Sunday, 11 May 2014

Week 30 Results and final table

Congratulations to Trusted By Millions who are the 2013/14 WSFFL Champions.

Athletico Phoenix 0 v 1 San Dimas High School
Claymore Athletic FC 1 v 3 YTFIB
FCK2 1 v 6 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
Final Fantasy XI 0 v 8 Aardvark Abacus
Mega Buck Bandits 0 v 1 Trusted By Millions 
The Cow-Faced Juniors 0 v 0 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 
The Dead Parrots 1 v 1 Cheese Makers
The Fabulous Artisans 2 v 3 Real Muppets

Team P W D L F A Diff Pts
1 Trusted By Millions 30 18 5 7 66 41 25 59
2 Claymore Athletic FC 30 17 4 9 75 57 18 55
3 The Cow-Faced Juniors 30 16 5 9 74 48 26 53
4 Aardvark Abacus 30 14 7 9 52 48 3 49
5 Real Muppets 30 14 6 10 59 51 8 48
6 San Dimas High School 30 13 8 9 58 51 7 47
7 Cheese Makers 30 12 7 11 62 52 10 43
8 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 30 12 6 12 70 64 6 42
9 The Fabulous Artisans 30 10 9 11 73 64 9 39
10 Final Fantasy XI 30 10 9 11 45 52 -6 39
11 FCK2 30 8 10 12 49 59 -10 34
12 Mega Buck Bandits 30 9 7 14 43 56 -13 34
13 Athletico Phoenix 30 9 6 15 40 65 -25 33
14 The Dead Parrots 30 8 7 15 37 50 -13 31
15 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 30 8 6 16 43 59 -16 30
16 YTFIB 30 8 6 16 35 64 -29 30



In the end we didn't need an Aguerooooooh! moment to decide the title this time. By the time Stephane Sessegnon fired Trusted in front at Mega Bucks Clive was already two behind and we were just about done and dusted.

Beef turned down a £6m bid for Sessegnon in the summer and though the midfielder hasn't had his best campaign he'll be remembered for steering in the winner on the last day. Clive needed a win to stand a chance of pipping Trusted but slipped to a surprise defeat at home to YTFIB. Dwight Gayle got a brace for Julian (if Gayle keeps coring at this rate - four in 115 minutes - then he'll get 118 next season and would most likely give Julian the title) and Samir Nasri struck home a long ranger before Clive replied with a Tim Howard clean.

Despite that win Julian's team prop the league up this season. Nil Satis and the CFJs played out a lame goalless draw which sees Paul grab 15th on goal difference. At the other end of the scoring scale the Aardvarks stay fourth after walloping Final Fantasy 7-0. Ceri's team didn't help their cause by going two down to own goals through Nathan Baker and Gareth McAuley. Emanuel Adebayor added a spot-kick before the break and Vincent Kompany slammed home from close range before the cleans racked up for Ady.

The Muppets have had a poor run-in but finished with a win. There was an own goal here too, from the Artisans' Martin Skrtel, to set Ryan on his way before Daniel Agger and Daniel Sturridge scored almost identical set-piece goals in the space of three second-half minutes to put the game beyond Ben and consign him to the bottom half. My team finish sixth after a last day win at the Phoenix. The only goal came from Romelu Lukaku straight after the re-start. Brian's season petered out through lack of goals. That's his third 1-0 reverse in four games.

Cheese Makers held on to seventh with a point against the Parrots. Rickie Lambert eased Nemanja Vidic off the ball and rifled in on 28 minutes for Dean but a brilliant pitching wedge of a free-kick from Juan Mata drew Matthew level. FCK2 took the lead against Fred on seven minutes through Nathan Dyer's clever control and dinked finish but then folded like a cheap deckchair and conceded six. Paulinho levelled soon after the opener then Wilfried Bony, Andre Schurrle and even Fernando Torres added goals after the break. Fred rounds out the top half and must fancy his chances of having a run next season.

