2014/15 Awards - Players of the Season

(Awards are made on basis of contributions in all WSFFL competitions. Where there is a tie, contributions in league matches take precedence.)

Player of the season, Attacker of the season and Golden Boot:
Sergio Aguero (Claymore Athletic FC) - 23 goals

Repaying his £29m fee Aguero is truly one of the stars of football right now. An injury and quiet spell on his return slowed his scoring rate but he still drove Claymore to the title.

Golden Gloves:
Joe Hart (The Dead Parrots) - 13 cleans, one saved penalty

After missing out last year Hart is back on top of the 'keeping pile for the fourth time in five seasons. Did a great job for Dean's strugglers but can't score them as well!

Defender of the Season:
Branislav Ivanovic (Claymore Athletic FC) - three goals, 15 cleans

Player of the season in 2010/11 Ivanovic did his bit for Claymore this year too. Important goals and cleans when they were needed. he may be getting older, he's not getting worse.

Midfielder of the season:
Eden Hazard (Fred West landscape Gardening XI) - 12 goals

Perhaps not a vintage year for midfield scorers but the talented Hazard was a worthy winner. Fred doesn't always get his midfield signings right but the Belgian does set a high standard.

Young Player of the Season: 
Harry Kane (FCK2) - 14 goals

Kane signed for Kevin's predecessor in May 2012 but had to wait until tis season to break into the team. Took his chance with both hands and will be leading the line at Furze Fields for years.

£500k Player of the season: 
Gary Cahill (Trusted By Millions) - one goal, 14 cleans

Trusted didn't come close to defending their title but Cahill was Beef's Mr Reliable and quietly went about his business accumulating clean sheets.

Last season's winners

Week 30 Results and final table

Despite all the permutations there wasn't much change to the table. 

Aardvark Abacus 0 v 3 San Dimas High School

Athletico Phoenix 2 v 2 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 

Claymore Athletic FC 4 v 2 The Fabulous Artisans
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 0 v 2 FCK2

The Cow-Faced Juniors 2 v 2 Mega Buck Bandits
The Dead Parrots 0 v 2 Cheese Makers

Trusted By Millions 1 v 1 Real Muppets

YTFIB 4 v 2 Final Fantasy XI

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Claymore Athletic FC	30	18	7	5	85	49	36	61
2	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	30	14	10	6	74	43	31	52
3	Athletico Phoenix	30	15	4	11	70	50	20	49
4	Trusted By Millions	30	14	7	9	49	44	5	49
5	San Dimas High School	30	14	5	11	48	55	-7	47
6	Real Muppets	30	14	4	12	58	47	11	46
7	FCK2	30	12	10	8	52	44	8	46
8	Aardvark Abacus	30	14	2	14	48	59	-11	44
9	The Cow-Faced Juniors	30	11	9	10	71	59	12	42
10	Final Fantasy XI	30	12	5	13	42	58	-16	41
11	The Fabulous Artisans	30	12	3	15	54	64	-10	39
12	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	30	11	6	13	50	63	-13	39
13	Cheese Makers	30	10	8	12	45	43	2	38
14	The Dead Parrots	30	9	2	19	32	61	-29	29
15	Mega Buck Bandits	30	6	8	16	44	57	-13	26
16	YTFIB	30	7	4	19	37	63	-26	25

And with that, the 2014/15 season was over.

Clive rounded off his title-winning season with a win over the unbelievably unlucky Artisans. Ben had led through a Loic Remy brace but Sergio Aguero scored one of his easiest of the season and then three cleans swept Claymore to the win. Aguero must be looking forward to the glittering award ceremony whenever I make that up. Fred and Athletico stayed in second and third after a 2-2 draw. Frank Lampard and Diego Costa gave Brian a two-goal half-time lead but Leo Ulloa chested in after the break and Fazio got the levelling clean.

A late Andrej Kramaric goal helped Trusted hang on to fourth. The Muppets led through Esteban Cambiasso but that late equaliser cost Ryan fifth place. San Dimas nicking that in a no way lucky fashion despite a negative goal difference with a 3-0 win over the Aardvarks. Theo Walcott bagged a first-half hat-trick, any would think he was after a new contract.

FCK2 finished with a win over Nil Satis thanks to two goals from English forwards. Danny Ings and Harry Kane certainly did their bit for Kevin this season. The Aardvarks' defeat could have dropped them out of the top half but none of the chasers took advantage. The CFJs needed two cleans to earn a point against Mega Bucks after two Charlies (Adam and Austin) had Dave ahead.

That point ensured YTFIB finished bottom despite Julian's win over Final Fantasy. Mame Diouf's early brace for YTFIB had been cancelled out by headers from Moussa Sissoko and Gareth McAuley but it was another header, from Peter Crouch with four minutes left, that set Julian up for victory. Dean's spectacular non-scoring run (10 in the last 12 without troubling the scorers) continued with defeat Cheese Makers. James Chester and Ben Mee's cleans for Matthew the only scores in this game. Matthew finishing 13th but with a positive goal difference. Funny old game.

