Week 22 Results

The CFJs lead stays at four points.

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


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	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	The Cow-Faced Juniors	22	14	4	4	49	22	27	46
2	Real Muppets	22	11	9	2	65	34	31	42
3	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	22	13	3	6	64	41	23	42
4	Aardvark Abacus	22	12	5	5	49	26	23	41
5	The Fabulous Artisans	22	10	5	7	47	42	5	35
6	San Dimas High School	22	10	5	7	46	48	-2	35
7	Claymore Athletic FC	22	10	4	8	51	39	12	34
8	Trusted By Millions	22	10	2	10	48	42	6	32
9	Cheese Makers	22	9	3	10	29	40	-11	30
10	Markian United	22	8	4	10	38	41	-3	28
11	Athletico Phoenix	22	8	2	12	35	45	-10	26
12	YTFIB	22	7	5	10	29	48	-19	26
13	Mega Buck Bandits	22	8	1	13	33	45	-12	25
14	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	22	7	1	14	27	35	-8	22
15	Wheel Madrid	22	6	2	14	27	50	-23	20
16	The Wateringhole Society	22	4	3	15	21	60	-39	15

Clean sheets in a couple of matches mean the CFJs still hold four point lead. Chris and Co. trailed Claymore 2-1 as time wound down when Jurgen Locadia slid to open his WSFFL account. Daryl Janmaat grabbed the equalising clean sheet. It was a similar situation for the Muppets who were 2-1 up at Trusted with Steve Mounie and Sadio Mane goals coming either side of one for Anthony Knockaert for Beef. Nicolas Otamendi got the Trusted clean that meant Ryan drew his fourth successive game 2-2 which must be some sort of record.

Fred has joined Ryan on the 42-point mark after a 3-1 win over Markian. Ere Can got things going for the Gardeners with a header on the half hour, Mo Salah got his customary goal at the start of the second half to double the advantage and Craig Dawson headed in a third before Harry Kane could reply - with a header. The Aardvarks are a point further back after beating Athletico 3-1. Rajiv van la Parra scuffed in to open the scoring for Ady just after the break, Vincent Kompany poked in ten minutes later to make it 2-0. A Lewis Dunk og threw Brian a lifeline with five minutes left but a Kompany clean gave Ady the points.

The Artisans are up to fifth after winning the Goddard derby against the Wateringhole Society. Bobby Firmino latched on to a keeper 'rush of blood' mistake to open the scoring on 57 minutes and Jesse Lingard nodded in 18 minutes later to complete the scoring. San Dimas drop to sixth after going down at the Stade de Fromage. David Silva had put me 2-1 up with 25 minutes left but Glenn Murray’s second of the game came four minutes later and then Troy Deeney’s smart turn and shot with 11 minutes left won the game for Matthew.

Mega Bucks were knocked out of the Cup by a single clean sheet last week, this week the same single clean gave Dave all the points against YTFIB. Jose Holebas was the man in question for the Bandits. Wheels’ recent revival ended with defeat to Nil Satis. When oh when will people stop giving Xherdan Shaqiri time and space to thread a shot into the bottom corner? He did it here two minutes before half-time and Danilo got a clean to finish it for Paul S.

FA Cup quarter-final results

Agueroooooo helps Clive into yet another semi-final.

Aardvark Abacus 2 v 1 Athletico Phoenix
Markian United 2 v 4 Claymore Athletic FC
The Fabulous Artisans 2 v 2 Trusted By Millions
San Dimas High School 1 v 0 Mega Buck Bandits

Replay

Trusted By Millions 1 v 2 The Fabulous Artisans

Three ties settled in the favour of teams that have won the Cup at least twice and one replay to sort out.

Ady’s last FA Cup final was 14 years ago but he’s one game away from the Wembley showpiece after a narrow win over Athletico. Goalless at halftime, the Aardvarks went ahead on 51 when Oumar Niasse nodded in from close range. Marko Arnautovic squared things from even closer to level it after the ball ricocheted to him in front of goal. The winner came after four minutes of injury time and an argument over who would take a penalty. Rajiv van la Parra won that debate and stroked home the winning spot-kick.

Claymore have appeared in five of the last seven finals, winning two and losing three. They’ll get the chance to extend that record after a great tussle at Markian. This one had a blank first half too but it all caught fire after the break. Gylfi Sigurdsson fired the home team ahead on 46 minutes via the aid of a deflection butSergio Aguero cancelled that out inside two minutes from close in. Harry Kane powered in a header a minute later to restore the lead but the scores were level on 53 minutes through Aguero again. The Argentinian completed his hat-tick on 77 minutes with a deft chip but saved the best ’til last - smashing in off the underside of the bar. (Is it me or is there something satisfying about a shot that goes in off the bar? Particularly when it bounces back up into the roof of the net.)

The Artisans were looking to make their first FA Cup semi and got off to a great start when Roberto Firmino took advantage of a defensive error on six minutes. Jose Izquierdo has started to find his feet for Trusted and levelled the game just after the half hour. Parity only lasted six minutes though before Chicarito headed in. Beef’s second equaliser came from Victor Moses just after the hour when a misplaced 1-2 fell at his feet six yards out.

Antonio Rudiger got the only score for San Dimas in a rather flat game against Mega Bucks.

In the Trusted/Artisans replay, two minutes after Antony Knockaert had equalised for Trusted it was Jesse Lingard ghosting in to head Ben back in front and into the final four.

WSFFL transfer fee record progression

As far as I can work out from what we have of the early history...

