Week 26 Results - Artisans need one more win

Aardvark Abacus 2 v 1 Garth Crooks' Team of the Week 

Cheese Makers 4 v 4 Wheel Madrid 

Claymore Athletic FC 1 v 5 The Cow-Faced Juniors

Mega Buck Bandits 0 v 3 Real Muppets

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 0 v 4 Trusted By Millions

San Dimas High School 0 v 7 Markian United

Stanley and Gracie United 1 v 1 The Wateringhole Society 

YTFIB 0 v 2 The Fabulous Artisans 

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	The Fabulous Artisans	26	19	4	3	61	30	31	61
2	Real Muppets	26	16	3	7	60	40	20	51
3	The Wateringhole Society	26	15	2	9	65	46	19	47
4	The Cow-Faced Juniors	26	13	5	8	62	45	17	44
5	Cheese Makers	26	12	7	7	63	47	16	43
6	Stanley and Gracie United	26	12	7	7	53	43	10	43
7	Aardvark Abacus	26	12	6	8	48	39	9	42
8	Claymore Athletic FC	26	11	3	12	49	51	-2	36
9	Trusted By Millions	26	10	5	11	52	44	8	35
10	Markian United	26	9	5	12	45	42	3	32
11	San Dimas High School	26	7	11	8	33	48	-15	32
12	Garth Crooks' Team of the Week	26	8	5	13	35	47	-12	29
13	Mega Buck Bandits	26	8	3	15	36	55	-19	27
14	YTFIB	26	7	5	14	36	53	-17	26
15	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	26	6	5	15	28	62	-34	23
16	Wheel Madrid	26	2	6	18	23	57	-34	12

The Artisans left it late to beat YTFIB 2-0 through a very late goal from record signing Florian Wirtz and a clean from Marc Guehi. The title’s not quite clinched yet though as the Muppets won 3-0 at Mega Bucks. Erling Haaland opened the scoring to keep Ryan’s team in with an unlikely but mathematical chance.

It’s over for the this season for the Wateringhole after a 1-1 draw with SGU. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall scored a belter late on to equalise for Aaron. The CFJs are up to fourth after brushing a side Claymore 5-1. Eze, Soucek and Wewlbeck were all on target.

Cheese Makers were held to a 4-4 draw by Wheel Madrid. Matthew’s team put in a vastly improved performance after the Cup Final disappointment but ran into a ‘what might have been’ showing from Wheels’ team with Wood, Isak and Wilson all scoring. A clean from Micky van de Ven gave the Aardvarks a 2-1 win over GC TotW and put some distance to eighth-placed Claymore.

Trusted are finally finding some form and brushed Nil Satis aside 4-0 to put pressure on Clive for that last top half spot. San Dimas might be out of that race now after crashing 7-0 at home to Markian. Too heavy on the Cup win celebrations?

2025/26 - FA Cup Final

Cheese Makers 0

v

San Dimas High School 3

Havertz 18

Mitchell [c]

van den Berg [c]

(no cancelled cleans)

At Wembley  Attendance: 90,000

Teams

Cheese (3-4-3)

Raya Martin; Khusanov, Robertson, Milenkovic; O'Reilly, Casemiro, Mac Allister, Mbeumo; Gordon, Jimenez, Joao Pedro        

Subs: Bayindir; Hill; Bobb, Arokodare

San Dimas (4-4-2)

Martinez; Mitchell, Senesi, Burn, Leoni; Gray, Tanaka, Summerville, Sangare; Minteh, Havertz

Subs: Petrovic; van den Berg, Mane, Muniz

Report

Cheese Makers came into the game on an unbeaten run going back to December and with eight of the squad who lifted the Charity Shield earlier this season. San Dimas' last trophy was the Charity Shield of 2022/23 with only Dan Burn remaining from that winning team.

Matthew's team made a nervous start with their goal leading a charmed life in the early stages. That wasn't to last and the Cheese keeper's poor touch led to his clearance being blocked by Kai Havertz and flying into the goal to give the Saints the lead on 18 minutes. That didn’t provoke a response from Matthew’s team and a quiet first half ended with San Dimas’ Tyrick Mitchell firing wide.

The half-time break didn’t change the pattern of the game with a Havertz shot blocked and the Cheese efforts not bringing any end product. San Dimas tried to kill off any hopes of a Cheese fightback in injury time but first Burn and then Havertz headed over when they might have expected to hit the target.