Monday, 5 May 2014

Week 29 Results

Wins for the top two mean the title race will go to the last week.

Aardvark Abacus 1 v 0 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Cheese Makers 1 v 4 Trusted By Millions

Claymore Athletic FC 5 v 1 Athletico Phoenix
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 0 v 4 The Cow-Faced Juniors

Real Muppets 1 v 3 Mega Buck Bandits

San Dimas High School 2 v 2 Final Fantasy XI

The Dead Parrots 2 v 1 The Fabulous Artisans

YTFIB 2 v 2 FCK2


Team P W D L F A Diff Pts
1 Trusted By Millions 29 17 5 7 65 41 24 56
2 Claymore Athletic FC 29 17 4 8 74 54 20 55
3 The Cow-Faced Juniors 29 16 4 9 74 48 26 52
4 Aardvark Abacus 29 13 7 9 44 48 -4 46
5 Real Muppets 29 13 6 10 56 49 7 45
6 San Dimas High School 29 12 8 9 57 51 6 44
7 Cheese Makers 29 12 6 11 61 51 10 42
8 The Fabulous Artisans 29 10 9 10 71 61 10 39
9 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 29 11 6 12 64 63 1 39
10 Final Fantasy XI 29 10 9 10 45 44 1 39
11 FCK2 29 8 10 11 48 53 -5 34
12 Mega Buck Bandits 29 9 7 13 43 55 -12 34
13 Athletico Phoenix 29 9 6 14 40 64 -24 33
14 The Dead Parrots 29 8 6 15 36 49 -13 30
15 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 29 8 5 16 43 59 -16 29
16 YTFIB 29 7 6 16 32 63 -31 27



The top two win but it's Beef that's singing The Lion Sleeps Tonight as he's a win away, a win away. (Sorry!)

A spectacular four goal burst either side of the break saw Trusted hold on to their advantage by beating Cheese Makers. Andi Weimann opened his account for the season with two headers before the break and Edin Dzeko got one either side of the interval to put his side four up. Matthew replied through Oussama Assaidi but couldn't dent Beef's title hopes. Claymore are in position to capitalise if Beef slips up after beating Athletico 5-1. A stunning strike from Ross Barkley opened the scoring for Clive on 11 minutes and Olivier Giroud doubled the advantage three minutes later. Sergio Aguero added another before Brian replied through Stewart Downing's free-kick before the break. Marko Arnautovic extinguished any hopes of a Phoenix revival and a David Luiz clean completed the win.

The CFJs had a comprehensive win over Fred but are now out of the race. Peter Odemwingie scored from very close in six minutes before the break and Luis Suarez added a second ten minutes into the second period. Two cleans landed Fred with one of his biggest defeats of the season. The Aardvarks are up to fourth thanks to Joe Allen's header which was the only goal in the game against struggling Nil Satis. 

Ryan's meek end to the season continued with defeat to Mega Bucks. Daniel Sturridge's deflected shot gave the Muppets the lead but Russel Martin, Guy Demel and Dwight Tiendalli got the cleans that handed the points to the Bandits. San Dimas and Final Fantasy shared the points with a 2-2 draw. Man of the moment Connor Wickham teed up Seb Larsson to open the scoring for Ceri, Romelu Lukaku replied for me. Damien Delaney's long-ranger looked to have won the game for the Fantasy but Dejan Lovren's clean earned me a point and assures me of a top half finish. Which is nice. 

Final Fantasy, Fred, Cheese Makers and the Artisans are scrapping for the last two places in the top half. Matthew is almost assured of one but Ben missed a chance to claim a place when losing to the Parrots. A first goal in I don't know how long from Shola Ameobi gave Dean the lead until three minutes from time when Loic Remy equalised. A freak Rickie Lambert goal right at the end means the Parrots are unlucky to finish the bottom. YTFIB prop things up and will have to win at Claymore to have a chance of shaking off that distinction. Julian was two up this week through a late brace from Dwight Gayle but cleans from Luke Shaw and John Terry gave Kevin a point.