Purchases

£5m - Andy Cole to ? (Aug 1994)
?
£10m - Fabien Barthez to Short Straw Rovers (Aug 2000)
£11.5m - Mark Viduka to Real Muppets (Aug 2000)
£13m - Sergei Rebrov to Nil Satis Nisi Optimum (Aug 2000)
£14.5m - Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink to Aardvark Abacus (Aug 2000)
£20m - Ruud van Nistelroy to Fred West LG XI (Aug 2001)
£21.6m - Hernan Crespo to Claymore Athletic (Aug 2003)
£28m - Didier Drogba to Fred West LG XI (Aug 2004)
£31m - Fernando Torres to Fred West LG XI (Feb 2011)
£36m - Alvaro Morata to The Cow-Faced Juniors (Aug 2017)
£58m - Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to Mega Buck Bandits (Feb 2018)

£60m - Timo Werner to Stanley Athletic FC (Sep 2020)

£70m - Erling Haaland to Real Muppets (Jul 2022)

Sales

(a big gap in the early records so...)
?
£25m - Marc Overmars from Nil Satis Nisi Optimum to Barcelona (Jul 2000)
£25m - David Beckham from Fred West LG XI to Real Madrid (Jul 2003)
£80m - Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Muppets to Real Madrid (Jul 2009)
£85.3m - Gareth Bale from The Cow-Faced Juniors to Real Madrid (Sep 2013)
£108m - Phillipe Coutinho from Mega Buck Bandits to Barcelona (Jan 2018)

Week 21 Results

The CFJs lead is back to four points but the Fred express is getting a head of steam.

Athletico Phoenix 1 v 2 The Cow-Faced Juniors
Claymore Athletic FC 0 v 2 Wheel Madrid
Markian United 1 v 0 Mega Buck Bandits
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 3 v 2 Trusted By Millions
Real Muppets 2 v 2 The Fabulous Artisans
San Dimas High School 2 v 2 Aardvark Abacus
The Wateringhole Society 1 v 6 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
YTFIB 1 v 2 Cheese Makers


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	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	The Cow-Faced Juniors	21	14	3	4	47	20	27	45
2	Real Muppets	21	11	8	2	63	32	31	41
3	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	21	12	3	6	61	40	21	39
4	Aardvark Abacus	21	11	5	5	46	25	21	38
5	San Dimas High School	21	10	5	6	44	45	-1	35
6	Claymore Athletic FC	21	10	3	8	49	37	12	33
7	The Fabulous Artisans	21	9	5	7	45	42	3	32
8	Trusted By Millions	21	10	1	10	46	40	6	31
9	Markian United	21	8	4	9	37	38	-1	28
10	Cheese Makers	21	8	3	10	26	38	-12	27
11	Athletico Phoenix	21	8	2	11	34	42	-8	26
12	YTFIB	21	7	5	9	29	47	-18	26
13	Mega Buck Bandits	21	7	1	13	32	45	-13	22
14	Wheel Madrid	21	6	2	13	27	48	-21	20
15	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	21	6	1	14	25	35	-10	19
16	The Wateringhole Society	21	4	3	14	21	58	-37	15

After a recent stutter the CFJs picked up a win and took their lead back to four points. They left it late against the Phoenix though. Brian had recovered from Tiemoue Bakayoko’s first half dismissal to take the lead on 55 minutes thanks to James Ward-Prowe’s excellent free-kick. Alexis Sanchez levelled the game on 68 minutes, following up his own penalty miss, and Roberto Pereyra won the game for Chris and Co in injury time - his shot taking nick of a defender and evading the dive of the Phoenix keeper. Real Muppets were held to their third 2-2 draw in a row, this time by the Artisans. Laurent Koscielny stooped to head Ryan in front on 14 minutes but Ben levelled on the half hour when Chicarito made room for himself to fire in. Federico Fernandez had the Artisans in front eight minutes after the break but two minutes later Luka Milivojevic slotted home a penalty to share the points in a game that will mostly be remembered for Raheem Sterling’s miss.

Fred are up to third (is up to third?) after sweeping aside the Wateringhole Society 6-1. Kiran must have thought he was in for a long day when Mo Salah and Ahmed Hegazi had the Gardeners two up in four minutes. Mario Lemina’s strike five minutes before the break educed the deficit but it was all Fred in the second half. Salomon Rondon, Eden Hazard and a superb slaloming effort from Salah was rounded off by a clean from Marcos Rojo. The Aardvarks drop to fourth after a draw with San Dimas. Jack Stephens was on target again for Ady two minutes before the break and Nacho Monreal pocketed a clean at the interval. My team hit back through Romelu Lukaku’s near-post volley and Christian Gross' 20-yarder.

Claymore lost ground with a home defeat to the recovering Wheel Madrid. Jamie Vardy was given the freedom of the penalty area to put Paul W ahead after 17 minutes and Loris Karius’ penalty save with three minutes left secured the points. Trusted also suffered a surprise defeat, to the struggling Nil Satis. Paul S saw his team race into a 2-0 lead through Xherdan Shaqiri’s header and a screamer from Danilo. Beef replied on the hour when Jose Izquierdo curled one into the postage stamp from the corner of the area. Paul restored his two-goal advantage five minutes later when Dominic Calvert-Lewin thundered in a header and David de Gea’s clean wasn’t enough for Trusted to get anything from the game.

Harry Kane missed a penalty for Markian but also scored one and that, five minutes into injury time, decided the game against Mega Bucks. Cheese Makers leapfrogged YTFIB with a 2-1 win. Glenn Murray opened the scoring on eight minutes and Troy Deeney’s penalty just before half-tim (his first of the season) doubled the lead. James Milner’s clean with 12 minutes left upped the pressure on the Cheesers but they survived and are up to tenth.