Week 25 Results - Title race back in the balance

Aardvark Abacus 5 v 1 Wheel Madrid

Garth Crooks' Team of the Week 0 v 2 Cheese Makers

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 3 v 1 Markian United

Stanley and Gracie United 2 v 3 Claymore Athletic FC

The Cow-Faced Juniors 4 v 1 Real Muppets 

The Wateringhole Society 3 v 0 Mega Buck Bandits 

Trusted By Millions 2 v 2 San Dimas High School

YTFIB 2 v 1 The Fabulous Artisans

Week 24 Results - Five point lead for the Muppets

Cheese Makers 3 v 0 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 

Claymore Athletic FC 3 v 0 Wheel Madrid 

Markian United 0 v 2 The Wateringhole Society 

Mega Buck Bandits 2 v 4 YTFIB

Real Muppets 3 v 2 Trusted By Millions

San Dimas High School 3 v 0 Garth Crooks' Team of the Week

Stanley and Gracie United 1 v 3 The Cow-Faced Juniors 

The Fabulous Artisans 3 v 2 Aardvark Abacus

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Real Muppets	24	15	4	5	56	32	24	49
2	Trusted By Millions	24	14	2	8	72	51	21	44
3	The Wateringhole Society	24	13	5	6	58	38	20	44
4	Cheese Makers	24	13	5	6	57	40	17	44
5	The Cow-Faced Juniors	24	12	3	9	63	47	16	39
6	Stanley and Gracie United	24	12	3	9	51	45	6	39
7	The Fabulous Artisans	24	11	4	9	54	49	5	37
8	Markian United	24	11	4	9	44	39	5	37
9	San Dimas High School	24	11	3	10	46	40	6	36
10	Garth Crooks' Team of the Week	24	10	6	8	51	46	5	36
11	Claymore Athletic FC	24	10	2	12	46	60	-14	32
12	Aardvark Abacus	24	8	5	11	49	52	-3	29
13	YTFIB	24	8	3	13	32	41	-9	27
14	Mega Buck Bandits	24	6	2	16	25	59	-34	20
15	Wheel Madrid	24	5	3	16	26	51	-25	18
16	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	24	5	2	17	27	67	-40	17

The game between the top two ended in a 3-2 win for the Muppets and a five point lead for Ryan’s team. The picture looked very different at half-time with J-P Mateta and Leandro Trossard putting Trusted 2-0 ahead. There was no Erling Haaland for Ryan but clean sheets meant no problem with the crucial three coming from Ederson, Jurrien Timber and Tosin Adarabioyo. The Wateringhole Society and Cheese Makers have joined Beef’s team on 44 points. The Wateringhole beat Markian 2-0 with a simple Harvey Barnes finish on 34 minutes and a Maio Gusto clean. Cheese Makers beat Nil Satis 3-0, scoring all three in the first 14 minutes. Jacob Murphy picked up a close range brace and Alexis Mac Allister smacked in a shot like a tracer bullet to keep Matthew in the title hunt.

The CFJs are fifth, a place ahead of this week’s victims SGU but at eight points back a lot would have to fall into place for these teams to get among the honours. Danny Welbeck gave the Cows the lead at the break, Pablo Sarabia and Jorgen Strand Larsen added second half goals before Kieran Trippier’s clean pulled one back for Aaron as it finished 3-1 to Chris and Co. The Artisans edged the Aardvarks 3-2 to go seventh. Mathys Tel’s injury time penalty made it 2-1 to Ady’s side but there was still time for Ben to snatch all the points through cleans by Diogo Dalot and Conor Bradley. Ninth place is the highest San Dimas have been in the league since week one! My team are back there after beating GC TotW 3-0. A great bit of Rodrigo Muniz skill got the goal for the Saints, Dan Burn and Josko Gvardiol got the clean sheets.

Claymore eased past Wheels 3-0 and stay 11th. Donyell Malen and Daniel Munoz were on target for Clive and Leny Yoro picked up a clean. YTFIB pulled themselves further away from the basement battle with a 4-2 win at Mega Bucks. After going behind to Alex Iwobi’s goal Dave turned it round to lead 2-1 courtesy of two Evanilson goals. It wasn’t enough though as Julian had cleans from Nick Pope. Nathan Collins and Ricardo Pereira from the bench to take all three points.

FA Cup semi-final results

The Fabulous Artisans 1 v 6 The Wateringhole Society

Trusted By Millions 2 v 4 San Dimas High School

Kiran will take his team to our FA Cup Final for the first time after a comprehensive 6-1 win over the Artisans. Ben led at the break after Omar Marmoush crashed in on 29 minutes. It all changed in the second half. Marcus Rashford’s quick break and finish got the equaliser and the returning Bukayo Saka nodded in at the far post on 73 minutes to put the Society in front. Four clean sheets gave Kiran his biggest FA Cup win, and Ben his biggest FA Cup defeat.

San Dimas will bid for their fourth FA Cup win after seeing off Trusted 4-2. Anthony Elanga and Mikel Merino had me two up but Beef had some hope when Alexander Isak scored just before the break. There was an equaliser for Trusted on the hour when Liam Delap smashed home. San Dimas got over the line thanks to cleans from Gvardiol and Kilman from the bench.

The final is on the weekend of 26 April.

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.