Week 20 Results

Maybe there is another twist to come in the title race.

Claymore Athletic FC 1 v 2 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI

FCK2 1 v 1 Real Muppets

Mega Buck Bandits 2 v 3 The Wateringhole Society

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 2 v 3 Athletico Phoenix

San Dimas High School 3 v 1 Aardvark Abacus

The Fabulous Artisans 3 v 3 Cheese Makers

Trusted By Millions 0 v 2 Final Fantasy XI

YTFIB 1 v 2 The Cow-Faced Juniors

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Claymore Athletic FC	20	13	5	2	74	31	43	44
2	Athletico Phoenix	20	12	5	3	54	35	19	41
3	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	20	12	3	5	51	35	16	39
4	San Dimas High School	20	10	6	4	50	29	21	36
5	Aardvark Abacus	20	10	2	8	44	41	3	32
6	The Cow-Faced Juniors	20	9	5	6	45	45	0	32
7	FCK2	20	9	3	8	36	31	5	30
8	Cheese Makers	20	8	6	6	32	37	-5	30
9	The Fabulous Artisans	20	8	5	7	51	32	19	29
10	The Wateringhole Society	20	8	4	8	31	37	-6	28
11	Trusted By Millions	20	8	2	10	25	35	-10	26
12	Mega Buck Bandits	20	6	4	10	22	37	-15	22
13	Real Muppets	20	6	1	13	32	50	-18	19
14	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	20	4	6	10	27	36	-9	18
15	Final Fantasy XI	20	4	3	13	27	55	-28	15
16	YTFIB	20	3	0	17	12	47	-35	9

Two thirds of the season gone and Claymore suffer their second league defeat - to the team that inflicted their first. Fred’s double over the leaders opens the door just a bit for the chasers. The Gardeners went ahead early when Solomon Rondon bundled in at the far post but Clive looked set for a share of the points thanks to another Dimitri Payet strike. The winner came from a former Claymore defender, Craig Dawson’s clean giving Fred all the points and a title chance with ten games left. Athletico missed the chance to narrow the gap last week but didn’t slip up twice. Diego Costa slid in early to give Brian the lead but Pedro soon levelled for Nil Satis. Anthony Martial squeezed in from a narrow angle to put the Phoenix but Pedro was on target again to make it 2-2. Cedric Soares got the deciding clean to cut Clive’s lead to three points.

San Dimas hang on to fourth with victory over the Aardvarks. James Milner drifted a free-kick past the Abacus defences on 25 minutes and a questionable Jamie Vardy penalty award gave me a two goal advantage by the break. A Robbie Brady screamer pulled one back for Ady but Theo Walcott’s neat finish meant there was no coming back. The CFJs are now level on points with the Aardvarks after scraping past YTFIB. Willian converted from a slide rule pass on 17 minutes but Julian’s team were level ten minutes into the second period through Joselu’s towering header. This was another game settled by a clean - Virgil van Dijk doing the business for Chris, Luc and Noah.

FCK2 are falling back into the clutches of mid-table after a draw with the Muppets. Harry Kane’s penalty early in the second half cancelled out by Kelechi Iheanacho smashing into the roof of the net 20 minutes later. We’re still no nearer sorting out who will be top member of the Warr family as two points cover all three of them. Ben and Matthew fought out a 3-3 draw. New signing Emmanuel Adebayor opened his Cheese account before Divock Origi equalised. Nathaniel Clyne put Matthew back in front and also got the equalising goal after Christian Eriksen and Bertrand Traore put Ben ahead.

Two of Kiran’s new signings scored in the first ten minutes of his win over Mega Bucks. Wahbi Khazri did a ‘Milner’ on three minutes and Gianelli Imbula smashed his new club two up six minutes later. Emre Can got his first goal to make it three before Dave’s team woke up too late. Trusted fielded two strikers much to Beef’s delight - but it didn’t do him any good. Finally Fantasy took just their fourth win of the season thanks to a Matt Richie half-volley (another one for his highlight reel) and an Angel Rangel clean.

February auction highlights

As you can imagine not a lot of money was chucked around. The top prices paid were…

£12.5m Benik Afobe to Trusted

£8m Oumar Niasse to Aardvarks

£6m Sam Byram to Final Fantasy

£6m Alberto Paloschi to Trusted

£6m Seydou Doumbia to Trusted

FA Cup semi-final draw

A repeat of last year’s (slightly) controversial final is still on.

Claymore Athletic FC v Real Muppets

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI v Aardvark Abacus

Matches to be played midweek 1/2 March.

Week 19 Results

Claymore held but the chasers falter.