Monday, 28 April 2014

Week 28 Results


A small step nearer to the title for Trusted.

Aardvark Abacus 1 v 0 Athletico Phoenix

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 4 v 1 Claymore Athletic FC

Mega Buck Bandits 0 v 5 Cheese Makers

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 1 v 1 FCK2

Real Muppets 1 v 2 The Dead Parrots

San Dimas High School 2 v 0 YTFIB
The Cow-Faced Juniors 4 v 3 Final Fantasy XI

Trusted By Millions 1 v 1 The Fabulous Artisans



Team P W D L F A Diff Pts
1 Trusted By Millions 28 16 5 7 61 40 21 53
2 Claymore Athletic FC 28 16 4 8 69 53 16 52
3 The Cow-Faced Juniors 28 15 4 9 70 48 22 49
4 Real Muppets 28 13 6 9 55 46 9 45
5 San Dimas High School 28 12 7 9 55 49 6 43
6 Aardvark Abacus 28 12 7 9 43 48 -5 43
7 Cheese Makers 28 12 6 10 60 47 13 42
8 The Fabulous Artisans 28 10 9 9 70 59 11 39
9 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 28 11 6 11 64 59 5 39
10 Final Fantasy XI 28 10 8 10 43 42 1 38
11 FCK2 28 8 9 11 46 51 -5 33
12 Athletico Phoenix 28 9 6 13 39 59 -20 33
13 Mega Buck Bandits 28 8 7 13 40 54 -14 31
14 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 28 8 5 15 43 58 -15 29
15 The Dead Parrots 28 7 6 15 34 48 -14 27
16 YTFIB 28 7 5 16 30 61 -31 26


The top two have a tough week but Trusted know that two wins will give them the title.

Beef's team played out a tough draw against the Artisans. Edin Dzeko ghosted in to head Trusted in front on four minutes but Jonjo Shelvey's stunning volley from the centre circle midway through the first half was Ben's equaliser and there were no further goals despite Ryan Shawcross seeing red for Trusted. Claymore slipped up though crashing 4-1 at Fred West. Wilfried Bony has had an excellent season and put Fred in front on 10 minutes. Olivier Giroud got clive back on terms after three quarters of the game but Bony's injury time penalty, quickly followed by cleans from Younes Kaboul and Cesar Azpilicueta damaged Claymore's title hopes.

Mathematically the CFJs are still in the race after coming from behind to beat the Cup winners. Connor Wickham seems a different player after his Cup Final goal and opened the scoring with a looping header. Mesut Ozil had Chris level three minutes before the break but a barnstorming run and shot from Yaya Toure had Ceri back in front almost immediately. Wickham's second four minutes from time seemed to have delivered the points to Final Fantasy but Willian walked the ball in in the last minute to cut the deficit and cleans from Vergini and Sagna (did Clive ship him out too soon?) gave Chris the win. The Muppets season is ending with a whimper and it was another defeat for Ryan this week. The Dead Parrots were the victors and turned the game round after Laurent Koscielny had poked Ryan's team ahead on 26 minutes. Fernando Amorebieta's first WSFFL got Dean level and Erik Pieters got the winning clean that sees the Parrots off the bottom.

YTFIB now prop the table up. Julian's team failed to bounce back from their big loss at Cheese Makers and went down 2-0 to San Dimas. Saido Berahino scoring an early close range goal for me and Dejan Lovren finished things with a clean. There was only one goal between the Aardvarks and Phoenix. Danny Rose's thumping header after 33 minutes gave Ady the points.

Matthew's team followed up their 6-0 with a five goal win at Mega Bucks. Two more for Juan Mata in this one. What a coincidence! Nil Satis and FCK2 finished level. Seamus Coleman has been one of the defenders of the season but his headed own goal put Kevin in front on half an hour. Paul got a share of the points with a quarter of an hour left with Nikica Jelavic first to react and following up from a rebound.