In the end it was clean sheets that clinched it. Sepp van den Berg, on as a substitute for the injured Geovanni Leoni, and Mitchell got the counters that take the trophy back to Tesco Car Park Stadium.

----

How They Got There

Semi-finals

The Cow-Faced Juniors 1 v 6 Cheese Makers 

The Fabulous Artisans 0 v 3 San Dimas High School

Quarter-finals

Cheese Makers 4 v 0 Aardvark Abacus

Garth Crooks' Team of the Week 0 v 3 The Cow-Faced Juniors

San Dimas High School 1 v 0 Wheel Madrid

The Fabulous Artisans 4 v 1 YTFIB (after 2-2 draw)

First round

Aardvark Abacus 3 v 0 Claymore Athletic FC

Mega Buck Bandits 2 v 5 The Cow-Faced Juniors

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 1 v 2 Wheel Madrid

Real Muppets 0 v 3 Garth Crooks' Team of the Week

San Dimas High School 4 v 3 Markian United

Stanley and Gracie United 0 v 2 Cheese Makers (after 4-4 draw)

The Wateringhole Society 4 v 5 The Fabulous Artisans

YTFIB 4 v 0 Trusted By Millions 

Week 25 Results - Artisans almost there

Garth Crooks' Team of the Week 0 v 0 San Dimas High School 

Markian United 2 v 0 Mega Buck Bandits

Real Muppets 0 v 4 Cheese Makers

The Cow-Faced Juniors 3 v 0 Aardvark Abacus

The Fabulous Artisans 5 v 1 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

The Wateringhole Society 1 v 2 YTFIB

Trusted By Millions 7 v 3 Claymore Athletic FC 

Wheel Madrid 0 v 2 Stanley and Gracie United

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	The Fabulous Artisans	25	18	4	3	59	30	29	58
2	Real Muppets	25	15	3	7	57	40	17	48
3	The Wateringhole Society	25	15	1	9	64	45	19	46
4	Cheese Makers	25	12	6	7	59	43	16	42
5	Stanley and Gracie United	25	12	6	7	52	42	10	42
6	The Cow-Faced Juniors	25	12	5	8	57	44	13	41
7	Aardvark Abacus	25	11	6	8	46	38	8	39
8	Claymore Athletic FC	25	11	3	11	48	46	2	36
9	Trusted By Millions	25	9	5	11	48	44	4	32
10	San Dimas High School	25	7	11	7	33	41	-8	32
11	Markian United	25	8	5	12	38	42	-4	29
12	Garth Crooks' Team of the Week	25	8	5	12	34	45	-11	29
13	Mega Buck Bandits	25	8	3	14	36	52	-16	27
14	YTFIB	25	7	5	13	36	51	-15	26
15	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	25	6	5	14	28	58	-30	23
16	Wheel Madrid	25	2	5	18	19	53	-34	11

The Artisans are sprinting for the finishing line and a 5-1 win over Nil Satis, combined with defeats for their rivals, now sees them 10 points clear. Ben’s team got the better of Nil Satis 5-1 but needed clean sheets to get it done after Marc Guehi’s smart finish on 57 minutes was levelled when Jeremy Doku latched onto some over-confident defending 11 minutes later. Cheese Makers' 4-0 win at the Muppets was Ryan’s joint-worst defeat of the season and just about ends his hopes of back-to-back titles. Nico O’Reilly and Casemiro headers in an 18 minute second half spell put Matthew’s team in control. Matthew is up to fourth and his unbeaten run is now up to 18. I wouldn’t fancy playing him in a Cup Final. Oh.

Third-placed Wateringhole Society went down 2-1 to YTFIB. Julian’s goals coming from outside the box efforts from Nico Williams and Alex Scott in the second half. In between those goals Kiran bagged a Jeremie Frimpong clean but that was that. SGU trail Cheese Makers on goal difference after a 2-0 win at Wheel Madrid. Wheels almost grabbed a draw only for Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to fire in a minute into injury time, quickly followed by a Virgil van Dijk clean.

The CFJs jumped the Aardvarks into sixth with a 3-0 win over those opponents. Viktor Gyokeres got the only goal for the Cows, a 35th minute penalty, Jimenez and Mamardashvili got the cleans. Claymore stay eighth despite being on the wrong end of 'one of those Trusted' performances. Beef’s team ran out 7-3 winners in a game that included Claymore leading twice, another Trusted own goal, a first WSFFL strike from Rio Ngumoha, and a rare defensive hat-trick (two goals and a clean) from Konstantinos Mavropanos. A quarter of all Trusted’s league counters this season have come in two matches.

