Week 23 results

Claymore go eight points clear. 

Aardvark Abacus 2 v 2 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Athletico Phoenix 3 v 0 The Dead Parrots
Cheese Makers 3 v 1 Real Muppets
Claymore Athletic FC 4 v 1 Mega Buck Bandits

FCK2 3 v 1 Final Fantasy XI

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 2 v 0 Trusted By Millions

San Dimas High School 2 v 1 YTFIB

The Fabulous Artisans 4 v 1 The Cow-Faced Juniors


	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Claymore Athletic FC	23	14	6	3	67	34	33	48
2	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	23	11	7	5	52	32	20	40
3	FCK2	23	11	7	5	44	32	12	40
4	Trusted By Millions	23	12	4	7	44	35	9	40
5	Athletico Phoenix	23	12	2	9	55	38	17	38
6	Aardvark Abacus	23	11	2	10	35	50	-15	35
7	San Dimas High School	23	10	4	9	36	47	-11	34
8	Real Muppets	23	10	3	10	44	39	5	33
9	Final Fantasy XI	23	9	5	9	30	37	-7	32
10	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	23	9	5	9	42	52	-10	32
11	The Fabulous Artisans	23	9	3	11	40	45	-5	30
12	The Cow-Faced Juniors	23	7	7	9	50	48	2	28
13	Cheese Makers	23	7	7	9	32	32	0	28
14	The Dead Parrots	23	9	1	13	30	39	-9	28
15	Mega Buck Bandits	23	5	5	13	35	46	-11	20
16	YTFIB	23	3	2	18	24	54	-30	11

Clive is now five wins at most from lifting his second title in four seasons. Olivier Giroud is hitting form at the right time of the season and his brace put Claymore on track. They could even afford Wayne Rooney missing a late penalty against a Mega Bucks team who seem to have forgotten how to win. Fred's back up to second after seeing off Trusted 2-0. A very early Eden Hazard goal was followed up by a not so early Wilfried Bony effort, his first since coming back from the Africa Cup of Nations.

FCK2 have overtaken Beef's team and are now in third. Harry Kane is driving Kevin's rise up the table and notched a perhaps fortuitous hat-trick this week against Final Fantasy. (How was that second not an own goal?) Ceri not helped by a mistaken identity sending-off scenario after two minutes. Athletico are back to winning ways after a lull. Diego Costa found the Parrots net inside ten minutes from an angle but limped off later in the game with a case of international break-itis. Dean had no answer this week and two Phoenix cleans ended any hopes of a comeback.

The Aardvarks had to come back twice to earn a point against Nil Satis. Paul's team had led twice through Seamus Coleman and Bafetimbi Gomis close to the end of the game but first Glenn Murray and then a Ryan Bertrand clean for Ady shared the points. San Dimas looked beaten before a late rally too. Mame Diouf had put YTFIB in front early on but Julian's team were unable to hold out as first Simon Mignolet saved an injury time penalty and then Neil Taylor got the winning clean.

Cheese Makers appear to have woken from their slumbers recently and stopped the Muppets' recent good run. Record signing Juan Mata turning in one of his best performances for Matthew's side. The CFJs aren't usually found as far down the table as 12th but they're on a terrible run. Chris' team finding new ways to disappoint him Jason Shackell kneeing into his own net  in a heavy defeat against the Artisans. Ben's team are picking up at long last and he must be looking forward to next season (and probably has been since October).

Week 22 results

Clive and Beef look like the managers most likely to fight it out the title.

Cheese Makers 1 v 0 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI

FCK2 2 v 1 San Dimas High School

Final Fantasy XI 2 v 0 Aardvark Abacus

Mega Buck Bandits 2 v 4 The Fabulous Artisans

Real Muppets 4 v 1 Athletico Phoenix

The Cow-Faced Juniors 0 v 2 Claymore Athletic FC

Trusted By Millions 3 v 0 The Dead Parrots
YTFIB 0 v 1 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum


	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Claymore Athletic FC	22	13	6	3	63	33	30	45
2	Trusted By Millions	22	12	4	6	44	33	11	40
3	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	22	10	7	5	50	32	18	37
4	FCK2	22	10	7	5	41	31	10	37
5	Athletico Phoenix	22	11	2	9	52	38	14	35
6	Aardvark Abacus	22	11	1	10	33	48	-15	34
7	Real Muppets	22	10	3	9	43	36	7	33
8	Final Fantasy XI	22	9	5	8	29	34	-5	32
9	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	22	9	4	9	40	50	-10	31
10	San Dimas High School	22	9	4	9	34	46	-12	31
11	The Cow-Faced Juniors	22	7	7	8	49	44	5	28
12	The Dead Parrots	22	9	1	12	30	36	-6	28
13	The Fabulous Artisans	22	8	3	11	36	44	-8	27
14	Cheese Makers	22	6	7	9	29	31	-2	25
15	Mega Buck Bandits	22	5	5	12	34	42	-8	20
16	YTFIB	22	3	2	17	23	52	-29	11

Clive probably six wins from the title now after brushing aside the CFJs 3-0. Dusan Tadic and Olivier Giroud got first half goals and Michael Dawson added a clean. Chris's team is sinking without trace at the moment. Trusted are up to second after beating the Parrots by the same scoreline. Jordan Henderson broke the deadlock midway through the second period and Beef's team added two more cleans but are still a long way behind Claymore on the Goal Difference front.