Week 27 Re-arranged game

Cheese Makers enjoy the break far more than their opponents. Juan Mata gets a brace to set the Stade De Fromage team on their way.


Cheese Makers 6 v 0 YTFIB

Saturday, 19 April 2014

FA Cup Final Result

Congratulations to Final Fantasy XI who claim their first winner's trophy with a comprehensive win over Trusted.

Final Fantasy XI 3
Wickham 18
Baker [c]
Delaney [c]


v

Trusted By Millions 0

(no cancelled cleans)

At Wembley, Attendance 90,000

Final Fantasy XI

Schwarzer; Baker, Rangel, Wilson, Delaney; Larsson, Nocerino, Toure, Taylor; Jerome, Wickham

Subs: McGregor; McAuley; Ince; Ba

Trusted By Millions

Adrian; Shawcross, Jones, Cahill, Tomkins; Sessegnon, Ramires, Lallana, Gerrard; Cisse, Dzeko

Subs: De Gea, Ridgewell, Moses, Hernandez


When the teams were announced a few eyebrows would have been raised with the surprise selections of Connor Wickham up front and Mark Schwarzer, a former Trusted player, between the sticks for Final Fantasy. Beef also had a tough decision between his 'keepers with Adrian getting the nod over David de Gea, the league's most expensive goalkeeper. The Spanish custodian was at the centre of the action on 18 minutes and his failure to hang on to a long shot set up Wickham to poke in from four yards and score his first Final Fantasy goal.

Ceri invested £13.5m in Wickham in August 2011 but injuries and loss of form had left him looking like an expensive flop. His goal will now mean he goes down in Final Fantasy folklore. He limped off seven minutes later but his goal gave his side confidence and had the opposite effect on Trusted.

Beef's midfield should have had the beating of Ceri's patched up selection but Steven Gerrard and Adam Lallana had off-days and created little. Frustration built and Ramires lashed out and caught Seb Larsson with a backhander in an off the ball incident. There was no way through for Trusted and Nathan Baker and Damien Delaney added clean sheets to complete the win and become only the seventh team to win the Cup in the last 18 seasons, delighting at least one set of the Okus Stadium fans in the process.

The winning manager was delighted, saying: "I feel very happy of course and a little surprised to win 3-0. It's quite an emphatic win for my budget team. After we lost Toure to injury last week, we feared for the worst, and with only one starting midfielder and our regular goalie out it seemed like a big ask. But our strikers seem to have woken up late in the season and added to our good solid defense and we had just enough to win through."

Beef was magnanimous in defeat and was left wondering what happened: "Well done, Ceri, you deserved the trophy!  Must be the worst ever WSFFL Cup Final performance with not one contribution from any of my 15 players who all played for their respective teams at the weekend. I'm in the dressing room ticking them off at the moment as the league could slip away now that Clive has Aguero and Rooney back in action."




How they got there:

Semi-finals

Final Fantasy XI 1 Aardvark Abacus 0
YTFIB 1 Trusted By Millions 5

Quarter-finals

Aardvark Abacus 2 v 0 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 1 v 2 YTFIB
The Dead Parrots 0 v 1 Final Fantasy XI
Trusted By Millions 5 v 2 Claymore Athletic FC


1st Round


Aardvark Abacus 0 v 0 San Dimas High School (Aardvark win replay 2-1)
Cheese Makers 0 v 1 YTFIB
FCK2 1 v 2 Final Fantasy XI
Mega Buck Bandits 1 v 3 Claymore Athletic FC
Real Muppets 3 v 5 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
The Cow-Faced Juniors 0 v 2 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
The Dead Parrots 3 v 2 Athletico Phoenix
Trusted By Millions 2 v 1 The Fabulous Artisans

Tuesday, 15 April 2014

Week 27 Results

Claymore end the Muppets' title hopes and cut the goal difference difference to Trusted in the process.

