Week 21 Results

Tough times for the teams at the top. The Nil Satis/Muppets was called off due to oooh… let’s say an outbreak of Equine Flu at the Nil Satis training ground.

Aardvark Abacus 2 v 2 Athletico Phoenix
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 1 v 3 Markian United
Mega Buck Bandits 2 v 3 Cheese Makers
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum P v P Real Muppets
The Cow-Faced Juniors 2 v 0 Trusted By Millions
The Wateringhole Society 2 v 2 San Dimas High School
Wheel Madrid 4 v 1 Claymore Athletic FC
YTFIB 0 v 5 The Fabulous Artisans

Re-arranged game

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 4 v 5 Real Muppets

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	21	14	2	5	62	33	29	44
2	Aardvark Abacus	21	14	2	5	49	33	16	44
3	The Wateringhole Society	21	11	3	7	43	35	8	36
4	Athletico Phoenix	21	9	6	6	39	32	7	33
5	Real Muppets	21	10	2	9	40	35	5	32
6	Markian United	21	10	2	9	42	48	-6	32
7	San Dimas High School	21	8	6	7	44	36	8	30
8	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	21	9	3	9	45	41	4	30
9	Mega Buck Bandits	21	8	5	8	42	39	3	29
10	The Cow-Faced Juniors	21	9	2	10	43	46	-3	29
11	The Fabulous Artisans	21	9	1	11	40	50	-10	28
12	Cheese Makers	21	8	3	10	35	45	-10	27
13	Claymore Athletic FC	21	7	5	9	37	46	-9	26
14	Wheel Madrid	21	8	1	12	38	46	-8	25
15	Trusted By Millions	21	7	1	13	42	48	-6	22
16	YTFIB	21	4	2	15	20	48	-28	14

Let’s start with Fred who lost to that ninth-placed team, Markian. Salomon Rondon put the leaders ahead straight after the break, but the returning Harry Kane levelled the game 20 minutes later when racing onto a quickly taken throw. Cleans from Yedlin and Shaw gave the win to Markian who climb to fifth - the first time they’ve reached these heady heights. Fred’s defeat gave Ady the chance to go top but a draw with the Phoenix means the Aardvarks are second on goal difference. Brian’s team led twice too, an early goal from Ryan Babel and a second half header from Chris Wood. The Aardvarks hit back through Alexandre Lacazette and a Lascelles clean at the death.

The Wateringhole and San Dimas shared the points too. Nothing much happened in this game until ten minutes left. Sol Bamba scrambled in to put Kiran ahead, Ashley Barnes was alert at the far post to level things for me straightaway and Raul Jimenez had the mighty Society 2-1 up from the spot a minute later. Antonio Rudiger’s clean sent me home with a point. Mega Bucks could have ended the day in fifth but went down 3-2 at home to Cheese Makers. Josh King (penalty) and Michail Antonio (well-placed header) both got their first of the season for Dave but a thumping header from Issa Diop and two late goals from club legend Troy Deeney puts Matthew in striking distance of the top half.

The CFJs beat Trusted 2-0 to drop Beef’s team into the bottom two. Two clean sheets, from Aymeric Laporte and Shkodran Mustafi did the damage. The Artisans won again, beating the struggling YTFIB 5-0. OK, Chicarito’s handball goal probably shouldn’t have counted but there was nothing wrong with Gerard Deulofeu’s hat-trick. The second, a solo run from inside his own half was the highlight. Wheel Madrid beat Claymore 4-1 to leave those two teams in 14th and 13th respectively. Paul W led through Ayoze Prez’s first-time finish from 10 yards before Jonny Evans hit back with a close range goal of his own for Clive. Clean sheets from Luiz, Young and Matip kept the points at Stratton Park and gave Wheels back-to-back wins for the first time since September.

FA Cup semi-final draw

Mrs co-ordinator did it this time as I haven’t seen anybody else who could do it this week. She hooked out these matches…

The Cow-Faced Juniors v San Dimas High School
Markian United v Claymore Athletic FC

Tough to pick two winners there. The games are set for w/c 9 March.

Week 20 Results

Ady’s win cuts Fred’s lead to a single point. And eight points cover 5th-15th.

