FA Cup Quarter Final results

A rather inconclusive week, apart from the CFJs.

Aardvark Abacus 1 v 4 The Cow-Faced Juniors

Real Muppets 1 v 1 San Dimas High School

The Wateringhole Society 3 v 3 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Wheel Madrid 3 v 3 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI

Replays

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 4 v 0 Wheel Madrid

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 0 v 1 The Wateringhole SocietySan Dimas High School 3 v 1 Real Muppets

Fred’s bid for a third FA Cup in a row is still on but he needed a clean to earn a replay against Wheel Madrid. Craig Dawson’s deflected shot put Fred ahead on 10 minutes but Paul W was level on 21 with Gareth McAuley bundling after a good old goalmouth melee. Wheels led for the first time on 28 with Jamie Vardy netting his first goal for his new club but it was 2-2 at the break, Dele Alli sliding in at the far post. Vardy’s second, a header, came on the hour and looked to have settled it before Lloris’s clean sheet leveller.

It wasn’t the only 3-3 draw this week, The Wateringhole Society and Nil Satis also sharing six goals. The lead changed hands in this one too. Idrissa Gueye fired Paul S ahead five minutes before the break but big-money signing Manolo Gabbiadini prodded in for Kiran in first-half injury time. Three minutes after the break TWS led, Gabbiadini again with an excellent turn and shot. Pedro had Nil satis back on terms with the TWS keeper making a mess of his shot on 72 minutes. Parity lasted only four minutes before Michael Keane had Kiran ahead one more time but Seamus Coleman’s clean means these two will try again next week.

There’s one more replay ahead too as the Muppets and San Dimas failed to settle their tie. The significant action happened late on. Romelu Lukaku went on one of his typical barnstorming runs to put me ahead with ten minutes to go but a clean from Mamadou Sakho got Ryan the replay.

The one result in the quarters went the way of the CFJs. Ady’s Aardvarks had led six minutes before the break, Danny Drinkwater’s long-range half-volley was his first of the season, but Chris and Co were level by the time the half-time oranges were dished out. Fernando Llorente given far too much room from a set-piece to power in a header. We had to wait until the death for the final action, clean sheets from Hennessy, Davies and Janmaat completed the 4-1 win.

In the replays, Fred’s bid for an unprecedented FA Cup hat-trick is still alive after seeing off Wheel Madrid in comfortable style. Two goals in each half did the job over a Wheels side on the slide.  Only the now-departed Boston Rock have won the FA Cup more times than San Dimas and my team turned round a half-time deficit to beat the Muppets. That man Gabbiadini is still keeping up his goal a game record for The Wateringhole Society and this time it was the only goal of the game against Nil Satis and gets Kiran into the last four.

Week 20 Results

Fred rolling on, the Muppets hanging on.

Athletico Phoenix 1 v 0 The Wateringhole Society

Cheese Makers 3 v 3 Aardvark Abacus

Claymore Athletic FC 1 v 1 Trusted By Millions

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 1 v 0 Mega Buck Bandits

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 1 v 3 Real Muppets

San Dimas High School 0 v 1 The Fabulous Artisans

The Cow-Faced Juniors 5 v 1 Wheel Madrid

YTFIB 1 v 2 FCK2

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	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	20	15	0	5	57	34	23	45
2	Real Muppets	20	12	4	4	36	26	10	40
3	Trusted By Millions	20	11	4	5	42	26	16	37
4	Wheel Madrid	20	10	4	6	41	40	1	34
5	Athletico Phoenix	20	9	6	5	43	33	10	33
6	The Cow-Faced Juniors	20	10	1	9	57	42	15	31
7	Cheese Makers	20	9	4	7	31	33	-2	31
8	The Fabulous Artisans	20	9	3	8	33	32	1	30
9	San Dimas High School	20	8	3	9	45	41	4	27
10	Aardvark Abacus	20	6	6	8	27	30	-3	24
11	Mega Buck Bandits	20	7	2	11	37	37	0	23
12	Claymore Athletic FC	20	7	2	11	38	52	-14	23
13	FCK2	20	6	3	11	29	37	-8	21
14	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	20	6	2	12	32	38	-6	20
15	YTFIB	20	6	1	13	33	57	-24	19
16	The Wateringhole Society	20	3	7	10	20	43	-23	16

If Fred does win his second title this year he’ll owe a debt of gratitude to Alfie Mawson. The defender’s thumping volley was the only goal in the game against Mega Bucks and keeps his team with five points of daylight over the rest. It’s the Muppets that are trying to hang on and Ryan’s team turned round a slow start to beat Nil Satis. Paul’s team were ahead on seven minutes, a great move finished off by Pedro, but two in three minutes from Sadio Mane (welcomed back after AFCON) and Raheem Sterling stabbing in at the far post had this one finished by the half-hour mark.

Trusted are a further three points back after drawing at Claymore. The unfortunate Tyrone Mings (Mings. How unfortunate can you be?) steered into his own goal under pressure from Sergio Aguero to give Clive the lead and Beef needed a Ryan Shawcross clean to get a point. A bigger worry for Trusted is new star Gabriel Jesus doing a metatarsal. Wheel Madrid are five league games without a win since Paul W picked up the December MOTM and were on the wrong end of a 5-1 scoreline at the CFJs. Paul can feel hard done by over Alexis Sanchez’s 34th minute handball goal but he was already trailing to a Nacer Chadli strike and Sofiane Feghouli and Sanchez again, from the spot this time, took the game away from him in the second half.

