Week 23 results

Clive back in the title race in a big way.

League Week 23

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

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	The Cow-Faced Juniors	23	15	4	4	73	45	28	49
2	Claymore Athletic FC	23	15	2	6	60	39	21	47
3	Athletico Phoenix	23	13	3	7	53	36	17	42
4	Final Fantasy XI	23	13	3	7	47	31	16	42
5	Aardvark Abacus	23	13	2	8	46	30	16	41
6	Trusted By Millions	23	11	4	8	58	50	8	37
7	Real Muppets	23	10	7	6	45	47	-2	37
8	Mega Buck Bandits	23	9	4	10	37	33	4	31
9	San Dimas High School	23	10	1	12	50	53	-3	31
10	The Fabulous Artisans	23	9	4	10	44	48	-4	31
11	You Know Your Boston Rock FC	23	7	4	12	49	50	-1	25
12	The Dead Parrots	23	6	7	10	35	44	-9	25
13	YTFIB	23	6	7	10	26	46	-20	25
14	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	23	6	4	13	30	55	-25	22
15	The Cheese Makers	23	5	5	13	32	52	-20	20
16	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	23	5	1	17	25	51	-26	16

A slip from the CFJs brings Claymore right back into the title race. Chris's team stay top but suffered their heaviest defeat of the season. The Aardvarks have been in better form lately and opened the scoring five minutes from the break through a Craig Gardner penalty. The lead was doubled on 74 minutes. Nacho Monreal's shot wasn't the cleanest hit but it found it's way in and cleans from Monreal and Ryan Shotton completed an easy win for Ady. At the same time Claymore were putting six past the Muppets. Clive's team were ahead as early as the sixth minute, a deft flick from Morgan Schneiderlin too good for the Parrots defence. Wayne Rooney added a deflected shot on 21 minutes  and Leon Osman's long-range swerver 11 minutes later meant that Claymore could go into pipe and slippers mode and cleans from Jonas Olsson, David Luiz and Jos Hooiveld doubled the advantage at the end.

Athletico Phoenix are back up to third after edging out Mega Bucks. Wes Hoolahan nodded in from practically on the line after 26 minutes and Brian's team were struggling with a fatigued RVP making little impression. The Phoenix dug it out though and cleans from Per Mertersacker and Carl Jenkinson meant the points stayed in Kingham. Final Fantasy dropped a place after being held by the Parrots. Dean held the lead for about an hour following Rickie Lambert's deflected free-kick but Gareth McAuley's clean grabbed a point for Ceri.

Trusted are sixth but left it late to earn the three points against Nil Satis. Andrea Weimann had fired Beef ahead on the hour but Nikica Jelavic scored on the breakaway to equalise bang on 90 minutes. Trusted needed cleans from Ryan Shawcross, Liam Ridgewell and Michael Dawson to get the win. Paul's team are four points adrift at the bottom after another win for Fred. Frank Lampard's header put Boston Rock one up on 19 minutes but this game turned on a red card, keeper Mark Bunn dismissed for handling (well, underarming) outside the area on the half hour. Encouragingly for Fred it was his young brigade that turned things round. A goal from Eden Hazard and cleans from Cesar Azpilicueta and Alex Buttner settling this one.

The battle for the last place in the top half is usually a good one and it's on again. San Dimas messed up their chance of grabbing eighth with a limp performance at YTFIB. Dimitar Berbatov slid in to win this one for Julian early in the second period. The Artisans are also in the race for eighth after a come-from-behind win over the Cheese Makers. Davide Santon drove Matthew ahead on 72 minutes but his team left Christian Benteke unmarked from a pull-back to level nine minutes later. After another nine minutes a controversial Aroune Kone goal put the Artisans ahead and a Leighton Baines clean finished it.

FA Cup semi-final Results

Chris continues his treble quest after a late comeback win against Trusted sent him into the FA Cup Final and Clive will get the chance to defend the trophy

The Cow-Faced Juniors 3 v 2 Trusted By Millions
The Dead Parrots 1 v 6 Claymore Athletic

The CFJs made the early running in the game and Luis Suarez opened the scoring on 21 minutes when beating David De Gea at his near post. Chris's team were on top in the first half with Gareth Bale going close on several occasions. Trusted resisted the CFJ offensive and got a foothold in the second-half. As the CFJs grew nervous trying to protect their lead Beef's team earned a penalty with eight minutes left and Steven Gerrard converted with ease. The momentum was all with Beef now and Papiss Cisse struck in injury time to give his side the lead after being left unmarked in the CFJs penalty box. Trusted had no time to celebrate as they immediately conceded a penalty but Grant Holt failed from 12 yards. It seemed like Chris's Cup dreams were over but clean sheets from Michael Turner and new signing Paul Scharner turned the game in the CFJs favour and leave Beef empty-handed in the Trophy department for another season.

