Week 20 Results

A big defeat for the leaders, two big wins down at the bottom

Aardvark Abacus 3 v 1 The Cow-Faced Juniors
Cheese Makers 1 v 3 Wheel Madrid
Markian United 1 v 1 Claymore Athletic FC
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 2 v 2 Real Muppets
Mega Buck Bandits 1 v 2 Trusted By Millions
The Fabulous Artisans 3 v 0 San Dimas High School
The Wateringhole Society 1 v 0 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
YTFIB 2 v 1 Athletico Phoenix


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	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	The Cow-Faced Juniors	20	13	3	4	45	19	26	42
2	Real Muppets	20	11	7	2	61	30	31	40
3	Aardvark Abacus	20	11	4	5	44	23	21	37
4	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	20	11	3	6	55	39	16	36
5	San Dimas High School	20	10	4	6	42	43	-1	34
6	Claymore Athletic FC	20	10	3	7	49	35	14	33
7	Trusted By Millions	20	10	1	9	44	37	7	31
8	The Fabulous Artisans	20	9	4	7	43	40	3	31
9	Athletico Phoenix	20	8	2	10	33	40	-7	26
10	YTFIB	20	7	5	8	28	45	-17	26
11	Markian United	20	7	4	9	36	38	-2	25
12	Cheese Makers	20	7	3	10	24	37	-13	24
13	Mega Buck Bandits	20	7	1	12	32	44	-12	22
14	Wheel Madrid	20	5	2	13	25	48	-23	17
15	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	20	5	1	14	22	33	-11	16
16	The Wateringhole Society	20	4	3	13	20	52	-32	15

The CFJs lost for the second week running but with the Muppets drawing for the second week running there’s still a gap at the top.

Chris.s team went down to the now third-place Aardvarks. Nacho Monreal arrived unnoticed at the far post to give Ady an interval lead and Jack Stephens (back heel) and Jamal Lascelles (header) added goals from set-pieces in the space of two second-half minutes with Ben Davies’ clean the only CFJ reply. The lead is two points as Fred and Ryan played out a 2-2 draw. Emre Can opened the scoring with a long-ranger that took a nick of a deflection and ripped home on 26 minutes. Andreas Christensen bagged an early clean to square things up and Kevin de Bruyne put the Muppets ahead on 68 minutes.  Fred was level ten minutes later through Mo Salah’s spot-kick and tat’s the way it stayed.

San Dimas stay fifth after going down 3-0 to the Artisans. Christian Eriksen got Ben’s first after 11 seconds or something silly like that, Christian Benteke powers home a header on 24 minutes and then Roberto Firmino squeezed in a shot at the near post in first half injury time. Not my best week. First Mark E Smith dies, now this. Claymore are in sixth after a draw with Markian. The goals came late in this one. Markian went ahead after an unlucky rebound went in off Karl Darlow with five minutes left. The ever-reliable Sergio Aguero made surety points were shared with a cool dink over the keeper four minutes later.

Trusted needed a couple of cleans to beat Mega Bucks and stay seventh. Mark Noble had given Dave the lead from the spot just before the break but Beef has Nicolas Otamendi and Ryan Shawcross to thank for the win. YTFIB’s top ten dreams are still on after a win over Athletico. Nick Pope’s penalty save put Julian ahead just after the half-hour but a keeping blunder allowed Jordan Ayew an easy opportunity to equalise on the hour. A clean from Joe Gomez was the decider in Julian’s favour.

Wheel Madrid have been sucked into the battle at the bottom but a win at Cheese Makers will help lift the mood. Callum Wilson seems to be tuning to fitness and raced away from the Cheese back-line to open the scoring on 51 minutes. Junior Stanislas did similar 13 minutes later to net his first of the season and level the scores but Jamie Vardy’s penalty soon had Wheels back in front. Simon Francis’ clean finished the scoring in Paul’s W favour. The Wateringhole Society beat Nil Satis 1-0 to close the gap at the foot of the table to a single point. Erik Pieters’ clean was the only score of the game. Paul S will be wondering why he didn’t give Theo Walcott his debut.

FA Cup quarter-final draw

Aardvark Abacus v Athletico Phoenix
Markian United v Claymore Athletic FC
The Fabulous Artisans v Trusted By Millions
San Dimas High School v Mega Buck Bandits

Games to be played w/c 10 February.

