PCMT Quarter-final draw

It was a trip into work for the yellow bag with my colleague Ewan (home teams) and Simon (away) doing the honours.


Claymore Athletic FC v The Fabulous Artisans
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI v The Dead Parrots
Trusted By Millions v Real Muppets
You Know Your Boston Rock FC v Final Fantasy XI

Sheriff must be pleased with Boston Rock's draw as his team bids for five in a row but we'll know more about the teams' respective strengths after this week's league match between the sides.

Week 7 and PCMT 1st Round replay results

League Week Number: 7, W/C 15 October

Aardvark Abacus 4 v 4 You Know Your Boston Rock FC
Claymore Athletic FC 1 v 0 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Mega Buck Bandits 1 v 1 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
Real Muppets 2 v 2 Athletico Phoenix
The Cheese Makers 0 v 2 San Dimas High School
The Cow-Faced Juniors 2 v 2 Final Fantasy XI
The Dead Parrots 1 v 4 The Fabulous Artisans
Trusted By Millions 4 v 0 York’s Returning Glory

Trusted stay unbeaten and got back to their fluent ways against York's. Beef's team took an hour to break down their opponents but Ramires bundled them ahead and the returning Steven Gerrard struck a free-kick through a flaky wall seven minutes later to double the lead. Julian's previously tight defence then caved in to a Hernandez goal and Shawcross clean. The Fabulous Artisans have quietly climbed to second and despatched the Parrots 4-1. Mario Balotelli scored an instinctive overhead kick top open the scoring and Adam Johnson struck just after half-time after a Steven Warnock error. Warnock pulled one back for Dean but two cleans saw Ben out of sight.

Aardvark Abacus are third after a high-scoring draw with Boston Rock. Anthony Pilkington struck for Ady in the first minute but John Terry's header levelled the game just before the break. Then the fun started. Vincent Kompany and Pilkington again made it 3-1 while the Boston fightback came from smart finished from Jermain Defoe and James Milner. Sheriff thought he'd picked up his first win when Chris Eagles struck on 90 minutes but the celebrations were short-lived as Matthew Upson's clean meant it finished 4-4.  Claymore had been banging them in so far this season but in a low-key Evertonian derby the only score was a Jonas Olsson clean in Clive's favour.

Fred West seemed to had got things rolling recently but tripped up against Mega Bucks. Dave was ahead on 10 minutes through Russell Martin but a Rafael Van der Vaart spot-kick completed the scoring in this one five minutes before half-time. The Cheese Makers have found it tougher going after a great start and despite Juan Mata turning San Dimas inside out there was no one to supply the finish. San Dimas won the game in three second-half minutes thanks to Ali Al-Habsi's saved penalty and Peter Odemwingie's shot on the turn.

It's another week without a win for the bottom-place Muppets too. Athletico Phoenix were ahead through Robin van Persie in 28 seconds but Chris Brunt and an unmarked Danny Sturridge had Ryan in front on 31 minutes. It was that man van Persie with an exquisite free-kick eight minutes from time that grabbed a point for Brian. The CFJs must have thought they were on there way to a revenge win over Final Fantasy when Chris Samba's header put them two up in 24 minutes. Ceri's team are proving tough to be beat and Seb Larsson's brilliant set-piece and then the bargain that is Demba Ba made 2-2 and that's how it finished.

PCMT 1st Round Replay

Trusted By Millions 4 v 2 San Dimas High School

Javier Hernandez stole into a static San Dimas defence to head the goal to break the deadlock between these sides and Ryan Shawcross finished the match with a clean. Trusted are the last team into the PCMT Quarters, my team get a chance to become the first Consolation Cup winners. I'll get the draws done before our next league matches get under way.

Paul Cartmell Memorial Trophy 1st Round Results

Athletico Phoenix 2 v 3 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
Final Fantasy XI 6 v 3 The Cow-Faced Juniors
Mega Buck Bandits 1 v 6 Real Muppets
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 4 v 6 You Know Your Boston Rock FC
San Dimas High School 1 v 1 Trusted By Millions
The Cheese Makers 1 v 2 Claymore Athletic
The Dead Parrots 4 v 0 Aardvark Abacus
York's Returning Glory 1 v 4 The Fabulous Artisans

Perhaps Sheriff should tell his team it's the PCMT every week! Boston Rock have yet to pick up a league victory but turned on the style and stretched their unbeaten run in this competition to 20 matches (by my reckoning). Star of the show this week was hat-trick scoring Frank Lampard in a 'I told you not to write me off' kind of way. Nil Satis put up a late fight but left it too late, mounting a stirring comeback from 6-1 behind. After three straight years of a Boston Rock v Aardvark final that won't be happening this time round. Ady's team were battered 4-0 by the Dead Parrots and fail to make it past the first round for the first time since 2004.

