Week 23 Results

The Artisans' lead shrinks to two points, just four points cover the top five. Tight.

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

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	The Fabulous Artisans	23	15	1	7	54	35	19	46
2	Trusted By Millions	23	13	5	5	58	38	20	44
3	Claymore Athletic FC	23	14	2	7	65	47	18	44
4	Aardvark Abacus	23	13	4	6	48	28	20	43
5	Athletico Phoenix	23	13	3	7	49	40	9	42
6	San Dimas High School	23	10	5	8	46	37	9	35
7	You Know Your Boston Rock FC	23	9	7	7	53	47	6	34
8	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	23	9	6	8	39	33	6	33
9	The Cow-Faced Juniors	23	8	7	8	52	49	3	31
10	The Cheese Makers	23	9	4	10	33	32	1	31
11	The Dead Parrots	23	8	2	13	31	52	-21	26
12	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	23	7	4	12	26	40	-14	25
13	Final Fantasy XI	23	6	4	13	35	42	-7	22
14	York's Returning Glory	23	6	4	13	33	62	-29	22
15	Real Muppets	23	5	5	13	36	51	-15	20
16	Mega Buck Bandits	23	5	5	13	35	60	-25	20

Trusted By Millions make the headline slot this week with their defeat of the league-leading Artisans which gives the championship pot another stir. Papiss Cisse was a big-money January signing for Beef and it took him just six minutes to open the scoring. Ben was level ten minutes later after Kieran Gibbs  fired home a rare goal but the Artisans found themselves 4-1 down by half-time. Cisse adding a second between two headers from David Wheater. Leighton Baines curled a free-kick home to reduce the advantage on the hour but the returning Stephane Sessegnon made it 5-2 on 76 minutes before another free-kick from the Artisans, this time from Taye Taiwo completed the scoring. Two points now separate the sides.

Claymore are level on points with Trusted but two behind on goal difference. Clive improved that column with a 5-1 beating of York's this week. It took him 42 minutes to find a breakthrough before Wayne Rooney smashed in from close range but the scores were level on the hour when Peter Crouch struck a spectacular volley from outside the area into the far corner of the Claymore goal. Four clean sheets ultimately gave Claymore the points and condemned Julian's team to a sixth straight defeat.

The Aardvarks are fourth but needed a clean sheet from Phil Jagielka to grab a point at the Cheese Makers. Matthew's team had led through Shane Long (who is yet to look like repaying his £12.5m fee) but failed to close the game out. Athletico Phoenix are a point further behind after getting back to winning ways. Mega Bucks kept Robin van Persie quiet and took the lead through Matt Jarvis but cleans from old stagers Brad Friedel and Phil Neville gave Brian the win.

San Dimas hang on to sixth place after my team turned in a tidy performance in beating the Muppets. Hatem Ben Arfa ran the show and opened the scoring on 12 minutes and Theo Walcott doubled the lead on the 25-minute mark. James McClean (one of the finds of the season) pulled one back for Ryan 20 minutes from the end but I had a clean fom Sylvain Distin to round things off. Boston Rock are a point behind in seventh after their come-from-behind victory at Final Fantasy. Gary Caldwell and Yaya Toure put Ceri two up but Sheriff notched three cleans (you may have read how in an earlier message) to get the win.

A point further back are our current champions Fred West. The Gardeners won a low-key game against the Parrots with cleans from Patrice Evra and Younes Kaboul. Our final game of the week was an entertaining three-all draw between the CFJs and Nil Satis. Chris raced into a three goal lead with two from Grant Holt before the break and one from Luis Suarez just after. Steven N'Zonzi started Paul's fightback on 56 minutes, Nikica Jelavic scored his first Nil Satis goal 20 minutes later and when Holt saw read five minutes from time Paul made the extra man pay and Mikel Arteta smashed home the equaliser as time ran out.