Athletico got the better of the Aardvarks 3-1 in week 9.
Claymore and Markian fought out a 2-2 draw in week 15 and meet again next week.
Trusted beat the Artisans 5-2 in Week 18 but went down 2-1 to Ben’s team in week 10
San Dimas lost to Mega Bucks 3-1 in Week 18 but beat those opponents 5-2 in Week 10.

Week 19 Results

Fred keeps the follow-up dream alive.

Aardvark Abacus 4 v 0 Mega Buck Bandits
Claymore Athletic FC 4 v 1 Athletico Phoenix
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 0 v 1 San Dimas High School
Real Muppets 2 v 2 YTFIB
The Cow-Faced Juniors 1 v 2 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
The Fabulous Artisans 1 v 2 Cheese Makers
Trusted By Millions 2 v 1 Markian United
Wheel Madrid 1 v 2 The Wateringhole Society


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	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	The Cow-Faced Juniors	19	13	3	3	44	16	28	42
2	Real Muppets	19	11	6	2	59	28	31	39
3	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	19	11	2	6	53	37	16	35
4	Aardvark Abacus	19	10	4	5	41	22	19	34
5	San Dimas High School	19	10	4	5	42	40	2	34
6	Claymore Athletic FC	19	10	2	7	48	34	14	32
7	Trusted By Millions	19	9	1	9	42	36	6	28
8	The Fabulous Artisans	19	8	4	7	40	40	0	28
9	Athletico Phoenix	19	8	2	9	32	38	-6	26
10	Markian United	19	7	3	9	35	37	-2	24
11	Cheese Makers	19	7	3	9	23	34	-11	24
12	YTFIB	19	6	5	8	26	44	-18	23
13	Mega Buck Bandits	19	7	1	11	31	42	-11	22
14	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	19	5	1	13	22	32	-10	16
15	Wheel Madrid	19	4	2	13	22	47	-25	14
16	The Wateringhole Society	19	3	3	13	19	52	-33	12

If Fred’s going to retain his title then he can’t afford to lose many more games. Beating the leaders helps too and that’s what happened this week. Eden Hazard opened the scoring after just three minutes but Willian’s rocket from the edge of the area had the hosts level three minutes later. It was Hazard that delivered the points for the champions with 13 minutes left with a stunning solo run and shot. The CFJs are still three points clear as the Muppets were held by YTFIB. Laurent Koscielny bundled Ryan ahead from a corner after 13 minutes and the lead lasted into the second half. Joe Allen got Julian’s equaliser eight minutes after the break and YTFIB were in front after 69 minutes when Mame Diouf slotted in. A clever chest and volley from Luka Milivojevic rescued a point for the Muppets.

The Aardvarks comfortably won the 'battle of the Bevans’, 4-0 against Mega Bucks. Nacho Monreal headed Ady ahead on six minutes, Alexandre Lacazette finished off a flowing move on 22 and Oumar Niasse smashed into the roof of the net with 20 minutes left before Monreal completed the scoring with a clean. San Dimas stay fifth thanks to new signing Alexandar Dragovic getting the only clean in the game against Nil Satis. Paul S is now five games without a goal but has only conceded six in the same time.

Claymore missed out on a top three spot last season for the first time since 2010/11 but they’re on the hunt to get back in one of those places this time round. Sergio Aguero was Clive’s hero with a hat-trick against Athletico (even if the first one was debatable - did it touch his hair?) Trusted and Markian were level until late on after Davinson Sanchez’ steered into his own net and Harry Kane levelled with a header but it was Beef’s team that took points when Victor Moses (of all people) timed his run to nip in and score with a minute left.

There were clean sheet deciders in our other games. Cheese Makers had led the Artisans briefly through Ryan Fraser before Chicarito responded with 17 minutes left but Kyle Naughton’s clean saw Matthew head back to Cornwall with the win and leaves him four points behind Ben. It’s Matthew’s first win since he won December’s MOTM. Curse? What curse? The Wateringhole’s third win of the season leaves them just two points adrift at the bottom as they beat nearest rivals Wheel Madrid. Alex Iwobi was left alone in the area to convert for Kiran but Jamie Vardy levelled things for Paul from the spot before the break. Erik Pieters got the winning clean to spice things up at the foot of the table.