Claymore Athletic FC 1 v 0 YTFIB
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 3 v 1 Real Muppets
Markian United 3 v 5 Aardvark Abacus
San Dimas High School 1 v 6 Mega Buck Bandits
Stanley and Gracie United 1 v 2 The Fabulous Artisans
The Cow-Faced Juniors 1 v 3 Trusted By Millions
The Wateringhole Society 4 v 0 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Wheel Madrid 0 v 2 Cheese Makers
Fred got the win (3-1 over the Muppets) to give him his highest points total and equal his own fewest defeats record. With just one defeat since league 10 he’s made it look emphatic. Taiwo Awoniyi, Bruno Fernandes and Jakub Kiwior got the goals and should all be around next year as the spine to the team. That’s four titles in the last seven seasons but he does seem to take a year off after winning which gives the rest of us some hope.
Despite being best of the rest I got the feeling that Chris was never convinced his team were quite good enough to take the title. A 2-1 defeat to Trusted on the final day meant it was a mere five points from the last six games which backed that thought up. Question marks over Rodrigo’s future add to his forward conundrum going into the summer.
A poor run over the winter stopped Ben getting into the title shake-up. He finished with a 2-1 win at SGU to seal third (seven wins and two draws in his last nine games) and add that to his FA Cup win. Evan Ferguson looks a good signing for the future and he’ll expect to be thereabouts again.
The Wateringhole Society had an unlucky run in October/November where they scored nine times in four games and only had three points to show for it. The chase eventually ran out of steam with six defeats in the last two months. Counters for Cody Gakpo and Jan Paul van Hecke in their final day 4-0 win over Nil Satis shows Kiran still has an eye for a player.
Trusted’s win at the CFJs saw Beef finish fifth to go alongside his FA Cup final defeat. He’ll be rueing injuries to Luis Diaz, Gabriel Jesus and record-signing Alexander Isak but even with those players fit he might need a bit more to be at the sharp end.
Despite finishing no higher than 14th in the last four seasons Ian assured me he was after a top half finish before we got under way this season. Sixth (and two semi-finals) is a great return and although a last day defeat stopped that being even better he’ll be satisfied with his season’s work. As will Harry Kane who’d be the owner of a WSFFL record if it wasn’t for a certain Norwegian.
Aaron fancied fourth but his defeat to Trusted made it a seventh place finish for the second season running. Possible departures for Martial and Havertz plus a question mark over James Ward-Prowse’s future will give the SGU boss plenty to think about this summer.
The Aardvarks finished with an excellent 5-3 win at Markian. Eighth place is a step up on last year for Ady but he’ll be wondering how Son Heung-min dropped from Golden Boot to just six goals all season. A Declan Rice sale could top up the Aardvark war-chest ahead of next season.
San Dimas had finished seventh or eighth in seven of the last eight seasons. That was already out of reach before this week’s 6-1 defeat to Mega Bucks. A Charity Shield and ninth this year looked the best possible outcome for a team with a solid defence but is still short of goals.
The Muppets certainly weren’t short of goals from Erling Haaland who broke scoring records in his first season. Ryan landed the PCMT this season and looks to have one of the strongest starting XI’s but for whatever reason they’re not all clicking at the same time.
Cheese Makers made a shocking start to the season, waiting until week 10 for a first win. Their last day 2-0 victory at Wheel Madrid rounded off a great end to the campaign, unbeaten in the last seven games. Matthew will be hoping his squad isn’t too disrupted by transfers this summer.
Wheel Madrid boss Paul W seemed to be ‘on the beach’ a bit early this season. Over the last 11 weeks his team only picked up seven counters but still managed to turn that into seven points. Plenty of work to do on the squad this summer to repeat the decent early season form.
YTFIB finished with a tame defeat to Claymore but overall had a decent season. There was even a five game unbeaten run along the way. Nick Pope and Ilkay Gundogan were Julian’s stars this season and he looks to have one for the future in Julio Enciso.
Nil Satis had a decent start to the campaign and were as high as sixth by week 14. I don’t know if it was a different beach to Paul W but Paul S was certainly on one and his team only won twice in the second half of the season. Nearly lost most of his squad too. Careless!
Mega Bucks bounced between the bottom two places for two thirds of the season but a Granit Xhaka inspired big win over San Dimas kept him off the bottom when the music stopped. Investment on Antony hasn’t paid off yet and Dave might need a Wilf Zaha replacement too next season.
Clive’s final day 1-0 over YTFIB wasn’t enough to keep him out of bottom spot for the first time. Undoubtedly missed Mitrovic during spells of injury and suspension but maybe the ’Tinkerman’ approach (55 transfers!) played a part in just two wins in the second half of the season.
