FA Cup 1st Round Results - Holders go out

Aardvark Abacus 2 v 2 Trusted By Millions

Cheese Makers 1 v 0 Mega Buck Bandits

Claymore Athletic FC 1 v 3 The Fabulous Artisans

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 0 v 5 The Wateringhole Society

Real Muppets 3 v 2 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI

San Dimas High School 6 v 2 YTFIB

Stanley Athletic FC 3 v 1 The Cow-Faced Juniors

Wheel Madrid 2 v 1 Markian United

Replay

Trusted By Millions 2 v 1 Aardvark Abacus

Report

It’s not been a good few weeks for Claymore. Bottom of the league, their defence of the PCMT ended at the semi-final stage and now their attempts to hold on to the FA Cup dashed at the first hurdle. Cenk Tosun got the opener for Clive inside ten minutes but Mason Mount soon levelled for Ben, Gini Wijnaldum put the Artisans in front on the hour and former Swordsman Jonny Evans knifed his old club with a clean to make it 3-1. Last year’s beaten finalists are out too - the CFJs falling by the same 3-1 scoreline to Stanley Athletic. Timo Werner put Aaron ahead a minute before the break and the game was settled in the last ten minutes with goals from Craig Dawson and Kai Havertz before Vladimir Coufal hit a consolation clean for the Cows.

One way this season is unusual is that our first two finals haven’t been played yet. Three of the four teams involved in those games progressed in the FA Cup too, the exception being Mega Bucks who went down 1-0 to Cheese Makers with Yerry Mina’s clean the game’s only score. Dave’s opponents in the PCMT Final, the Muppets, won a five-goal thriller against Fred. Sadio Mane’s early opener was equalised by Lucas Moura’s superb free-kick on 32 minutes but Phil Foden restored Ryan’s lead straight away. Sadio Mane’s second on 63 minutes made it 3-1 and though Mo Salah hit back for the Gardeners they couldn’t find the goal to force a replay.

The two Charity Shield Finalists were the biggest winners of the week The Wateringhole Society ran out 5-0 winners over Nil Satis. All the scoring came in the second half. Callum Hudson-Odoi with the first four minutes after the break them Mateusz Pereira from the spot and Harvey Barnes in the last ten minutes. Reguilon and Semedo added cleans to give the score a very one-sided look. San Dimas’ 6-2 win against YTFIB was mostly thanks to a first half hat-trick by Carlos Vinicius. Not sure there are many players who opened their WSFFL account with a treble (and I’m not going to check!) 4-1 at half-time, my team eased further away in the second with goals from Semi Ajayi and Ayoze Perez.

Wheel Madrid needed a couple of clean sheets to knock Markian out. Ian’s team had hopes of ending their dreadful run thanks to an Oli Burke goal but Paul W turned the game in his favour with cleans from Joe Hart and David Luiz. Still one tie to settle, the Aardvarks against Trusted which finished 2-2. Two Bernardo Silva goals in the first quarter of an hour had Beef in control but Adam Webster’s injury time own goal gave Ady hope and he snatched a draw with Kieran Tierney’s clean sheet.

In the replay - We were heading towards a second replay after Serge Aurier’s early goal was equalised by Tanguy Ndombele but the tie was settled in Beef’s favour with a a Trent Alexander-Arnold clean.

Week 14 Results - Aardvarks gain more ground

Markian United 1 v 7 Aardvark Abacus

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 0 v 1 Stanley Athletic FC

Real Muppets 6 v 2 Cheese Makers

San Dimas High School 3 v 0 The Fabulous Artisans

The Cow-Faced Juniors 4 v 3 Claymore Athletic FC

The Wateringhole Society 4 v 1 Mega Buck Bandits

Trusted By Millions 2 v 1 Wheel Madrid

YTFIB 2 v 2 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Aardvark Abacus	14	9	2	3	38	26	12	29
2	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	14	6	6	2	36	30	6	24
3	Stanley Athletic FC	14	7	3	4	26	24	2	24
4	The Cow-Faced Juniors	14	7	2	5	31	22	9	23
5	The Fabulous Artisans	14	7	2	5	27	32	-5	23
6	Mega Buck Bandits	14	6	3	5	22	21	1	21
7	The Wateringhole Society	14	6	2	6	44	30	14	20
8	Trusted By Millions	14	5	5	4	27	26	1	20
9	Real Muppets	14	5	4	5	37	29	8	19
10	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	14	6	1	7	24	22	2	19
11	Wheel Madrid	14	5	3	6	37	38	-1	18
12	San Dimas High School	14	5	3	6	17	25	-8	18
13	YTFIB	14	4	4	6	26	26	0	16
14	Cheese Makers	14	5	1	8	22	30	-8	16
15	Markian United	14	4	1	9	20	41	-21	13
16	Claymore Athletic FC	14	3	2	9	22	34	-12	11

The Aardvarks win again and stretch their lead to five points. Kieran Tierney’s opener for Ady was soon equalised by a Harry Kane penalty but Son Heung-Min’s near-post finish two minutes before half-time signalled what was to come. A brace from Alexandre Lacazette and a header from Lewis Dunk made it 5-1 and cleans from Tierney and Ryan Bertrand made it the third time this season that Ian’s team have conceded seven. Fred stays second but lost ground after a 2-2 draw with YTFIB. Ilkay Gundogan’s excellent turn and shot had Julian ahead and Bertrand Traore had time to take a touch at the far post and make it 2-0 after 58 minutes. Bruno Fernandes pulled one back from the spot three minutes later and a Hugo Lloris clean earned a point for the Gardeners.

