It’s getting awfully tight at the top.
FCK2 0 v 0 Aardvark Abacus
Mega Buck Bandits 4 v 1 Claymore Athletic FC
Real Muppets 1 v 1 Athletico Phoenix
San Dimas High School 5 v 7 The Cow-Faced Juniors
The Fabulous Artisans 4 v 1 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
The Wateringhole Society 1 v 1 Cheese Makers
Trusted By Millions 4 v 0 YTFIB
Wheel Madrid 4 v 3 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
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| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Diff | Pts |
| 1 | Fred West Landscape Gardening XI | 13 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 39 | 29 | 10 | 27 |
| 2 | Wheel Madrid | 13 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 32 | 22 | 10 | 26 |
| 3 | Real Muppets | 13 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 22 | 18 | 4 | 26 |
| 4 | Trusted By Millions | 13 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 22 | 12 | 10 | 24 |
| 5 | Athletico Phoenix | 13 | 7 | 2 | 4 | 33 | 22 | 11 | 23 |
| 6 | The Cow-Faced Juniors | 13 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 39 | 28 | 11 | 22 |
| 7 | The Fabulous Artisans | 13 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 26 | 19 | 7 | 21 |
| 8 | Cheese Makers | 13 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 19 | 22 | -3 | 20 |
| 9 | Mega Buck Bandits | 13 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 28 | 26 | 2 | 19 |
| 10 | San Dimas High School | 13 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 31 | 26 | 5 | 18 |
| 11 | Aardvark Abacus | 13 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 13 | 17 | -4 | 16 |
| 12 | Nil Satis Nisi Optimum | 13 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 21 | 25 | -4 | 13 |
| 13 | The Wateringhole Society | 13 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 12 | 28 | -16 | 11 |
| 14 | Claymore Athletic FC | 13 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 26 | 41 | -15 | 10 |
| 15 | YTFIB | 13 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 20 | 39 | -19 | 10 |
| 16 | FCK2 | 13 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 14 | 23 | -9 | 9 |
Match of the Week
I was tempted to go with the San Dimas/CFJs goal-fest but Wheels v Fred had big implications for the title race.
More than 75,000 packed in to Stratton Park to see this one and the home faithful didn’t have long to wait for a goal. Adam Lallana, who’d made a £15m move from the Gardeners in the summer, opened the scoring after five minutes after being given too much space and time in the Fred area. None of this non-celebrating against former employers malarkey either! The home side doubled their advantage on 13 minutes. Jeff Hendrick didn’t need space or time, he just smacked a half-volley home from 20 yards. Two became three on 27 minutes. Robert Snodgrass won a penalty, but no friends, when taking a non-contact tumble and picked himself up to score from the spot. Things went a bit quiet after the that until Nolito steered in a fourth as the clock ran down. For Paul W it was a good job he did as Fred came roaring back with three cleans. It wasn’t enough though and the lead is down to one point.
Elsewhere in the League
The Muppets lost second place to Wheels on goal difference following a draw with Athletico. Stephen Ward reacted quickest in a game of goalmouth pinball to put Ryan ahead after 16 minutes but Diego Costa outmuscled the Muppets defence an hour later to slam home an equaliser fro Brian. In light of Fred’s defeat neither boss will be too disappointed. Trusted are two points further back and showing signs of stirring after a low-scoring couple of months. Benin Afobe got Beef’s first in first-half injury time and he had three clean sheets to see off YTFIB 4-0.
Ok - I probably need a paragraph for San Dimas v the CFJs so here goes… Jamie Vardy hasn’t been playing well lately so I gave him the week off. I didn’t miss him at first as Romelu Lukaku escaped the Juniors defence to give me the lead on 17 minutes. That didn’t last long as shkrodan Mustafa limped off with a clean on 25 to square things up. I ws back in front by the break with Theo Walcott’s neat near-post finish. Ten minutes into the second-half the CFJs had turned it round and were 4-2 up through a rare header from Ozil, a not so rare penalty from Gylfi Sigurdsson and a goal from Fernando Llorente. Sebastian Prodl pulled one back for me five minutes later but when George Boyd netted his first of the season and Llorente got his second for the Howells the game was pretty much up, despite Lukaku and Charlie Daniels responding late on. I must be worth a 'desperately unlucky’ label in Ben’s luck table by now.
Speaking of Ben, his Artisans are slowly and quietly creeping into the picture and are only six points off top spot after beating Nil Satis. Henrik Mkhitaryan had slammed Paul S into the lead but it turned into a fourth straight defeat for Nil Satis thanks to three goals in five second half minutes from the Artisans. Divock Origi prodded in after the Nil Satis keeper spilled a cross, Christian Benteke rolled in a cool penalty and Sofiane Boufal opened his WSFFL account from long-distance. The Wateringhole Society made it five unbeaten but it was another draw for Kiran. Alex Iwobi got his first of the season but just when Kiran was thinking about paying out the win bonuses a Jose Fonte clean gave Matthew an equaliser.
Claymore must have had high hopes of getting a win this week after Dmitri Payet’s free-kick snuck past the Mega Bucks keeper on 27 minutes but Dave’s team don’t roll over quite so easily these days. Michail Antonio levelled before the break and then Wilf Zaha bamboozled Clive’s rearguard before practically ripping the net out with his shot. Cleans from Forster and Valencia send Claymore further into the doldrums. Last game on Match of the Day this week was FCK2 v the Aardvarks where nothing happened. Amy’s team have only scored in one of their last five games.