Fred drops to third after defeat at the Stade de Fromage. Brown Ideye got his first of the season with a stooping header on 19 minutes and Matthew's team held on to pull away from the bottom two. FCK2 have joined Fred on 37 points with a 2-1 defeat of San Dimas. Romelu Lukaku did open the scoring for me but two Kevin cleans got the points.

The Phoenix are another team going the wrong way at the moment. Diego Costa did give Brian an early lead but Michael Carrick brought the Muppets level with his first of the season. Three more cleans gave Ryan the win and he'l be wishing his team found this sort of form earlier in the season. Final Fantasy turned over the Aardvarks 2-0 to close within two points of their opponents. George Boyd hit a cracker for Ceri on the hour and Gareth McAuley's clean finished things off.

The Artisans very much have their eye on a top half place after victory at Mega Bucks. This was 2-2 at the break with braces from Gaby Agbonlahor for Dave and Christian Benteke for Ben. The only scores in the second half were Artisans cleans to leave Dave detached from the main pack. YTFIB are further detached still. Julian's good run now seems a long time ago and a 1-0 reverse to Nil Satis is his sixth defeat in a row.

FA Cup semi-final results

The top four played out the semi-finals and the current top two will meet in the final in early May.

Athletico Phoenix 1 v 7 Fred West LandscapeGardening XI
Trusted By Millions 2 v 3 Claymore Athletic FC

Fred notched his biggest ever Cup win over Athletico after a tight first half. Nacer Chadli volleyed Fred ahead on seven minutes but transfer window signing Dame N'Doye back-heeled the Phoenix level eight minutes later. Eden Hazard scored a rare header to put Fred back in front on 22 minutes and then was the end of the scoring until Fred unleashed his army of clean sheets.

Trusted were two up against Claymore through in-form Jordan Henderson and Victor Moses at the break but Clive fought back in the second half. Olivier Giroud poked in on 64 minutes but it was cleans from Maya Yoshida and Alex Kolarov that completed the Claymore victory.

Week 21 Results

Another good week for Claymore.

Aardvark Abacus 2 v 2 The Cow-Faced Juniors

Athletico Phoenix 0 v 1 Final Fantasy XI

Claymore Athletic FC 3 v 1 YTFIB

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 0 v 0 Real Muppets

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 0 v 6 Trusted By Millions

San Dimas High School 0 v 2 Cheese Makers

The Dead Parrots 3 v 1 Mega Buck Bandits

The Fabulous Artisans 1 v 1 FCK2

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Claymore Athletic FC	21	12	6	3	60	33	27	42
2	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	21	10	7	4	50	31	19	37
3	Trusted By Millions	21	11	4	6	41	33	8	37
4	Athletico Phoenix	21	11	2	8	51	34	17	35
5	FCK2	21	9	7	5	39	30	9	34
6	Aardvark Abacus	21	11	1	9	33	46	-13	34
7	San Dimas High School	21	9	4	8	33	44	-11	31
8	Real Muppets	21	9	3	9	39	35	4	30
9	Final Fantasy XI	21	8	5	8	27	34	-7	29
10	The Cow-Faced Juniors	21	7	7	7	49	41	8	28
11	The Dead Parrots	21	9	1	11	30	33	-3	28
12	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	21	8	4	9	39	50	-11	28
13	The Fabulous Artisans	21	7	3	11	32	42	-10	24
14	Cheese Makers	21	5	7	9	28	31	-3	22
15	Mega Buck Bandits	21	5	5	11	32	38	-6	20
16	YTFIB	21	3	2	16	23	51	-28	11

Claymore extend their lead to five points after this week's matches.

Clive dispatched YTFIB 3-1 (two cleans breaking the deadlock), while Fred was held to a goalless draw by the Muppets. Trusted are up to third after thumping Nil Satis by a season-best 6-0 but the Phoenix slip back following defeat to Final Fantasy.

FCK2 lost ground after being held 1-1 by the Artisans and the Aardvarks couldn't make it back-to-back wins. Ady's team pegged back by two CFJs cleans after Glenn Murray had scored twice and been sent off.

Cheese Makers move a place further away from the foot of the table after Kyles Walker (og) and Naughton (Clean) got the counters to beat San Dimas. The Bandits sink to 15th following defeat to the Parrots.