Meanwhile in ‘already on the beach’ news - GC TotW and San Dimas played out a goalless draw while Markian beat Mega Bucks 2-0 thanks to cleans from Kadioglu and Sessegnon giving Ian his first win in five.

Week 24 Results - Decisive move from the Artisans?

Aardvark Abacus 4 v 2 Trusted By Millions 

Cheese Makers 5 v 1 Markian United

Mega Buck Bandits 1 v 2 Garth Crooks' Team of the Week

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 0 v 1 Claymore Athletic FC 

San Dimas High School 2 v 2 The Cow-Faced Juniors

Stanley and Gracie United 3 v 2 Real Muppets 

The Fabulous Artisans 1 v 0 The Wateringhole Society

YTFIB 4 v 1 Wheel Madrid

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	The Fabulous Artisans	24	17	4	3	54	29	25	55
2	Real Muppets	24	15	3	6	57	36	21	48
3	The Wateringhole Society	24	15	1	8	63	43	20	46
4	Cheese Makers	24	11	6	7	55	43	12	39
5	Aardvark Abacus	24	11	6	7	46	35	11	39
6	Stanley and Gracie United	24	11	6	7	50	42	8	39
7	The Cow-Faced Juniors	24	11	5	8	54	44	10	38
8	Claymore Athletic FC	24	11	3	10	45	39	6	36
9	San Dimas High School	24	7	10	7	33	41	-8	31
10	Trusted By Millions	24	8	5	11	41	41	0	29
11	Garth Crooks' Team of the Week	24	8	4	12	34	45	-11	28
12	Mega Buck Bandits	24	8	3	13	36	50	-14	27
13	Markian United	24	7	5	12	36	42	-6	26
14	YTFIB	24	6	5	13	34	50	-16	23
15	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	24	6	5	13	27	53	-26	23
16	Wheel Madrid	24	2	5	17	19	51	-32	11

Four more wins*. That’s what the Artisans will need at the most to bag their first title after this week’s results. Ben’s team dealt a huge blow to Kiran’s chance of catching him with a 1-0 win courtesy of Milos Kerkez reading an ill-thought out back-header and lobbing the Wateringhole keeper. At the same time the Muppets were slipping to a 3-2 defeat to SGU. It all happened in the second half as SGU led twice through Zian Flemming and Harry Wilson, only to be pegged back by first Ryan Christie and then Iliman N’diaye - all in the space of 17 minutes. Ola Aina’s clean got the winner for Aaron and puts him very much in the mix for fourth place.

And what a mix that is with five teams covered by three points. Cheese Makers currently occupy fourth spot after another big win, 5-1 over Markian. Anthony Gordon punished an early defensive error to set Matthew on his way, Nico O’Reilly bagged a quick second half brace before a James Hill own goal pulled it back it 3-1. The ever-reliable Raul Jimenez converted from the spot for the Cheese and Nikola Milenkovic’s clean made it the fourth time Matthew had scored five or more in the last five games. The Aardvarks are behind the Cheese on goal difference after a 4-2 win over Trusted. Beto twice gave Beef’s team the lead only for Igor Jesus and Ollie Watkins to level. Cleans from Jayden Bogle and Lewis Dunk from the bench gave Ady the win.

The CFJs are in seventh, a point off fourth after a 2-2 draw with San Dimas. Danny Welbeck loves scoring against his former club and got two more to put the Cows ahead. I’m grateful to Emi Martinez and Sepp van den Berg for the cleans that earns me a point. Claymore are in eighth spot after a battle with Nil Satis that Jaka Bijol’s clean won for Clive.

GC TotW jumped up to 11th with a 2-1 win at Mega Bucks. An unmarked Morgan Gibbs-White got Ollie’s first just after the hour and Brian Brobbey doubled the lead at the second attempt in the last minute. Dave got a consolation clean from Lucas Digne. If the top spot isn’t quite sorted then bottom spot just got a bit closer to being decided. YTFIB beat Wheel Madrid 4-1 to leave’s Paul’s team 12 points adrift. It was Wheels that took the lead too, John McGinn finishing an excellent set-piece routine. Julian turned it round with four clean sheets. Collins, Smith, Williams and Justin got those despite sounding like they're a claims management company with qualifications from an online university of dubious merit.

* All of Ben’s final six opponents are currently in the bottom half too.