Aardvark Abacus 1 v 1 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Cheese Makers 3 v 1 San Dimas High School

FCK2 0 v 0 Mega Buck Bandits

Final Fantasy XI 0 v 3 Real Muppets

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 4 v 0 YTFIB

The Cow-Faced Juniors 4 v 3 Athletico Phoenix

The Fabulous Artisans 3 v 3 Claymore Athletic FC

The Wateringhole Society 0 v 2 Trusted By Millions

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Claymore Athletic FC	19	13	5	1	73	29	44	44
2	Athletico Phoenix	19	11	5	3	51	33	18	38
3	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	19	11	3	5	49	34	15	36
4	San Dimas High School	19	9	6	4	47	28	19	33
5	Aardvark Abacus	19	10	2	7	43	38	5	32
6	FCK2	19	9	2	8	35	30	5	29
7	The Cow-Faced Juniors	19	8	5	6	43	44	-1	29
8	Cheese Makers	19	8	5	6	29	34	-5	29
9	The Fabulous Artisans	19	8	4	7	48	29	19	28
10	Trusted By Millions	19	8	2	9	25	33	-8	26
11	The Wateringhole Society	19	7	4	8	28	35	-7	25
12	Mega Buck Bandits	19	6	4	9	20	34	-14	22
13	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	19	4	6	9	25	33	-8	18
14	Real Muppets	19	6	0	13	31	49	-18	18
15	Final Fantasy XI	19	3	3	13	25	55	-30	12
16	YTFIB	19	3	0	16	11	45	-34	9

Claymore and the Artisans have been scoring goals for fun lately (does anybody score goals for non-fun?) and hey shared six this week. The game burst into life after a goalless first half with Scott Dann giving Clive the lead. Goals from Roberto Firmino and a sharp shot on the turn from Jesse Lingard either side of the hour mark turned the tables and when Adam Johnson slotted a free-kick in with eight minutes left it looked like POTW was sewn up. With three minutes left though Sergio Aguero glanced in (from an offside position?) to narrow the lead and a Joel clean meant the points were shared.

Athletico failed to capitalise though as they fell to a re-invigorated CFJs performance. Chris and co. were 3-1 up at the break but another stunning piece of Riyad Mahrez skill pulled a goal back and an unmarked Diego Costa levelled for Brian in injury time. There was still time for a Virgil van Dijk clean to keep all the points at the Drove Stadium. Fred is up to third after a 4-0 win over YTFIB. Julian held out for 70 minutes before Lallana, Defoe and two cleans finished them off.

San Dimas fell further back with a defeat at Stade de Fromage. Robert Huth and Romelu Lukaku traded early goals but after Victor Wanyama was sent off for me, Huth again and a Kevin Wimmer clean gave Matthew the win. The Aardvarks beat Nil Satis in the Cup last week but couldn’t repeat the feat in the league. Paul and Dan were ahead through Seamus Coleman’s header but Nacho Montreal grabbed a clean for Ady. FCK2 missed a chance to close in a goalless game with Mega Bucks.

Beef is still on the up, cleans from Ramiro Funes Mori and Marc Muniesa giving him victory at The Wateringhole Society. It’s rare back to back wins for the Muppets to give them breathing space from the bottom two. Alex Mitrovic with Ryan’s goal and Koscielny and Alderweireld cleans beating Final Fantasy.

FA Cup quarter-final results

Our holders hanging on to the Trophy.

Aardvark Abacus 2 v 0 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Claymore Athletic FC 6 v 0 The Wateringhole Society

Real Muppets 2 v 1 Athletico Phoenix

Trusted By Millions 2 v 2 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI

Replay

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 2 v 0 Trusted By Millions

Our holders will need a replay if they're to make it into the last four. Fred's team scored early, through a Dele Alli follow-up, and late when solomon Rondon poked home in injury time but Beef had cleans from Borthwick-Jackson and Tomkins to earn a replay in Toronto this weekend.

Beaten finalists last time Claymore continue their dominant form meaning that there's no fairytale end to Kiran's first season. Clive was two up at the break through Sergio Aguero and Scott Dann and finally broke the remaining Wateringhole Society resistance with two late Ross Barkley penalties.

Nil Satis exit at the quarter-final stage for the fifth straight season. Paul and Dan going down to two Abacus cleans from Nacho Monreal and Daley Blind.

The Muppets will play their first FA Cup semi for four years after beating Athletico. Anthony Martial finished off a great move to put Brian ahead halfway through the first half but Ryan was level five minutes from time thanks to Cheik Kouyate's finish. The momentum was with the Muppets and Laurent Koscielny got the deciding clean.

Fred made it through at the second attempt. Goals in the last 20 minutes from Adam Lallana and Jermain Defoe saw off Trusted's challenge.