Athletico are right behind the top four after a hard-fought win over the Wateringhole Society. This one was heading for a goalless draw until Jason Denayer steered into his own net with two minutes left to keep Kiran three points adrift at the bottom. Three cleans earned Ady a point at Le Stade Fromage after it seemed like Matthew was home and dry. Juan Mata, from close range, Manuel Lanzini, from long distance, and Shane Long had the Cheesers three up in injury time before the interventions of Blind, Gibson and Bertrand for the Aardvarks.

The Artisans/San Dimas mid-table battle went the way of Ben’s team with Leighton Baines getting the only clean to matter. FCK2 won the basement encounter with YTFIB to leap to 13th. Joe Allen got his sixth of the season to give Julian the lead but cleans from Chris Smalling and Glen Johnson sees Kevin’s mini-revival continue.

FA Cup Quarter-Final draw

Mark at work drew the home teams, Aaron at work drew the away teams...

Aardvark Abacus v The Cow-Faced Juniors

Real Muppets v San Dimas High School

The Wateringhole Society v Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Wheel Madrid v Fred West Landscape Gardening XI

Games to be played w/c 25 February. 

Away ties for the two teams that have already picked up trophies this season. Home ties against different teams for those beaten the finals of those competitions.

Week 19 Results

Fred ’s gap gets a little bit bigger. 

Aardvark Abacus 2 v 3 Claymore Athletic FC

Cheese Makers 1 v 1 Athletico Phoenix

FCK2 4 v 2 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Mega Buck Bandits 4 v 0 The Fabulous Artisans

Real Muppets 0 v 0 Wheel Madrid

The Cow-Faced Juniors 1 v 2 YTFIB

The Wateringhole Society 0 v 5 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI

Trusted By Millions 2 v 6 San Dimas High School

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	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	19	14	0	5	56	34	22	42
2	Real Muppets	19	11	4	4	33	25	8	37
3	Trusted By Millions	19	11	3	5	41	25	16	36
4	Wheel Madrid	19	10	4	5	40	35	5	34
5	Athletico Phoenix	19	8	6	5	42	33	9	30
6	Cheese Makers	19	9	3	7	28	30	-2	30
7	The Cow-Faced Juniors	19	9	1	9	52	41	11	28
8	San Dimas High School	19	8	3	8	45	40	5	27
9	The Fabulous Artisans	19	8	3	8	32	32	0	27
10	Mega Buck Bandits	19	7	2	10	37	36	1	23
11	Aardvark Abacus	19	6	5	8	24	27	-3	23
12	Claymore Athletic FC	19	7	1	11	37	51	-14	22
13	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	19	6	2	11	31	35	-4	20
14	YTFIB	19	6	1	12	32	55	-23	19
15	FCK2	19	5	3	11	27	36	-9	18
16	The Wateringhole Society	19	3	7	9	20	42	-22	16

Fred has extended his lead to five points on the back of his five goal win this week. The Wateringhole Society were the victims but Kiran’s team held out until first half injury time when Jermain Defoe scored twice in two minutes. Eden Hazard scored after a mazy run that took half the length of the pitch and left the Wateringhole defenders in his wake. Two cleans and it was job done for the leaders. The Muppets are back in second place after a goalless draw with Wheel Madrid. Both of these sides have lacked firepower at times this season so perhaps little surprise that neither team troubled the scorers.

There was no trouble scoring for San Dimas this week. Mostly thanks to Romelu Lukaku who bagged four, including one after 31 seconds in my win over Trusted. Gabriel Jesus scored two more to make it three in a week for Beef’s team but he was no match for Lukaku in this sort of mood. Ashley Barnes added one from the spot and an Allan Nyom clean completed the rout. Athletico and Cheese Makers stay fifth and sixth after their draw. James Morrison scored his second goal in the sixth minute this week for Brian but Troy Deeney’s header drew Matthew level four minutes later and that was all the scoring.

The CFJs could have gone fifth with a win but lost 2-1 to YTFIB. Lamine Kone and Zlatan Ibrahimovic had Julian two up by the break and although Gylfi Sigurdsson scored his customary goal late on there was no way back for the Howells. The Artisans also missed the chance to close on the top four with a crushing defeat at Mega Bucks. Mark Noble’s deflected free-kick opened the scoring or Dave seven minutes after the break, Josh King added two more and an Antonio Valencia clean completed the scoring.

The Mega Bucks are now above the Aardvarks after Ady’s team fell to Claymore. All the action in Clive’s 3-2 win came very late. Oumar Niasse opened his Aardvarks account on 84 minutes, Cesc Fabregas levelled things a minute later with a calm lob into an empty goal, Olivier proud put Claymore ahead a minute into injury time and Ross Barkley, celebrating before he tucked into the empty goal after rounding the Aardvarks keeper, made it 3-1 four minutes into injury time. A Daley Blind clean cut the deficit but was’t enough to grab Ady a point. FCK2 climbed off the foot of the table for the first time in a while with a 4-2 win over Nil Satis. Paul had led twice but Kevin struck back, first through Andy Carroll and then Harry Kane form the spot, to set up cleans from Ben Foster and Chris Smalling to get him the three points.