Stanley are back to third after a 1-0 win over Nil Satis, the only goal coming from a stooping Anthony Martial header. The CFJs are fourth after beating Claymore by the odd goal in seven. Clive was two up through a Roman Saiss header and an unlucky Dan Burn own goal before the Cows pulled one back in first half injury time courtesy of a stunning Eberechi Eze solo effort. A brilliant Youri Tielemans strike restored Claymore’s two goal advantage but Tomas Soucek steered in with four minutes left and Cows cleans came from Jan Bednarek and Ben Davies completed the comeback.

The Artisans lost ground after a surprisingly meek 3-0 defeat to San Dimas. My team did it with cleans from Vicente Guaita, Kyle Walker-Peters and Tyrick Mitchell. The Wateringhole Society are back on scoring form after putting four past Mega Bucks. Bakayo Saka finished off a brilliant team mov to put Kiran in front, Ruben Neves and Neil Maupay exchanged penalties either side of half-time and the game was settled with cleans from Bernd Leno and Rob Holding.

Trusted are back in the top half after edging Wheels 2-1 Jeff Schlupp was Beef’s hero, scoring on four minutes and pocketing a clean after 40. James Maddison pulled one back for Paul W but it wasn’t enough. The Muppets are ninth after a big win over Cheese Makers. Early goals from Danny Ings and Aaron Connolly had Matthew two up too but Phil Foden’s near post flick pulled one back and Toby Alderweireld headed in the equaliser on 50 minutes. Clean sheets from Alderweireld, Hector Bellerin, Angelo Ogbonna and Joel Ward completed the scoring for the Muppets.

FA Cup 1st Round Draw

Aardvark Abacus v Trusted By Millions

Cheese Makers v Mega Buck Bandits

Claymore Athletic FC v The Fabulous Artisans

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum v The Wateringhole Society

Real Muppets v Fred West Landscape Gardening XI

San Dimas High School v YTFIB

Stanley Athletic FC v The Cow-Faced Juniors

Wheel Madrid v Markian United

Bottom of the league Claymore are our holders and they were dealt a tough draw against the December team of the month the Artisans.

Games start on 8 January. 

Week 13 Results - Aardvarks lead stretches to three points

Aardvark Abacus 1 v 0 Stanley Athletic FC

Cheese Makers 1 v 0 YTFIB

Claymore Athletic FC 1 v 2 The Wateringhole Society

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 1 v 1 San Dimas High School

Mega Buck Bandits 2 v 1 Real Muppets

The Fabulous Artisans 1 v 0 Markian United

Trusted By Millions 3 v 0 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

Wheel Madrid 1 v 1 The Cow-Faced Juniors

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Aardvark Abacus	13	8	2	3	31	25	6	26
2	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	13	6	5	2	34	28	6	23
3	The Fabulous Artisans	13	7	2	4	27	29	-2	23
4	Mega Buck Bandits	13	6	3	4	21	17	4	21
5	Stanley Athletic FC	13	6	3	4	25	24	1	21
6	The Cow-Faced Juniors	13	6	2	5	27	19	8	20
7	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	13	6	1	6	24	21	3	19
8	Wheel Madrid	13	5	3	5	36	36	0	18
9	The Wateringhole Society	13	5	2	6	40	29	11	17
10	Trusted By Millions	13	4	5	4	25	25	0	17
11	Real Muppets	13	4	4	5	31	27	4	16
12	Cheese Makers	13	5	1	7	20	24	-4	16
13	YTFIB	13	4	3	6	24	24	0	15
14	San Dimas High School	13	4	3	6	14	25	-11	15
15	Markian United	13	4	1	8	19	34	-15	13
16	Claymore Athletic FC	13	3	2	8	19	30	-11	11

The Aardvarks won the table top skirmish with Stanley courtesy of Alexandre Lacazette getting the only goal of the game on 66 minutes. Fred hang n to second but needed a clean sheet from new signing DeAndre Yedlin to grab a 1-1 draw with San Dimas, Vicente Guaita’s penalty save had put me in front.

The Artisans are up to third after beating Markian 1-0. Ezgian Alioski smashing in from the edge of the box after half an hour to secure all the points for Ben. Mega Bucks are in the up again after a 2-1 win over the Muppets. Jack Harrison found the top corner on 36 minutes and Wilf Zaha’s volley doubled Dave's lead 13 minutes after the break. Ryan could only respond with a Hector Bellerin clean.

The CFJs and Wheel Madrid drew 1-1 to both stay on the fringes of the title race. Rodrigo’s deflected shot put Chris and Co in front five minutes before the break, Ilian Meslier’s clean gave Wheels the equaliser. The Wateringhole added to Claymore’s woes with a 2-1 win at those opponents. Olivier Giroud had headed Clive ahead after 34 minutes but Harvey Barnes, from the edge of the area, equalised with seven minutes to go and Marcus Ashford’s shot took a deflection to get the winner three minutes into injury time.

Trusted Climbed to tenth with a 3-0 win over a depleted Nil Satis. Ben Mee headed Beef in front on 32 minutes, Raphinha curled in to double the lead on 72 and Trent Alexander-Arnold got a clean to make it three. Cheers Makers continued courtesy of a 1-0 win over YTFIB. The only goal coming from Anwar El Ghazi five minutes after half-time.