Week 29 Results

Claymore's hopes of a points record ended in two minutes 56 seconds.

Cheese Makers 1 v 2 Aardvark Abacus

FCK2 0 v 1 Athletico Phoenix

Final Fantasy XI 4 v 1 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Mega Buck Bandits 2 v 2 San Dimas High School

Real Muppets 3 v 0 Claymore Athletic FC

The Cow-Faced Juniors 5 v 0 The Dead Parrots

The Fabulous Artisans 2 v 5 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI

YTFIB 1 v 2 Trusted By Millions

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Claymore Athletic FC	29	17	7	5	81	47	34	58
2	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	29	14	9	6	72	41	31	51
3	Athletico Phoenix	29	15	3	11	68	48	20	48
4	Trusted By Millions	29	14	6	9	48	43	5	48
5	Real Muppets	29	14	3	12	57	46	11	45
6	Aardvark Abacus	29	14	2	13	48	56	-8	44
7	San Dimas High School	29	13	5	11	45	55	-10	44
8	FCK2	29	11	10	8	50	44	6	43
9	The Cow-Faced Juniors	29	11	8	10	69	57	12	41
10	Final Fantasy XI	29	12	5	12	40	54	-14	41
11	The Fabulous Artisans	29	12	3	14	52	60	-8	39
12	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	29	11	6	12	50	61	-11	39
13	Cheese Makers	29	9	8	12	43	43	0	35
14	The Dead Parrots	29	9	2	18	32	59	-27	29
15	Mega Buck Bandits	29	6	7	16	42	55	-13	25
16	YTFIB	29	6	4	19	33	61	-28	22

Claymore's bid for their points record was ended in style by the Muppets. Well, Sadio Mane to be precise who scored a hat-trick in two minutes 56 seconds early in the first half for Ryan. When Cesc Fabregas saw red on the half hour after booting a ball into a group of players it was pipe and slippers for Ryan and slippers for Clive. Fred now has a strong claim on second after beating the Artisans 5-2. Twice Fred led through Lallana and Chadli, twice Ben replied with Benteke and Brunt. There was no reply to Wilfried Bony's last minute pass in off the post or cleans from Craig Dawson or Marcos Rojo.

The four teams in the running for second and third are playing each other in the final games. The Phoenix beat FCK2 this week with a well worked Stewart Downing goal and play Fred on Sunday. Any win will do for Brian to snatch third and a six-goal victory will nab second place. If Brian does slip up Trusted are poised to take advantage after beating YTFIB. Emmanuel Riviere broke his WSFFL duck in slightly flukey style for Beef but another Jason Puncheon free-kick had Julian level at the break. The winner came from Marc Muniesa clean and Trusted need to better the Athletico result to take third. Trusted take on the Muppets where a big win for Ryan could yet see him take third if results go his way.

The Aardvarks haven't quite sealed a top half spot despite edging out Cheese Makers. A side-foot volley and a Glenn Murray penalty follow-up getting it done for Ady. His last game is against San Dimas who are on the same number of points. My team led twice against Mega Bucks and Romelu Lukaku looked to have snatched the win with his late header but Wes Morgan's clean earned a share of the points for Dave. That's probably enough to stop him finishing bottom. The CFJs added to Dean's woes with a big one to give Chris a chance of a top-half finish. Gylfi Sigurdsson broke the deadlock bang on half-time but pick of the goals was Leroy Fer's screamer on the hour. Final Fantasy are also tucked in ready to take advantage of any slips from the top half teams. Ceri's team swept aside Nil Satis 4-1 this week, Yaya Toure adding two more to his tally either side of a Bafe Gomis reply that had the most awful big cat impression celebration you're likely to see.

Week 28 results

Claymore in no mood to get their flip-flops on.

Aardvark Abacus 0 v 1 Mega Buck Bandits

Athletico Phoenix 3 v 4 Claymore Athletic FC

Cheese Makers 2 v 2 The Cow-Faced Juniors

FCK2 2 v 2 YTFIB

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 3 v 1 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Real Muppets 0 v 2 Final Fantasy XI
San Dimas High School 1 v 0 The Dead Parrots

The Fabulous Artisans 0 v 1 Trusted By Millions


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	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Claymore Athletic FC	28	17	7	4	81	44	37	58
2	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	28	13	9	6	67	39	28	48
3	Athletico Phoenix	28	14	3	11	67	48	19	45
4	Trusted By Millions	28	13	6	9	46	42	4	45
5	FCK2	28	11	10	7	50	43	7	43
6	San Dimas High School	28	13	4	11	43	53	-10	43
7	Real Muppets	28	13	3	12	54	46	8	42
8	Aardvark Abacus	28	13	2	13	46	55	-9	41
9	The Fabulous Artisans	28	12	3	13	50	55	-5	39
10	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	28	11	6	11	49	57	-8	39
11	The Cow-Faced Juniors	28	10	8	10	64	57	7	38
12	Final Fantasy XI	28	11	5	12	36	53	-17	38
13	Cheese Makers	28	9	8	11	42	41	1	35
14	The Dead Parrots	28	9	2	17	32	54	-22	29
15	Mega Buck Bandits	28	6	6	16	40	53	-13	24
16	YTFIB	28	6	4	18	32	59	-27	22

Claymore show no signs of letting up despite having safely secured the title. Two more wins would give Claymore their points record in a 16-team league season. Sergio Aguero's hat-trick got the job done this week after they had trailed early to a Riyad Mahrez brace. Brian called him into the side just before kick-off an he rewarded his boss with his first two WSFFL goals inside 20 minutes but they eventually counted for nought. That Athletico defeat has put Fred in charge of the race for second place after victory over Nil Satis. Jermain Defoe and Bafe Gomis traded goals in the 85th minute but Fred came through thanks to cleans from Mangala and Zouma.

