Week 23 Results - Top two getting away?

Aardvark Abacus 3 v 0 Mega Buck Bandits

Garth Crooks' Team of the Week 1 v 2 Real Muppets 

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 1 v 6 San Dimas High School

The Cow-Faced Juniors 5 v 1 Claymore Athletic FC

The Wateringhole Society 1 v 1 Cheese Makers

Trusted By Millions 3 v 1 Stanley and Gracie United

Wheel Madrid 0 v 2 The Fabulous Artisans

YTFIB 0 v 0 Markian United

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Real Muppets	23	14	4	5	53	30	23	46
2	Trusted By Millions	23	14	2	7	70	48	22	44
3	The Wateringhole Society	23	12	5	6	56	38	18	41
4	Cheese Makers	23	12	5	6	54	40	14	41
5	Stanley and Gracie United	23	12	3	8	50	42	8	39
6	Markian United	23	11	4	8	44	37	7	37
7	The Cow-Faced Juniors	23	11	3	9	60	46	14	36
8	Garth Crooks' Team of the Week	23	10	6	7	51	43	8	36
9	The Fabulous Artisans	23	10	4	9	51	47	4	34
10	San Dimas High School	23	10	3	10	43	40	3	33
11	Aardvark Abacus	23	8	5	10	47	49	-2	29
12	Claymore Athletic FC	23	9	2	12	43	60	-17	29
13	YTFIB	23	7	3	13	28	39	-11	24
14	Mega Buck Bandits	23	6	2	15	23	55	-32	20
15	Wheel Madrid	23	5	3	15	26	48	-22	18
16	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	23	5	2	16	27	64	-37	17

The top two saw off their challengers to keep their spots in the table. The Muppets needed a Calvin Bassey clean to settle a close game against GC TotW. Ryan’s team had an early lead through Erling Haaland’s early penalty (the 20th goal of the season for the Norwegian) but Bruno Fernandes swept in brilliantly from 20 yards on 90 minutes to equalise. That Bassey clean keeps the Muppets top with Trusted still in hot pursuit. Beef’s team beat in-form SGU 3-1 to keep the pressure on. An injured Ayden Heaven gave Trusted an early clean sheet, followed a minute later by Alexander’s Isak’s clinical first time finish. Christian Norgaard headed Aaron back into contention but Joachim Andersen’s clean (against his former club - hope he didn’t celebrate) made the points safe.

The Wateringhole Society and Cheese Makers played out a 1-1 draw that leaves them both further adrift. Nikola Milenkovic (what a signing he’s been for Matthew) smashed Cheese Makers in front on 35 minutes, an unlucky own goal by Abdukodir Khusanov three minutes after half-time was Kiran’s equaliser. Markian are back in the top six after a goalless draw at YTFIB, You wait all season for a game where nothing happens and now we’ve had two in successive weeks!

The CFJs occupy seventh after a 5-1 victory over Claymore. Jorgen Strand Larsen’s headed opener was cancelled out by Rasmus Hojlund’s low shot into the corner only for Yoane Wissa to restore the lead two minutes later. Larsen added his second straight after the break and Tomas Soucek made it 4-1 with Noussair Mazraoui adding a clean. The Artisans beat Wheel Madrid 2-0 to stay ninth. Omar Marmoush struck from long range six minutes before the break, Matthias De Ligt finished the game with a clean. 

San Dimas brought out their best performance of the campaign to beat Nil Satis 6-1. Mikel Merino’s back header opened the scoring and Pervis Estupinan added a direct free-kick a minute later. Anthony Elanga struck twice before half time and ‘Big’ Dan Burn headed in from a corner right before half-time. Rodrigo Muniz added a sixth in the second half, Paul S found a late consolation reply thanks to Jake O’Brien. The Aardvarks won the Bevan Derby (as they so often do). Dave’s team gave him a helping hand with Vitaly Janelt’s own goal and there were clean from Andre Onana and Antonee Robinson in the 3-0 win. 

Week 22 Results - Title contenders stumble

Aardvark Abacus 4 v 3 The Wateringhole Society

Cheese Makers 2 v 3 Stanley and Gracie United

Claymore Athletic FC 1 v 0 YTFIB 

Markian United 3 v 0 The Cow-Faced Juniors 

Mega Buck Bandits 3 v 0 Trusted By Millions 

San Dimas High School 2 v 0 Real Muppets 

The Fabulous Artisans 1 v 3 Garth Crooks' Team of the Week

Wheel Madrid 0 v 0 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Real Muppets	22	13	4	5	51	29	22	43
2	Trusted By Millions	22	13	2	7	67	47	20	41
3	The Wateringhole Society	22	12	4	6	55	37	18	40
4	Cheese Makers	22	12	4	6	53	39	14	40
5	Stanley and Gracie United	22	12	3	7	49	39	10	39
6	Garth Crooks' Team of the Week	22	10	6	6	50	41	9	36
7	Markian United	22	11	3	8	44	37	7	36
8	The Cow-Faced Juniors	22	10	3	9	55	45	10	33
9	The Fabulous Artisans	22	9	4	9	49	47	2	31
10	San Dimas High School	22	9	3	10	37	39	-2	30
11	Claymore Athletic FC	22	9	2	11	42	55	-13	29
12	Aardvark Abacus	22	7	5	10	44	49	-5	26
13	YTFIB	22	7	2	13	28	39	-11	23
14	Mega Buck Bandits	22	6	2	14	23	52	-29	20
15	Wheel Madrid	22	5	3	14	26	46	-20	18
16	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	22	5	2	15	26	58	-32	17

It’s a rare week when the top four all lose, especially this late in a season. San Dimas beat leaders the Muppets 2-0 with two clean sheets. Trusted suffered their joint-worst defeat off the season, 3-0, to Mega Bucks, three goals for Dave coming in 12 second half minutes.

