two weeks after knocking the Artisans out of the Cup, with a 5-2 win. A curious first half at Drove Stadium saw Danny Graham give the CFJs the lead and then two own goals. Chris went two up when Chris Dempsey's shot went in off Thomas Sorensen's back but the Artisans halved the deficit when Junior Hoilett's shot took a huge deflection off of Nedum Onuoha. After the break it was all Chris's team with two for Graham Holt and Graham adding his second late on. It was a brace from Wayne Rooney that saw Clive past reigning champions Fred West. Rooney's two goals in four minutes straight after half-time means Claymore have narrowed the gap to two points, the closest it's been since week nine.

The incredible bouncing Aardvarks are on the up this week and into third place. Ady turned over brother Dave's improving Mega Bucks despite falling behind to Steven Fletcher's goal. Anthony Pilkington has been one of the season's bargain buys and he must be in line for '£500k team of the season' honours after getting the equaliser. Emanuel Adebayor found the net for the Aardvarks too and Ady will hope he can go on a run to keep him bang in the title picture. Athletico and Trusted played out a hard-fought draw to stay fourth and fifth respectively. Beef had goals from Nico Kranjcar and Ryan Shawcross but just as he was congratulating himself on shutting out Robin van Persie Brian levelled through cleans from Phil Neville and Pablo Zabaleta.

The bottom of the table is getting as tight as the top. The Muppets picked up a second straight league win for the first time this season but stay bottom. Ryan's team had fallen behind to the Cheese Makers when Benoit Assou-Ekotto scored from an acute angle early on but goals from Joleon Lescott and new man James McClean earned the Muppets all three points. Final Fantasy stay out of the clutches of the foot of the table after a solitary goal beat York's. A Gary Caldwell header winning the game and sucking Julian's team into the scrap at the bottom.

Like the Muppets, Nil Satis were another team securing a second straight league win for the first time this season with a 4-0 battering of Boston Rock. Recent signing Steven Pienaar opened the scoring on five minutes and it was also a first of the season for Denis Stracqualursi 20 minutes from tame. Aaron Ramsey and John Heitinga finished off a tame showing from Sheriff's men who are now three games without a win in the league. San Dimas came out on top of the mid-table match-up with the Dead Parrots. Yakubu opened the scoring for Dean, his third this season against his former club, but Peter Odemwingie secured all the points for me with a hat-trick.