Week 23 Results - And then there were two?

Aardvark Abacus 5 v 5 San Dimas High School

Cheese Makers 0 v 2 The Cow-Faced Juniors 

Markian United 2 v 1 Claymore Athletic FC 

Real Muppets 4 v 0 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 

Stanley and Gracie United 0 v 3 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 

The Fabulous Artisans 3 v 2 The Wateringhole Society 

Wheel Madrid 0 v 3 Trusted By Millions

YTFIB 2 v 2 Mega Buck Bandits 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	The Cow-Faced Juniors	23	17	3	3	72	33	39	54
2	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	23	15	5	3	57	26	31	50
3	The Wateringhole Society	23	12	7	4	67	42	25	43
4	Markian United	23	12	4	7	48	34	14	40
5	The Fabulous Artisans	23	12	0	11	53	44	9	36
6	Trusted By Millions	23	10	5	8	48	41	7	35
7	Stanley and Gracie United	23	11	1	11	43	49	-6	34
8	Aardvark Abacus	23	9	5	9	45	48	-3	32
9	YTFIB	23	7	7	9	29	42	-13	28
10	Real Muppets	23	8	3	12	53	51	2	27
11	San Dimas High School	23	7	6	10	34	46	-12	27
12	Wheel Madrid	23	8	3	12	25	47	-22	27
13	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	23	8	2	13	26	42	-16	26
14	Claymore Athletic FC	23	6	4	13	32	48	-16	22
15	Mega Buck Bandits	23	5	5	13	29	48	-19	20
16	Cheese Makers	23	5	4	14	26	46	-20	19

The CFJs keep their four point lead after a 2-0 win at Cheese Makers. Two second half goals from Eberechi Eze, his second a brilliant 25 yard effort, keeps the Cows in pole position for their first title in five seasons. Fred are second, and still in the hunt for a third title in five seasons, after a 3-0 victory at Stanley and Gracie. Mohamed Salah opened the scoring six minutes before the break, Luis Sinisterra added the second two minutes after the interval and Salah completed the win just after the hour.

The Wateringhole’s chances of becoming the first team to retain the title since 2015/16 (Claymore by the way) are hanging by a thread after a 3-2 defeat to the Artisans. An unmarked Martin Odegaard put Ben ahead on 10 minutes but Cody Gakpo sent the game in level at the break. Jarrod Bowen volleyed the Artisans into a 2-1 lead and Diogo Dalot’s composed finish made it 3-1. Arnaut Danjuma’s half-volley pulled one back with two minutes to go but Kiran’s team now might need to win their last seven to have a chance of the title. Markian are only three points behind TWS after a come-from-behind win at Claymore. John Stones’ 18-yard swinger gave Clive the lead after just five minutes and as the Claymore faithful were thinking about a rare win Darwin Nunez levelled on 90 minutes and Ashley Young bagged Ian the winning clean.

Trusted eased to a 3-0 win at Wheel Madrid. Gabriel Jesus headed in on seven minutes, Conor Gallagher’s deflected shot doubled the lead six minutes later and Beef’s team then cruised until David de Gea added a clean. The Aardvarks round out the top half after a 5-5 draw with San Dimas. Diogo Jota and Ollie Watkins both scored twice to have Ady 5-2 up with seven minutes left and I was grateful to Tyrick Mitchell, Victor Lindelof and Emi Martinez for the cleans that earned me a point.

YTFIB are top of the bottom half following a 2-2 draw with Mega Bucks. After Antony gave Dave a first half lead, Dan James and Hwang Hee Chan scored within a minute of each other to turn the game in Julian’s favour but Dango Ouattara curled in an equaliser deep in injury time. Erling Haaland is now on 31 for the season after adding two more in the Muppets 4-0 win over Nil Satis. Aaron Ramsey and Kelechi Iheanacho added the others.