Athletico Phoenix 0 v 1 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI

Cheese Makers P v P YTFIB

Claymore Athletic FC 5 v 2 Real Muppets

FCK2 1 v 2 Trusted By Millions

Final Fantasy XI 1 v 1 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Mega Buck Bandits 1 v 2 The Cow-Faced Juniors 
The Dead Parrots 1 v 1 San Dimas High School

The Fabulous Artisans 4 v 1 Aardvark Abacus


Team P W D L F A Diff Pts
1 Trusted By Millions 27 16 4 7 60 39 21 52
2 Claymore Athletic FC 27 16 4 7 68 49 19 52
3 The Cow-Faced Juniors 27 14 4 9 66 45 21 46
4 Real Muppets 27 13 6 8 54 44 10 45
5 San Dimas High School 27 11 7 9 53 49 4 40
6 Aardvark Abacus 27 11 7 9 42 48 -6 40
7 The Fabulous Artisans 27 10 8 9 69 58 11 38
8 Final Fantasy XI 27 10 8 9 40 38 2 38
9 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 27 10 6 11 60 58 2 36
10 Cheese Makers 26 10 6 10 49 47 2 36
11 Athletico Phoenix 27 9 6 12 39 58 -19 33
12 FCK2 27 8 8 11 44 49 -5 32
13 Mega Buck Bandits 27 8 7 12 40 49 -9 31
14 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 27 8 4 15 42 57 -15 28
15 YTFIB 26 7 5 14 30 53 -23 26
16 The Dead Parrots 27 6 6 15 32 47 -15 24


The top two keep on winning but do it the hard way.

Trusted fell behind at FCK2 when Ben Foster saved a penalty on 16 minutes but Stephane Sessegnon outpaced the home defence to level on 31 minutes and the winning goal came from an unfortunate deflection off of Glen Johnson. Claymore came back from two down to end the Muppets' chances of the title. Raheem Sterling bamboozled the Claymore defence to open the scoring and a still discombobulated Jonas Olsson turned into his own net to see Ryan two up at the break. A super piece of control and smart finish from Olivier Giroud got Clive back in th egame and four cleans made for a comfortable win and cut the goal difference cap to Beef's side.

The CFJs came from behind as well beating Mega Bucks 2-1. An excellent Phillipe Coutinho snapshot had Dave ahead with 12 minutes left and Chris needed cleans from Geoff Cameron and Sascha Riether to get all the points. San Dimas are fifth this week after a draw at the bottom-placed Parrots. Erik Pieters' misplaced cross drifted in just before the break to give Dean the lead but Adrian Mariappa got my equalising clean on debut.

Half of the top eight is still up for grabs and the Artisans staked their claim for a place with a big win over the Aardvarks. Matej Vydra bagged his first for Ady in 20 seconds but Chris Brunt had Ben level three minutes later. Martin Skrtel glanced in a header after 26 minutes and Christian Eriksen clinched it right at the end. Fred gave himself a chance of finishing in the top half with a 1-0 win at Athletico. David Silva with the only goal.

Final Fantasy's Cup Final build up finished with a draw against Nil Satis. Demba Ba scored for Ceri but Seamus Coleman got  Paul's equaliser with a clean. More worryingly for Ceri the talismanic Yaya Toure limped off and will most likely miss the Final against Trusted. Lastly and leastly, the game between Cheese Makers and YTFIB was postponed due to... oooh, let's say a sudden outbreak of lactose intolerance at the Stade de Fromage.

Monday, 7 April 2014

Week 26 Results

Wow! Trusted go top on goal difference.

