Week 30 Results and final table

Farewell 2015/16.

Aardvark Abacus 5 v 5 Claymore Athletic FC

Athletico Phoenix 0 v 1 YTFIB

Cheese Makers 3 v 1 FCK2

Final Fantasy XI 0 v 1 San Dimas High School

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 1 v 1 Mega Buck Bandits

Real Muppets 4 v 0 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

The Cow-Faced Juniors 1 v 1 Trusted By Millions

The Wateringhole Society 2 v 3 The Fabulous Artisans

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Claymore Athletic FC	30	18	8	4	98	53	45	62
2	Athletico Phoenix	30	15	7	8	67	55	12	52
3	The Fabulous Artisans	30	15	6	9	74	41	33	51
4	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	30	15	5	10	73	60	13	50
5	The Cow-Faced Juniors	30	14	8	8	67	61	6	50
6	Aardvark Abacus	30	15	4	11	68	56	12	49
7	San Dimas High School	30	13	9	8	67	53	14	48
8	Cheese Makers	30	13	7	10	53	55	-2	46
9	FCK2	30	12	4	14	52	53	-1	40
10	Trusted By Millions	30	10	8	12	36	48	-12	38
11	Real Muppets	30	12	1	17	60	63	-3	37
12	The Wateringhole Society	30	10	6	14	43	60	-17	36
13	Mega Buck Bandits	30	8	7	15	37	57	-20	31
14	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	30	7	9	14	38	52	-14	30
15	Final Fantasy XI	30	6	8	16	38	66	-28	26
16	YTFIB	30	8	1	21	25	63	-38	25

Our champions were pushing towards a couple of records going into the last game but were denied the biggest winning points margin in a remarkable game. Olivier Giroud hit a hat-trick for Claymore, Cesc Fabregas got his only goal of the season and Gio Wijnaldum came off the bench to convert a spot-kick and Clive’s team were 5-2 up with 10 minutes left. Ady’s team struck back through Danny Drinkwater, Steven Davis and a Phil Jagielka clean to earn a point. The Aardvarks scored five in each of their last three games. Are they the ‘Leicester’ of next season Ady was talking about?

Clive’s winning margin ended at ten points after Athletico suffered a last season reverse to YTFIB. Brian did hang on to second place, his best finish, after his rivals slipped up. A brilliant Jason Puncheon strike after 64 minutes was the only goal. Julian’s team claimed 16 of their 29 points in the last nine games, only two teams could top that.

One of those were the Artisans who took advantage of other teams’ failure to win to take third place. Ben had trailed Kiran 2-1 late on but cleans from Leighton Baines and Jon Flanagan from the bench got him all three points. He’s been on a remarkable run in the second half of the season, winning ten and losing just two of his last 15 games. Title-winning form I fancy. Kiran has not quite managed to build on early-season form but finished two places higher than his predecessor managed in his last two seasons.

Solomon Rondon looked to have lifted Fred into second with his 13th minute near-post but the much improved Michal Antonio equalised 10 minutes later for Dave and despite chances Rondon couldn’t find a winner. Only two points in the last three games for the Gardeners blew their chances of closing in on Claymore. Mega Bucks season ends on eight without a win.

The CFJs had been putting a run together and looked favourites for second place at one point but a 1-1 draw with Trusted means the Howells finish with only one win in their final four. Jeremiah Lens got the CFJs goal after being a lot-minute signing. Erik Lamela earned Beef a point but his tenth=place finish is his worst, ever!

San Dimas have finished between fifth and ninth in each of the last six seasons so maybe seventh wasn’t too much of a surprise. My team finished with a 1-0 win over Final Fantasy thanks to Gabriel’s clean. This match was Ceri’s last as a WSFFL manager. She has a fifth-placed finish (in 2013) and an FA Cup win a year later to look back on. Maybe finishing below Dave for the first time in four seasons was the final straw! Anyhow, I thank her for her support and will miss the bids for previously unheard of Spaniards at auction nights. A new manager will be named in due course. I’m waiting for another team to get back to me about future participation before I make any announcements. I’d say ‘you know who you are’ but as I’ve written to them three times without reply they probably don’t.

Cheese Makers claimed their second top half place in three seasons with victory over FCK2. Matthew’s team had fallen behind to an excellent run and shot by Jordan Ibe, but Kevin Mirallas and a Troy Deeney penalty led the turnaround. Kevin and Jon’s season ended with just four wins in this calendar year.

The Muppets were one of the best teams in the second half of the season and finished with a comfortable 4-0 win over Nil Satis. Kelechi Iheanacho got things going from a rebound on five minutes and Mitrovic (who later saw red) and Mane had both scored by half-time. It’s been another patchy campaign for Nil Satis who finish in the bottom five for the sixth season in a row.