Unless there's some Frank Lampardesque change of heart in the offing then Trusted will be saying goodbye to Steven Gerrard before too long. He'll be missed by Beef's team and he got the only goal against the Artisans this week, nodding in at the far post. FCK2 are still harbouring hopes of a top three finish but they could only draw with a YTFIB side still making a nuisance of themselves. Kevin's team led twice. John Terry getting one early on and then Danny Ings firing in from close range just after the hour. Each time Julian hit back, a Jason Puncheon free-kick and then Mame Diouf turning in from a tight angle keeping his unbeaten run going.

Julian's still on the bottom though after Mega Bucks picked up their first win since December. Charlie Adam has hit some screamers recently but this one was a header and was the only goal that inflicted another defeat on the Aardvarks. The inconsistent San Dimas also needed just the one goal this week, David Silva finding room in the Dead Parrots defence to break the deadlock.

Another team that can never quite string a run together are the Muppets. They went down 2-0 to Final Fantasy this week. I don't believe I've used the phrase 'forest of legs' for a while so I will now. Ayoze Perez shot through a forest of legs just before the break to give Ceri the lead and a Michael Duff clean doubled the advantage. Matthew's top half hopes are just about over after being held by the CFJs. Cheese Makers had been two up through a Juan Mata penalty and a Marouane Fellaini header but cleans from Ron Vlaar and Geoff Cameron completed Chris' comeback.

FA Cup Final result

Congratulations to Fred West Landscape Gardening XI who win the FA Cup for the first time.


Claymore Athletic FC 1
Aguero 29

v

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 3
Hazard 45
Mangala [c]
Azpilicueta [c]

(one cancelled clean)

At Wembley - Attendance: 90,000


Claymore: Howard; Dann, Cresswell, Yoshida, M.Dawson; Barkley, Ledley, Fabregas, Fernandinho; Aguero, Rooney           Subs: Robles; Wollscheid; Colback; Giroud

Fred: Courtois; Mangala, Azpilicueta, Varela, Zouma; Chadli, Lallana, Hazard, Cuadrado; Bony, Sanogo                    Subs: Lloris, ~, Paulinho, Ulloa

Before the game Fred warmly congratulated his opposite number on the title win and then set about denying him a second 'Double'. There were some surprise team changes in both line-ups. Claymore had left out Branislav Ivanovic, surely one of the defenders of the season, and Alex Kolarov who had scored against these opponents last week. Up front the Claymore boss selected the returning from injury Wayne Rooney over Olivier Giroud. Fred had knocked up a pre-match veg stir-fry for his team and that ruled out January signing Jermain Defoe and consigned Leonardo Ulloa to the bench while an administrative error meant he couldn't field a defensive sub.

Sergio Aguero was the focus in the early stages and he'd already gone close a coupe of times before opening the scoring for Claymore on 29 minutes. Timing his run to perfection he beat the Fred offside trap and had the freedom of the penalty area to smash in at the near post. The sides were level at the break though. Eden Hazard, perhaps the top midfielder of this campaign, won a penalty, missed the penalty and then nodded in the penalty rebound.

The second half also had a premium on chances. Aguero just failed to wrap his foot around a shot following a one-two with Fernandinho and missed the target from close range on the hour. Wilfried Bony and Paulinho perhaps should have done better with late chances that went their way. With no further goals it was clean sheets from Eliaquim Mangala and Cesar Azpilicueta that gave Fred victory and takes the trophy to New Cromwell Street.

---

How they got there:

Semi-finals

Athletico Phoenix 1 v 7 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
Trusted By Millions 2 v 3 Claymore Athletic FC

Quarter-finals

Athletico Phoenix 2 v 1 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 2 v 0 The Fabulous Artisans
San Dimas High School 2 v 4 Claymore Athletic FC
YTFIB 1 v 2 Trusted By Millions

First round

Aardvark Abacus 1 v 3 Claymore Athletic FC
Athletico Phoenix 2 v 2 The Dead Parrots (2-0 in replay)
Final Fantasy XI 0 v 2 YTFIB
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 3 v 1 Real Muppets
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 2 v 1 Mega Buck Bandits
San Dimas High School 6 v 2 FCK2
The Cow-Faced Juniors 2 v 4 Trusted By Millions
The Fabulous Artisans 2 v 0 Cheese Makers