Athletico Phoenix 1 v 1 Final Fantasy XI

Cheese Makers 3 v 1 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI

Claymore Athletic FC 2 v 2 Mega Buck Bandits

Real Muppets 0 v 2 Aardvark Abacus

San Dimas High School 1 v 5 Trusted By Millions

The Dead Parrots 1 v 3 The Cow-Faced Juniors

The Fabulous Artisans 1 v 1 FCK2
YTFIB 5 v 3 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum


Team P W D L F A Diff Pts
1 Trusted By Millions 26 15 4 7 58 38 20 49
2 Claymore Athletic FC 26 15 4 7 63 47 16 49
3 Real Muppets 26 13 6 7 52 39 13 45
4 The Cow-Faced Juniors 26 13 4 9 64 44 20 43
5 Aardvark Abacus 26 11 7 8 41 44 -3 40
6 San Dimas High School 26 11 6 9 52 48 4 39
7 Final Fantasy XI 26 10 7 9 39 37 2 37
8 Cheese Makers 26 10 6 10 49 47 2 36
9 The Fabulous Artisans 26 9 8 9 65 57 8 35
10 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 26 9 6 11 59 58 1 33
11 Athletico Phoenix 26 9 6 11 39 57 -18 33
12 FCK2 26 8 8 10 43 47 -4 32
13 Mega Buck Bandits 26 8 7 11 39 47 -8 31
14 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 26 8 3 15 41 56 -15 27
15 YTFIB 26 7 5 14 30 53 -23 26
16 The Dead Parrots 26 6 5 15 31 46 -15 23


Four games ago Beef was seven points adrift of Claymore. His team are now five wins away from having three pots on his mantelpiece.

With the Charity Shield already bagged and the FA Cup Final looming Trusted hammered San Dimas and with Claymore drawing it's Beef's side on top on goal difference. My team took the lead against Trusted through Romelu Lukaku's solo effort But I was behind by half-time. Steven Gerrard converting from the spot and Edin Dzeko scoring a minute later. After the break Javier Hernandez scored from close range and Gerrard added another penalty before Gary Cahill's clean rounded things off. Clive had spent nine of the last ten weeks on top but his draw drops him to second. It could have been worse. Mega Bucks were two up with twenty minutes left. Guy Demel poked in a controversial opener on half-time and the lead was doubled thanks to Grant Holt's first of the season. Joe Ledley pulled one back a minute later and Branislav Ivanovic got the equalising clean.

Only one win in five for the Muppets means Ryan's up against it in the title race and his team slipped to defeat against the Aardvarks. Steven Jovetic broke the deadlock on 81 minutes and Petr Cech got the clean to confirm the points. Fourth-placed CFJs are probably too far away to make it back-to-back titles. Chris did win at the Parrots this week despite falling behind to Rickie Lambert's first-half penalty. Willian scored a superb curling equaliser and Gylfi Sigurdsson had Chris ahead on 90 minutes and Julian Speroni followed up with a clean.

The MOTM jinx didn't really catch Ceri out as Final Fantasy drew 1-1 at the Phoenix. Yaya Toure's third minute penalty looked to have secured all the points but Adnan Januzaj got Brian's late, late equaliser. Cheese Makers complete the top half after a good win over Fred. February signing Mohamed Salah opened the scoring just after the half-hour and Juan Mata added a second with a free-kick seven minutes later. Mata added his second five minutes into the second half with a cool finish after a brilliant cut-back and Fred could only reply with an Alex Buttner clean.

The Artisans and FCK2 shared the points at Goddard Stadium. Christian Eriksen took a while to settle but now looks at home and his gaol had Ben ahead 12 minutes from time. The Artisans couldn't close it out though and John Terry's clean got Kevin a point. YTFIB are off the bottom after beating Nil Satis. Steven Naismith's goal had Paul ahead early on but Julian hit back through Jason Puncheon and Samir Nasri to lead at the break. It was Mikel Arteta's unlucky own goal that gave Julian breathing space and Puncheon's second (a beauty) and a Hugo Rodallega flick header in the last five minutes saw YTFIB home.