Following a postponement after Dean's team got food poisoning from some gone off shrimps on the barbie or something, Clive cruised into a third straight Final equalling the records of Aardvark Abacus and Boston Rock.

Clive's team were ahead as early as the sixth minute, a deft flick from Morgan Schneiderlin too good for the Parrots defence. Wayne Rooney added a deflected shot on 21 minutes  and Leon Osman's long-range swerver 11 minutes later had Clive thinking about his Cup Final suit but Dean's team immediately hit back with a Rickie Lambert free-kick that took a big change of direction off of the wall. Claymore shut up shop in the second half and as time wore on the effects of last week's dodgy shrimps took hold and Claymore picked up three clean sheets to put a gloss on the final score.

Week 22 Results

No huge surprises so it's pretty much 'as you were'.

Final Fantasy XI 2 v 0 You Know Your Boston Rock FC
Mega Buck Bandits 2 v 0 San Dimas High School
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 1 v 2 Athletico Phoenix
Real Muppets 6 v 2 The Fabulous Artisans
The Cheese Makers 1 v 5 Claymore Athletic FC
The Cow-Faced Juniors 6 v 2 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
The Dead Parrots 0 v 2 Aardvark Abacus
Trusted By Millions 2 v 2 YTFIB

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	The Cow-Faced Juniors	22	15	4	3	73	41	32	49
2	Claymore Athletic FC	22	14	2	6	54	39	15	44
3	Final Fantasy XI	22	13	2	7	46	30	16	41
4	Athletico Phoenix	22	12	3	7	51	35	16	39
5	Aardvark Abacus	22	12	2	8	42	30	12	38
6	Real Muppets	22	10	7	5	45	41	4	37
7	Trusted By Millions	22	10	4	8	54	49	5	34
8	Mega Buck Bandits	22	9	4	9	36	31	5	31
9	San Dimas High School	22	10	1	11	50	52	-2	31
10	The Fabulous Artisans	22	8	4	10	41	47	-6	28
11	You Know Your Boston Rock FC	22	7	4	11	48	47	1	25
12	The Dead Parrots	22	6	6	10	34	43	-9	24
13	YTFIB	22	5	7	10	25	46	-21	22
14	The Cheese Makers	22	5	5	12	31	49	-18	20
15	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	22	5	4	13	27	54	-27	19
16	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	22	5	1	16	24	47	-23	16

The CFJs advantage stretches to five points after mixed fortunes for our top two. Chris's team are in awesome form at the moment and swept the Artisans aside. Gareth Bale struck from distance at the start and end of the game with Ben having no answer in the middle either. At least he kept Michu quiet I suppose. Claymore were two up at half-time, through Morgan Schneiderlin and Leon Osman, but then shipped five to the Parrots after the break. Rickie Lambert and a Joe Hart saved penalty had squared things by 52 minutes and with 11 minutes to go a panicky Claymore defence hacked an attempted clearance into Jos Hooiveld and watched the ball fly in. Cleans from Kolo Toure and John Arne Riise completed the win for Dean. I think you need to go back to December 2007 to find a similar league losing streak by Claymore.

Athletio Phoenix suffered their first league defeat since week 12 and lost third place as a result. Santi Cazorla opened the scoring for Brian but Beef's team hit three goals before Cazorla added his second. A Steven Gerrard penalty and a Papiss Cisse thunderbolt had turned the game round by half-time and Stephane Sessegnon was the penalty area's coolest head to extend the lead on 79 minutes. The retiring Jamie Carragher completed the scoring for Beef (or should that be Horse?).  Final Fantasy re-assume third position after seeing off YTFIB. February signing Momo Sissoko started things off for Ceri but a great Dimitar Berbatov volley on half-time levelled the game. Jose Enrique, a Mark Schwarzer saved penalty and Yaya Toure gave Ceri some breathing space before another new signing, Kei Kamara, got a consolation for Julian.

The Aardvarks are fifth after edging an uneventful game against Nil Satis thanks to a Matija Nastasic clean. Paul drops to the bottom of the table after Fred beat Mega Bucks 2-0. A Ryan Giggs goal and Nemanja Vidic clean winning this one in the last ten minutes. It's the first time Fred has picked up back to back league wins this season.

Boston Rock may be in the midst of their worst run ever. It's five league defeats in a row and no wins in nine for Sheriff's team. They opened the scoring this week with an Andy Carroll penalty but after Frank Lampard fluffed his lines from 12 yards to double the lead Ryan's team took it from there. Joe Cole got the equaliser, Daniel Sturridge scored his own spot-kick and Carlos Tevez rifled in the third with five minutes to go. Another team in a poor trot are the Cheese Makers who are 14 without a win in all competitions and were no match for the upwardly mobile San Dimas. A Rafael rocket opened the scoring and with the Brazilian adding a clean to two from Romelu Lukaku I can picture a bright future for my team.