FA Cup semi-final draw

Mrs Co-ordinator did me the honour of drawing the names and they came out thusly...

Athletico Phoenix v Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
Trusted By Millions v Claymore Athletic FC

So, one team never to have won the trophy will be in the Final.

Games to be played midweek 3/4 March

Week 20 results

Bit of daylight for Claymore.

Cheese Makers 2 v 3 Trusted By Millions
FCK2 3 v 0 The Dead Parrots

Final Fantasy XI 0 v 0 The Cow-Faced Juniors
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 1 v 3 Aardvark Abacus

Mega Buck Bandits 2 v 2 Athletico Phoenix

Real Muppets 4 v 2 YTFIB

San Dimas High School 2 v 3 Claymore Athletic FC

The Fabulous Artisans 1 v 2 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum


	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Claymore Athletic FC	20	11	6	3	57	32	25	39
2	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	20	10	6	4	50	31	19	36
3	Athletico Phoenix	20	11	2	7	51	33	18	35
4	Trusted By Millions	20	10	4	6	35	33	2	34
5	FCK2	20	9	6	5	38	29	9	33
6	Aardvark Abacus	20	11	0	9	31	44	-13	33
7	San Dimas High School	20	9	4	7	33	42	-9	31
8	Real Muppets	20	9	2	9	39	35	4	29
9	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	20	8	4	8	39	44	-5	28
10	The Cow-Faced Juniors	20	7	6	7	47	39	8	27
11	Final Fantasy XI	20	7	5	8	26	34	-8	26
12	The Dead Parrots	20	8	1	11	27	32	-5	25
13	The Fabulous Artisans	20	7	2	11	31	41	-10	23
14	Mega Buck Bandits	20	5	5	10	31	35	-4	20
15	Cheese Makers	20	4	7	9	26	31	-5	19
16	YTFIB	20	3	2	15	22	48	-26	11

Claymore open a three point gap after beating San Dimas for the second time in ten days. Clive's team raced into a three goal lead at the break and although David Silva struck twice for me in the second half I couldn't get back on terms. Fred stays second despite a defeat to the Aardvarks. Ady snapping his seven game losing streak through goals by Ander Herrera in the first half, a scuffed Danny Rose effort ten minutes from time and then Glenn Murray at the death.

The Phoenix could only manage a draw in their title chase. Brian's team had to come from behind twice at Mega Bucks. Phillipe Coutinho's early screamer was levelled by Santi Cazorla's penalty then Charlie Austin's fourteenth of the season was cancelled by Pablo Zabalaeta's clean. Trusted are still looming up on the rails. A rare Victor Moses goal (from the spot) made it 2-2 at the Stade de Fromage and then Joleon Lescott's clean gave beef the three points.

There was another rare goal for FCK2 in their 3-0 win over the Parrots. Scott Sinclair nodded Kevin in front and Harry Kane's goal deep in stoppage time doubled the advantage. The Muppets round out the top half after beating YTFIB 4-2. Two goals in four second-half minutes through Esteban Cambiasso and Raheem Sterling turned the score in Ryan's favour and Alberto Moreno's clean made things safe.

The Nil Satis strike partnership of Steven Naismith and Nikica Jelavic got the goals that were the beating of the Artisans while Final Fantasy and the CFJs played out a goalless draw.

FA Cup quarter-final results

The top four in the league all go through... spooky!

Athletico Phoenix 2 v 1 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 2 v 0 The Fabulous Artisans
San Dimas High School 2 v 4 Claymore Athletic FC
YTFIB 1 v 2 Trusted By Millions

Claymore's Sergio Aguero has been slow to recover from injury but seems to be back to his best after two goals helped Clive through. The first put his side into the lead, the second made it 2-2 after Theo Walcott and James Milner had given San Dimas the lead. Cleans won the game for Claymore through Michael Dawson and Branislav Ivanovic (perhaps lucky to still be on the pitch after putting an opponent into what World Wrestling would term a sleeper hold).

It was clean sheets for Fred too in his win against the Artisans. Craig Dawson and Kurt Zouma settling a mostly uneventful match.

Athletico bounced back from their weekend defeat to Nil Satis to knock out the same opponents. A deflected Nikica Jelavic shot put Paul ahead on 22 minutes but Brian turned it round in the last 16 minutes thanks to a debut goal from Dame N'Doye and a Robin van Persie spot-kick, although there was also a spectacular Rob Green goalkeeping performance in this one too.

Trusted edged out YTFIB in the last quarter-final. Steven Gerrard's farewell tour continued with a spot-kick on 53 minutes but Samir Nasri got the equaliser for Julian 14 minutes from time. Just as we looked at booking the replay in our calendars Joleon Lescott got the winning clean for Beef.

The semi-finals are set for midweek 3/4 March.