Aardvark Abacus 3 v 2 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
Athletico Phoenix 1 v 3 Real Muppets
Cheese Makers 0 v 1 Wheel Madrid
Claymore Athletic FC 4 v 1 YTFIB
Mega Buck Bandits 4 v 3 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
San Dimas High School 2 v 3 Markian United
The Fabulous Artisans 2 v 1 Trusted By Millions
The Wateringhole Society 2 v 3 The Cow-Faced Juniors


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	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	20	14	2	4	61	30	31	44
2	Aardvark Abacus	20	14	1	5	47	31	16	43
3	The Wateringhole Society	20	11	2	7	41	33	8	35
4	Athletico Phoenix	20	9	5	6	37	30	7	32
5	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	20	9	3	8	42	36	6	30
6	San Dimas High School	20	8	5	7	42	34	8	29
7	Mega Buck Bandits	20	8	5	7	40	36	4	29
8	Real Muppets	20	9	2	9	35	32	3	29
9	Markian United	20	9	2	9	39	47	-8	29
10	The Cow-Faced Juniors	20	8	2	10	41	46	-5	26
11	Claymore Athletic FC	20	7	5	8	36	42	-6	26
12	The Fabulous Artisans	20	8	1	11	35	50	-15	25
13	Cheese Makers	20	7	3	10	32	43	-11	24
14	Trusted By Millions	20	7	1	12	42	46	-4	22
15	Wheel Madrid	20	7	1	12	34	45	-11	22
16	YTFIB	20	4	2	14	20	43	-23	14

After a couple of recent ‘wins for five out of the top six’ messages it was just one top six winner this week. An important one though as it was Ady beating the leaders to close the gap to one point.

Ady went in to the break a goal up through Alexandre Lacazette but Fred had turned it round by the hour mark thanks to Mo Salah latching on to a clever back heel to find the far corner and Hugo Loris stopping a penalty. Ady took the points in injury time courtesy of Jack Stephens from close range at the far post and then Son Heung-Min outpacing the Fred rearguard on a breakaway and smacking in. The Wateringhole couldn’t close the gap to the top two after going down 3-2 to the CFJs. Kiran was two up in this one, a deflected shot by Alex Iwobi and Sol Bamba prodding in with 21 minutes left. Shane Duffy’s header started the fightback for Chris and Co. and cleans from Laporte and Janmaat earned the win.

Athletico’s excellent unbeaten league run ended at the hands of the Muppets. Raheem Sterling gave Ryan the lead as early a the fourth minute but Brian was back on terms on 23 following a magnificent solo run and shot from Anthony Martial. Parity lasted a minute with Sadio Mane getting across at the front post to power home a header for the Muppets and Sterling’s tap-in from six yards made it 3-1 with ten minutes left. Nil Satis went down by the odd goal in seven to Mega Bucks to stay fifth. Paul led three times too. Paul Pogba’s first was cancelled out by Mark Noble’s penalty (the midfielder’s first of the season.) Pogba’s spot-kick was levelled by Wilf Zaha’s deflected effort and Nil Satis must have thought they’d won when Sead Kolasinac’s own goal three minutes into injury time put them ahead again. Cleans from Alisson and Holebas meant that Dave had the final say and the three points.

San Dimas head four teams on 29 points following defeat to Markian. After Davinson Sanchez’s first half diving header my team turned it round through Ashley Barnes’ penalty and a controversial injury time goal from Willy Boly. Markian had cleans from Foster and Shaw to get the victory and join the 29 point brigade. Claymore are three points behind that in 11th after a comfortable 4-1 win over YTFIB. Sergio Aguero was the man for Clive again with yet another hat-trick. Pick of the goals was his first, picking out the top corner from 25 yards. It rather overshadowed an excellent Ilkay Gundogan consolation effort for Julian.

The Artisans revival resumed with a 2-1 win over Trusted. Gio Wijnaldum’s brilliant lob put Ben ahead, Christian Eriksen doubled the lead with another outside the area effort, Beef could only reply with a Phil Jones clean. Wheel Madrid pulled away from YTFIB at the bottom with a 1-0 win at Cheese Makers. Jamie Vardy had missed a penalty but slid in the only goal of the game for Paul W with 14 minutes left.

FA Cup Quarter-Final results

The holders go out to the CFJs.

Claymore Athletic FC 6 v 0 Trusted By Millions
San Dimas High School 2 v 1 Athletico Phoenix
The Cow-Faced Juniors 1 v 0 Aardvark Abacus
YTFIB 0 v 2 Markian United