Dean's Parrots were one of only two teams from last season's bottom half to knock out higher-placed opponents. The others were the in form Final Fantasy who put six past the CFJs. Andy (Andrew) Johnson was Ceri's hat-trick hero and cleans from Enrique and Schwarzer snuffed out Chris's comeback and put Final Fantasy in the quarters for the first time in five seasons. Bottom of the table Real Muppets were our other six-hitters this week against Mega Bucks. Dave's team have effectively become a bye in this competition, not winning a game since 2002. Ryan's Muppets will hope that their season starts here.

Athletico Phoenix (in all their various guises) are another team that have struggled with this competition, winning just one tie since we went to a 16-team league. Brian was one the way to breaking that hoodoo mid-way through the first half through goals from Morrison and Bendtner but van der Vaart pulled one back for Fred before the break and then won the game with a late Danny Welbeck goal and a Kolarov clean. The Cheese Makers were another team to take an early lead but finish on the unhappy side of the result. Shane Long looked to have given Matthew the half-time advantage but Tim Howard's saved penalty equalised for Claymore and Jonny Evans registered the winning clean.

York's' great start to the season came crashing to a halt at the hands of the Artisans. Samir Nasri gave Julian hope after Adam Johnson and Mario Balotelli had Ben two up on the hour but two more Artisans cleans made the score look lop-sided. One game goes to a replay this week - Trusted are still unbeaten this season but needed a clean sheet to rescue a draw after Kyle Walker had smacked one in for San Dimas from long range

Week 6 Results

Trusted stay top but Fred and the Aardvarks are making their moves.

Athletico Phoenix 2 v 0 The Cheese Makers
Final Fantasy XI 3 v 2 Claymore Athletic FC
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 4 v 1 Real Muppets
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 0 v 0 Trusted By Millions
San Dimas High School 0 v 1 Aardvark Abacus
The Fabulous Artisans 2 v 1 Mega Buck Bandits
York’s Returning Glory 1 v 2 The Dead Parrots
You Know Your Boston Rock FC 2 v 2 The Cow-Faced Juniors

Because of the PCMT and international break we won't be in league action until October 15th. Which is a bit of a shame because we've got an exciting-looking league table on our hands. Trusted stay top but drew for the second week running. Javier Hernandez limped off after 11 minutes and after that there was no sign of Beef's team breaching a determined Nil Satis rearguard. Trusted are the last unbeaten team in the league after York's fell to the Parrots. Peter Crouch battered a header home early in the second half for Julian but couldn't kill the game off and ultimately went down to Hart and Riise cleans for Dean.

It's the Aardvarks that are up to third after notching their third straight win. It wasn't much of a match against San Dimas with a Vincent Kompany clean the only item on the scoresheet but Ady won't mind how the points come. The Artisans have arrived in third place without anyone really noticing. Ben's team did go a goal down to Mega Bucks but Mario Balotelli's deflected shot and a Kieran Gibbs clean got the Artisans their fourth win of the campaign.

Biggest scorers of the week were our defending champions. Fred's team were 3-0 up against the Muppets inside half an hour, Rafael van der Vaart, Nani and Fernando Torres all finding the target. Torres' red card for a reckless lunge before half-time should have given Ryan's team some momentum but Alex Song made it four for Fred in the last knockings of the game. Despite Joleon Lescott's clean the Muppets fall to the bottom of the table (can you believe it?) on goals scored. Ryan's loss is Sheriff's gain as Boston Rock climb a place. It was only draw for the 'Sky Heroes' but it was looking like another defeat . The CFJs were in front from a Gareth Bale header and some Luis Suarez near-post trickery but a crazy last couple of minutes saw the points shared. James Milner raced onto a (cliche alert!) defence-splitting throughball to poke home on 89 minutes and then a freakish deflection off Richard Dunne in injury time made it 2-2.

Claymore's strikers have been dishing out pain in hat-trick form over the early weeks of the season but were on the wrong end of one this week. Demba Ba looked quite handy for Final Fantasy last season and he opened his season's account for Ceri with three goals inside the hour.A Barry Bannan penalty pulled one back for Clive and a Bacary Sagna clean made for a nervy few minutes but Final Fantasy hung on. Robin van Persie had been a bit quiet so far this term but scored both goals as the Phoenix beat the Cheese Makers 2-0. Two defeats in a row see Matthew's team down to seventh, Brian is ninth.

