Cup quarter-final results

Paul Cartmell Memorial Trophy

Cheese Makers 1 v 5 San Dimas High School
Real Muppets 4 v 2 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
The Fabulous Artisans 2 v 4 The Cow-Faced Juniors
Trusted By Millions 1 v 4 Wheel Madrid

Charity Shield

Aardvark Abacus 1 v 0 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Claymore Athletic FC 5 v 2 Athletico Phoenix
Markian United 2 v 1 Mega Buck Bandits
YTFIB 1 v 0 The Wateringhole Society

PCMT

Three teams that have won the trophy twice before will be in the semi-finals - as will Wheel Madrid.

Our holders, the Muppets, certainly seem keen to hang on to the Trophy after beating league leaders Fred. The Gardeners went ahead on 10 minutes too, Mo Salah following up a blocked shot. The equaliser came in first half injury time. Luka Milivojevic missed a penalty last week but Ryan stuck with him on spot-kicks and was rewarded when the Serbian sent the Gardeners’ keeper the wrong way. The second half was all Ryan’s team. Sadio Mane scored twice and Milivojevic added another penalty to make it 4-1 and Fred could only find an Azpilicueta clean in response. Earliest goal of the week was by Riyad Mahrez for San Dimas at Cheese Makers. The Algerian winger turned in a cutback after six minutes and the lead stood until early in the second half. An unmarked Glenn Murray stabbed home to square the game. I could call on four clean sheets at the end to make the win look more comfortable.

The CFJs seem to be coming into good form and beat the Artisans 4-2. Roberto Pereyra danced through Ben’s back line to open the scoring for Chris & Co on 10 minutes. Gerard Deilofeu rifled in an equaliser nine minutes later but parity only lasted three minutes. Alvaro Morata finished off a fine CFJs team move and then the lead soon became 3-1 when Fabian Balbuena poked in after his header came back off a post. Willian made it 4-1 just after the hour when finding the bottom corner from 22 yards. Kiko Femenia’s reply for Ben was a mere consolation. Wheel Madrid snapped their recent poor run by beating Trusted 4-1. Callum Wilson opened the scoring in the first quarter of an hour and that lead stood until 84 minutes when Xherdan Shaqiri’s quick feet made room for him to level for Beef. Wilson restored the lead a minute later and  Paul W finished the game off with cleans from Luiz and Francis.

Charity Shield

Two teams left who are looking to do the ‘Grand Slam’ and two who are looking for a first trophy.

Claymore versus the Phoenix brought together two of the league’s in-form talents in Ross Barkley and Anthony Martial and neither player disappointed. Martial opened the scoring for Brian four minutes after the break, curling in from the edge of the area. Barkley replied eight minutes later, finding the bottom corner from 22 yards or thereabouts. The Phoenix led in injury time when Ruben Loftus-Cheek found the target from close range via a deflection but the game went Clive’s way through cleans from Cathcart, Stones, Dubravka and Hoedt. Ady had to rely on just the one clean, from Ryan Bertrand, to settle a tight game against Nil Satis.

The other two games were settled by one score as well. Markian felt themselves unlucky to go a goal down to P-E Aubameyang’s far post poke thinking that Mega Bucks had got away with a handball in the build-up. Maybe that sense of injustice fired them as Gylfi Sigurdsson scored from the spot and DeAndre Yedlin’s clean proved to be the winner. Just the one goal between YTFIB and the Wateringhole Society and it went to Julian’s team. David Brooks got it on 72 minutes, finishing off a smart counter-attack.