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.

Week 23 Results - Top three keep winning

Claymore Athletic FC 3 v 0 Aardvark Abacus 

Garth Crooks' Team of the Week 0 v 5 Cheese Makers

Markian United 1 v 1 Stanley and Gracie United 

Real Muppets 1 v 0 YTFIB 

The Cow-Faced Juniors 3 v 0 Mega Buck Bandits 

The Wateringhole Society 4 v 0 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Trusted By Millions 1 v 0 San Dimas High School 

Wheel Madrid 0 v 4 The Fabulous Artisans

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	The Fabulous Artisans	23	16	4	3	53	29	24	52
2	Real Muppets	23	15	3	5	55	33	22	48
3	The Wateringhole Society	23	15	1	7	63	42	21	46
4	The Cow-Faced Juniors	23	11	4	8	52	42	10	37
5	Aardvark Abacus	23	10	6	7	42	33	9	36
6	Cheese Makers	23	10	6	7	50	42	8	36
7	Stanley and Gracie United	23	10	6	7	47	40	7	36
8	Claymore Athletic FC	23	10	3	10	44	39	5	33
9	San Dimas High School	23	7	9	7	31	39	-8	30
10	Trusted By Millions	23	8	5	10	39	37	2	29
11	Mega Buck Bandits	23	8	3	12	35	48	-13	27
12	Markian United	23	7	5	11	35	37	-2	26
13	Garth Crooks' Team of the Week	23	7	4	12	32	44	-12	25
14	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	23	6	5	12	27	52	-25	23
15	YTFIB	23	5	5	13	30	49	-19	20
16	Wheel Madrid	23	2	5	16	18	47	-29	11

Wins for the top three by an aggregate of 9-0 without scoring a goal between them!

The Artisans put four cleans on Wheel Madrid, Riccardo Calafiori and Jaydee Canvot inside the 90, Verbruggen and Diouf going the distance. It was tighter for the Muppets who edged out YTFIB with an Adrien Truffert clean. The Wateringhole Society stay on the heels of the top two after their 4-0 win over Nil Satis. Jeremie Frimpong bagged his clean after 64 minutes, Piero Hincapie replaced him off the bench and got a clean of his own. William Saliba and Malick Thiaw got the 90 minute versions.

It’s nine points from Kiran’s team to the CFJs in fourth. The Cows left it very late to beat Mega Bucks, Viktor Gyokeres tapping in on 89 minutes and there was still time for clean sheets from Gabriel and Christian Mosquera. The Aardvarks drop to fifth after a 3-0 reverse at Claymore. Goals all the way from Clive! Michael Kayode heading in after 22 minutes, Igor Thiago adding a second before the break and Matheus Cunha outpaced the Aardvarks back four to round out the win with 20 minutes left.

Cheese Makers were the big winners of the week, 5-0 at GC TotW. Anthony Gordon had an easy task after 18 minutes, Casemiro headed in from a corner after 53 minutes and Tolu Arokodare came off the bench to add a far post header under pressure 24 minutes later. David Raya and James Hill put the cleans icing on Matthew’s goals cake. SGU drop to seventh after being held 1-1 by Markian. Dominik Szoboszlai fired home a free-kick to put Aaron ahead on 18 minutes, Benjamin Sesko’s deflected effort was Ian’s equaliser with nine minutes to go. The only goal in the Trusted/San Dimas game came in the 31st minute when Bernardo Silva chipped in (brilliantly or accidentally depending on your point of view) for Beef’s team.