With the winner of each of the three groups still unknown, the final round was important for all clubs involved.
In Group A "The Who" gave Anthony Trice the semi-final place with a 14 point performance thanks in part to Martin Laursen's clean sheet and goal for Aston Villa. Shaun Wright-Phillips chipped in with his first four points of our season, and Wayne Rooney added an assist to become joint top scorer with 20 points. Allegedly the Rovers were looking good until a 93rd minute equaliser from Kevin Nolan robbed West Ham defenders Lucas Neill and Matthew Upson of a clean sheet and Pete of 6 points. It's these moments that can make the difference between silverware and misery...
Late update : Monday night's game between Manchester City and Sunderland hadn't been counted at the time of publication, and a clean sheet for Richard Dunne in the Sky Blues 1-0 victory gave The Who a further 3 points and a comfortable 17-9 winning margin.
Group B saw the league leaders crash out with a second defeat at the hands of the Prancing Show Ponies. A perfect 4 wins from 4 for Ben saw his team through to the semi-final stage as favourites for the cup. A goal from Belletti in Chelsea's defence - he was undrafted in the pub but now has 8 points for Ben - and Fabregas and Ronaldo goals in the big game were amongst the highlights for Ben. Tigers manager David Trice pronounced himself "sick as a parrot" and "glad to be able to concentrate on the league"... New Spurs manager Juande Ramos' decision to drop Dimitar Berbatov drew stinging criticism from the defeated manager.
Group C had a finely balanced three-way contest, and in the end Rennet Rovers became the lowest scoring team to qualify for the final stages with a narrow 7-5 win over Oi Oi Saveloy. In the end it was Cabernet United who missed out on the chance to qualify with the Saveloy's strike force of Anelka, Martins and Kamara drawing a blank.
So, on to the next stage, a three-way group tournament with the best two teams qualifying for a one week final in mid-December. The prize-giving will happen in the Golden Triangle sometime the week after, just before Christmas.
The fixtures for the semi-final stage are as follows.
November 20th-26th : The Who vs Prancing Show Ponies
November 27th-December 3rd : Prancing Show Ponies vs Rennet Rovers
December 4th - 10th : Rennet Rovers vs The Who
Final : December 11th-17th
Good luck Dad!
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