The Wateringhole went down 4-3 to the Aardvarks, Ady’s team suddenly showing last season’s title-winning form. Cheese Makers lost 3-2 to SGU, Aaron’s team finding two cleans to turn the game in his favour after trailing late on. SGU are now just four points off the top.

GC TotW are probably out of the title running but two Mohamed Salah penalties helped Ollie to a 3-1 over the Artisans this week. The CFJ’s form has collapsed lately and they dropped to eighth after losing 3-0 to Markian who join the Garths on 36 points.

Claymore got the better of YTFIB 1-0 thanks to a Mads Hermansen saved penalty while Wheel Madrid and Nil Satis played the first game of the season where nothing happened.

Week 21 Results - Top four in control

Garth Crooks' Team of the Week 2 v 0 Mega Buck Bandits 

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 1 v 2 The Fabulous Artisans

Real Muppets 4 v 1 Claymore Athletic FC

Stanley and Gracie United 5 v 1 San Dimas High School 

The Cow-Faced Juniors 2 v 3 Cheese Makers 

The Wateringhole Society 2 v 0 Wheel Madrid

Trusted By Millions 4 v 3 Markian United

YTFIB 0 v 3 Aardvark Abacus

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Real Muppets	21	13	4	4	51	27	24	43
2	Trusted By Millions	21	13	2	6	67	44	23	41
3	The Wateringhole Society	21	12	4	5	52	33	19	40
4	Cheese Makers	21	12	4	5	51	36	15	40
5	Stanley and Gracie United	21	11	3	7	46	37	9	36
6	The Cow-Faced Juniors	21	10	3	8	55	42	13	33
7	Garth Crooks' Team of the Week	21	9	6	6	47	40	7	33
8	Markian United	21	10	3	8	41	37	4	33
9	The Fabulous Artisans	21	9	4	8	48	44	4	31
10	San Dimas High School	21	8	3	10	35	39	-4	27
11	Claymore Athletic FC	21	8	2	11	41	55	-14	26
12	Aardvark Abacus	21	6	5	10	40	46	-6	23
13	YTFIB	21	7	2	12	28	38	-10	23
14	Wheel Madrid	21	5	2	14	26	46	-20	17
15	Mega Buck Bandits	21	5	2	14	20	52	-32	17
16	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	21	5	1	15	26	58	-32	16

Four straight weeks at the top for the Muppets after a 4-1 win over Claymore. Clive’s team decided to leave Erling Haaland unmarked after 12 minutes and the league’s leading scorer made no mistake from six yards. Joao Gomes lashed in an equaliser six minutes later but the Muppets brought home the bacon thanks to cleans from Ederson, Jurrien Timber and Tosin Adarabioyo. Trusted also needed three cleans to get home 4-3 against Markian. Ismaila Sarr scored twice for Ian either side of Patrick Kluivert crashing home a goal of the month contender to make it 3-1 to Ian with 20 minutes left. Trent Alexander-Arnold picked up an early clean to reduce the deficit and then Murillo and Aphonse Areola added cleans of their own to keep Beef two points off the top.

The Wateringhole Society ended Wheel Madrid’s mini-revival with a 2-0 win. Christopher Nkunku stooped to head his team in front on 24 minutes, Marc Cucurella was given time to get the ball on his favoured foot and pick his spot after 78. After three league games without a win Cheese Makers are back in business, winning 3-2 at the CFJs. Joao Pedro gave Matthew the lead from the spot but the Cows were up at the break courtesy of Tomas Soucek and Yoane Wissa’s header in first half injury time. The Cheese turnaround came late with two cleans, Kostas Tsimikas and Nikola Milenkovic keeping Matthew in sight of the summit.

SGU are up to a season high fifth place thanks to a 5-1 beating of San Dimas*. Dominik Szoboszlai and Neto scored first half goals, my team were given brief hope two minutes after the break through Rodrigo Muniz only for Harry Maguire’s header from a corner to restore the advantage almost immediately. Cleans from Virgil van Dijk and Kieran Trippier wrapped it up for Aaron. Is the GC TotW 'winter wobble’ over? Ollie’s team beat Mega Bucks 2-0 with cleans from Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Ibrahima Konate.

The Artisans are another team who seem to have steadied the ship a bit. Ben’s team won 2-1 at Nil Satis. Mathias De Ligt fired a rebound high into the net on 26 minutes to put the Fabulous ones in front and Ricardo Calafiori’s clean doubled the lead at the interval. Jake O’Brien’s free header was only a consolation for Paul. The Aardvarks moved up to 12th after a 3-0 win at YTFIB. Goals from Levi Colwill and Morgan Rogers in an eight minute spell either side of the break had Ady in control, Antonee Robinson added a clean sheet at the end.