Week 5 Results

Trusted's 100% record goes but Beef's team are still two points clear.

Aardvark Abacus 6 v 1 Athletico Phoenix
Claymore Athletic FC 3 v 1 The Cow-Faced Juniors
Mega Buck Bandits 0 v 4 York’s Returning Glory
Real Muppets 1 v 4 The Fabulous Artisans
San Dimas High School 3 v 3 You Know Your Boston Rock FC
The Cheese Makers 2 v 3 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
The Dead Parrots 2 v 3 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Trusted By Millions 1 v 1 Final Fantasy XI

Trusted not striding off into the distance just yet. Beef's team, ahead early through Titus Bramble, were pegged pack and held by Final Fantasy through Seb Larsson's strike. The point is enough to keep Ceri off the bottom. Two points behind Trusted are our only other unbeaten side, York's. Julian's team put in their best performance of the season and, with a little help from a Tuncay own goal, went on to turn over Mega Bucks 4-0.

The Aardvarks are up to third after a 6-1 beating of Athletico Phoenix. In a year when their historical rivals are not firing could Ady's team get back on the honours board? A settled Luca Modric and a happy Emanuel Adebayor could be big players this season. The Cheese Makers suffered their first defeat of the campaign but made the reigning champions work for it. Franco Di Santo had Matthew ahead but Nani's rocket and Fernando Torres had Fred in front just after the break. Alex Song nudged one past his own keeper to square the match at 2-2 but a Younes Kaboul clean won the points and gets Fred moving in the right direction.

On the subject of own goals the Muppets managed to score two as they fell 4-1 to the Artisans. Jonathan Woodgate and Laurent Koscielny both managed to score at the wrong end to steer Ben towards a third win of the season. Guess who scored for Claymore this week? Did you say Aguero and Rooney? You were right! Those two have 17 between them already this season. Martin Petrov's reply from the spot for Chris was too little, too late.

Yakubu scored twice on debut for the Dead Parrots but finished on the losing side. Mikel Arteta equalised his first goal and then Nil Satis new boy Royston Drenthe struck late to make it 2-2. John O'Shea got the winning clean for Paul to haul him into the top ten. Still no win for Boston Rock this season. Sheriff must have thought he was home and dry at 3-0 up, big summer signing Scott Sinclair opening his account along the way, but San Dimas found three clean sheets from somewhere to grab a point. Boston Rock and the Muppets in the bottom three after five games. Whatever next?

San Dimas Deal

San Dimas manager Peej has been looking at his squad and found it a little unbalanced and striker-heavy.

Agreement has been reached for Michael Owen to leave the club. Owen joined the club just over a year ago and found the net once.

The departure of the former England striker has freed up a squad space at Tesco Car Park Stadium which was quickly filled by former Real Muppets and Mega Bucks defender David Wheater.

Week 4 Results

Trusted stay stop, the Claymore goal spree continues...

Athletico Phoenix 2 v 1 San Dimas High School
Final Fantasy XI 1 v 2 The Dead Parrots
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 0 v 2 Aardvark Abacus
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 0 v 1 Mega Buck Bandits
The Cow-Faced Juniors 0 v 2 Trusted By Millions
The Fabulous Artisans 1 v 2 The Cheese Makers
York’s Returning Glory 2 v 1 Real Muppets
You Know Your Boston Rock FC 2 v 7 Claymore Athletic FC

Despite the international break and various transfer deals we're pretty much where we were at the end of August. Trusted are still top, York's and The Cheese Makers are still unbeaten, Final Fantasy and Boston Rock still winless and Claymore are still banging them in 'for fun'. (Does anyone score for 'disappointment' or 'misery'?)

Most of the games this week were settled by clean sheets. Exceptions being Trusted who got Javier Hernandez back scoring with a brace against the CFJs (Chris's first defeat) and Claymore who again had a hat-trick from Wayne Rooney and Sergio Aguero in their win over an unlucky Boston Rock. Sheriff and Fred, top two last year, have won win between them so far this. Athletico Phoenix, the Parrots, The Cheese Makers and York's all won by notching clean sheets after trailing to goals from their opponents. Mega Bucks and the Aardvarks both picked up wins without conceding.

You might have been able to tip Beef's team as being top after four weeks but Matthew, Julian and Dean filling the next three places? No one would have suggested that.