Week 22 Results

Another good day at the office for Claymore.

Cheese Makers 0 v 4 The Cow-Faced Juniors

Claymore Athletic FC 3 v 2 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

FCK2 1 v 1 Trusted By Millions

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 2 v 1 Aardvark Abacus

Mega Buck Bandits 3 v 2 Real Muppets

San Dimas High School 1 v 1 YTFIB

The Fabulous Artisans 4 v 1 Athletico Phoenix

The Wateringhole Society 0 v 3 Final Fantasy XI

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Claymore Athletic FC	22	15	5	2	81	35	46	50
2	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	22	13	3	6	55	39	16	42
3	Athletico Phoenix	22	12	5	5	55	42	13	41
4	San Dimas High School	22	10	7	5	51	32	19	37
5	Aardvark Abacus	22	11	2	9	47	43	4	35
6	The Cow-Faced Juniors	22	10	5	7	50	48	2	35
7	Cheese Makers	22	9	6	7	35	41	-6	33
8	The Fabulous Artisans	22	9	5	8	55	34	21	32
9	FCK2	22	9	4	9	37	34	3	31
10	The Wateringhole Society	22	9	4	9	34	41	-7	31
11	Trusted By Millions	22	9	3	10	28	36	-8	30
12	Mega Buck Bandits	22	8	4	10	28	39	-11	28
13	Real Muppets	22	7	1	14	35	53	-18	22
14	Final Fantasy XI	22	6	3	13	33	57	-24	21
15	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	22	4	6	12	29	42	-13	18
16	YTFIB	22	3	1	18	15	52	-37	10

If you can remember last season you’ll know that Claymore jousted for the top spot in the first half of the season before hitting the front in the New Year and easing to the title. All just a little bit of history repeating? 

Claymore’s lead is eight points with eight games to go after victory over Nil Satis. They were slow starters though, their Evertonian rivals ahead through Aaron Ramsey’s clever flick six minutes before the break. It took a lucky break and a clearance deflecting off Sergio Aguero to get Claymore back on terms and Aguero again and Dimitri Payet put Clive far enough ahead that a late Nil Satis clean didn’t hurt them. Fred are the team in second place now after a second victory in a week against the Aardvarks. After a 3-1 win in the Cup in midweek it was 2-1 this time. Solomon Rondon opened the scoring in the Cup match and did so again in this one before Jermain Defoe added a second five minutes from time. Vincent Company’s clean a mere consolation for Ady.

The injury-hit Phoenix are down to third following defeat to the Artisans. Bertrand Traore looks a good find by Ben and rifled his team in front before the break. That man Riyad Mahrez got Athletico back on terms 11 minutes into the second half but a Roberto Firming goal after a fluted clearance gave Ben the advantage once more and cleans from Fernandez and Gibbs made sure the points stayed at Goddard Park. San Dimas also slipped back after failing to beat YTFIB. Romelu Lukaku fired me in front early on but a missed penalty from the same player and James Milner’s red card opened the door to Julian’s team and Mame Diouf nodded an equaliser five minutes from time.

If it’s sendings off you like then the Stade de Fromage was the place to be this weekend. Matthew saw Juan Mata and Kevin Mirallas sent off in the space of eight first half minutes and Jose Fonte also had an early bath before the game was 80 minutes old. No surprise that the CFJs took advantage with Alexis Sanchez getting back on the scoresheet after four months to add to strikes from Gylfi Sigurdsson Aaron Lennon and Virgil van Dijk. Manager of the Month curse in full operation! FCK2’s poor recent run continues as they were held by Trusted. A Harry Kane power curler (if there is such a thing) had Kevin and Jon in front but Nicolas Otamendi’s clean shared the points.

Final Fantasy’s recent resurgence continued with a big win at the Wateringhole Society. Goalless at the break, Yaya Toure found the bottom corner at the start of the second half and Ayoze Perez broke away to double the lead ten minutes from time. Angel Rangel’s clean completed the scoring for Ceri. A Mega Bucks win made it a double celebration at Okus. Two down to the Muppets with 20 minutes left thanks to close range finishes from Toby Aldeweireld and Raheem Sterling, Dave turned the tables via Josh King, another from Michail Antonio and then the winning clean from Wes Morgan.

FA Cup semi-final results

We have a repeat of last year’s final.

Claymore Athletic FC	3	v 1		Real Muppets
Kolarov [c]		(0)		Gestede 79
Cresswell [c]
Smith [c]					Att: 59,905
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	3	v	1	Aardvark Abacus
Rondon 11		(1)		Drinkwater 30
Lallana 34
Rahman [c]					Att: 75,272

Fred will have a chance to defend the trophy in a Wembley final on 18 May after seeing off old rivals the Aardvarks. Solomon Rondon swept home early on to put the Gardeners ahead but a deflected Danny Drinkwater strike on the half hour brought Ady level. Parity lasted just four minutes before an Adam Lallana effort evaded the Abacus keeper and Fred closed the game out with a Baba Rahman clean.

It was cleans all the way for Claymore who get a crack at revenge following last year’s controversial final. Rudy Gestede broke the deadlock for the Muppets late on but it was clean sheets from Alex Kolarov, Aaron Cresswell and Adam Smith that got the job done.

Week 21 Results

Claymore stretch their lead again.

Aardvark Abacus 2 v 0 FCK2

Athletico Phoenix 0 v 3 Cheese Makers

Final Fantasy XI 3 v 2 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 0 v 3 Mega Buck Bandits

Real Muppets 1 v 0 The Fabulous Artisans

The Cow-Faced Juniors 1 v 3 The Wateringhole Society

Trusted By Millions 2 v 0 San Dimas High School

YTFIB 2 v 4 Claymore Athletic FC

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Claymore Athletic FC	21	14	5	2	78	33	45	47
2	Athletico Phoenix	21	12	5	4	54	38	16	41
3	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	21	12	3	6	53	38	15	39
4	San Dimas High School	21	10	6	5	50	31	19	36
5	Aardvark Abacus	21	11	2	8	46	41	5	35
6	Cheese Makers	21	9	6	6	35	37	-2	33
7	The Cow-Faced Juniors	21	9	5	7	46	48	-2	32
8	The Wateringhole Society	21	9	4	8	34	38	-4	31
9	FCK2	21	9	3	9	36	33	3	30
10	The Fabulous Artisans	21	8	5	8	51	33	18	29
11	Trusted By Millions	21	9	2	10	27	35	-8	29
12	Mega Buck Bandits	21	7	4	10	25	37	-12	25
13	Real Muppets	21	7	1	13	33	50	-17	22
14	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	21	4	6	11	27	39	-12	18
15	Final Fantasy XI	21	5	3	13	30	57	-27	18
16	YTFIB	21	3	0	18	14	51	-37	9

No sooner than Clive gives the chasers some hope it disappears again. It looked like we were in line for a major shock as YTFIB came from a goal down to lead Claymore 2-1 with a brace from Marco Arnautovic. Claymore seem to have all the bases covered this season and Collins, Cathcart and Cresswell (who sound like a bit a law firm) got the cleans to scoop all three points. Clive’s delight would have doubled when he heard that second, third and fourth all lost.

A depleted Athletico crashed 3-0 at home to Cheese Makers. Shane Long latched onto a poor backpass to break the deadlock just before the break, Angelo Ogbonna and Robert Huth added cleans for Matthew. Fred led twice against Final Fantasy but ended up on the wrong end of a 3-2 defeat. First Craig Dawson and later Nacer Chadli gave the Gardeners the lead but Connor Wickham grabbed both equalisers (trebling his tally for the season) (his second was a bit special too) and February signing Sam Byram got Ceri’s winning clean. Trusted had their game against San Dimas wrapped up in 20 minutes. Craig Gardner opened the scoring for Beef and new signing Alberto Paloschi was in the right place at the right time to double the advantage.

Second half goals from Ander Herrera (a big deflection on this one) and Danny Rose from 18 yards keep Ady’s Aardvarks on the heels of the top four and FCK2 on a slide into the bottom half. As for debuts this week what about Marcus Rashford for the Wateringhole Society? Signed on Thursday night, the youngster hit two goals in four first half minutes set up Kiran’s win over the CFJs. Michail Antonio’s first in WSFFL was greeted with a Homer Simpson style celebration and Dave’s team went on to beat Nil Satis 3-0. In the last game on Match of the Day this week Mamadou Sakho limped off on 24 minutes for the Muppets and took a clean sheet with him that turned out to be the only score of the game against the Artisans.