ALEXIS Sanchez notched two goals and two assists to send Thieving Magpies 18 points clear at the top of the Kenna League.
It’s difficult to see how FC Testiculadew can mount a challenge from here. Zlatan is on the physio table, Eden Hazard is metaphorically on holiday (pictured) and only one weekend of full fixtures left of the season.
But a brace from Sam Vokes, a goal from Salomon Rondon and assists from Pedro and Yaya Toure saw Thieving Magpies go within one point of the leaders.
The title could come down to a single match in three weeks time where the chalkstripes in Kenna HQ’s speculations department are backing Pies (Pedro and Sanchez) over FCT (Hazard and Iwobi).
In the Narcozep Cup, the Kenna League chairman is in with a chance of winning a knockout tournament for a record third time after progressing past Burqini Pool Party.
The chairman’s side, Adam Johnson Fan Club, is facing Team Panda in the final in two weeks time in what’s being billed as the Rumble In Steve Ward’s Jumble.
Top three closest Kenna title races
2007/08 – 17 points: Fat Ladies over Recreativo Brockley – Ronaldo and Drogba win their second successive Kenna campaign at a different club
2008/09 – 28 points: Dynamo Temple over Nasmanian Devils – Dynamo won the league spending less than £9m per player in August and without turning up to a single window.
KENNA League title races have never been so seesaw.
Even without the injured David Silva and Zlatan, FC Testiculadew reclaimed the top spot with notable performances from Eden Hazard (14) and Calum Chambers (13).
Thieving Magpies had a respectable week, but word in the Kenna HQ charts and graphs office is the manager is ‘bottling it’.
Another piece of tittle tattle from that department is worthy of report.
Calculations show the Islington Sports Islam & Leisure manager made a decision at the February transfer window to set off a cataclysmic consequences for the title race.
In selling Joshua King, the Pirate made space to buy Daniel Sturridge and therefore lose Gini Wijnaldum under the Titus Bramble ruling.
The 112 points difference made to the Somali’s season would have put his side right in the middle of the title race.
Furthermore, who should snap up the subsequent 44 points of Wijnaldum to put himself in the mix?
THIEVING Magpies are back at the top of the Kenna League after dominating the scoring this week.
Individual top scorer Alexis Sanchez notched, Yaya Toure assisted and clean sheets from Eldin Jakupovic, Phil Jagielka and Simon Francis saw ‘Pies overturn FC Testiculadew’s slender lead.
Despite a goal and assist from Eden Hazard on Monday night, the wind appears to have left FCT’s sails with injuries to key players David Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The former double double winner was also knocked out of the Narcozep Cup in his quarter final tie with Team Panda.
“Fools!” said the Tactical Brambler to journalists who had questioned his side’s depth outside club training facility The Death Star.
“You dare to quibble the effectiveness of Calum Chambers when that pathetic earthling [the Thieving Magpies manager] has a front three of Sam Vokes, Salomon Rondon and M’Baye Niang?
“I should have you all liquidated.”
In other Narcozep Cups news, the chairman took advantage of the league’s Tuesday-morning-to-Tuesday-morning scoring week to knock fellow committee member the Walthamstow Reds manager out.
It’s quite a feat considering the ‘Pies have a front three of Sam Vokes, Salomon Rondon and M’Baye Niang, while FCT have two representatives from the PFA’s team of the season: Kyle Walker and Eden Hazard.
IT’S been a week to file under ‘a bit of a mare’ for the Thieving Magpies manager.
Flying high on top of the league since 6 December, at times it’s felt like it would be 12th time lucky for one of only three managers to enter every season of the competition.
Pantomime villains lurk around every corner. In the notorious ‘Tactical Brambler‘ the Kenna has a villain made to order and he’s been delivered to knock the ‘Pies from the top of the Kenna League.
The skullduggery does not stop there for Thieving Magpies. The Pirate has knocked them out of the Narcozep Cup.
“It’s a blow, there’s no doubt about that,” said the man who after the cup draw joked on social networking site Twitter he may rest key players for the tie.
The Pirate goes on to face Cowley Casuals in the quarter final first leg this weekend.
The Tactical Brambler kept his hopes of an unprecedented third league and cup double alive by sweeping aside Lokomotiv Leeds.
In what was being touted ‘the Boardroom Derby’, League champions Young Boys, whose manager is vice chairman, were knocked out by the chairman’s XI Adam Johnson Fan Club.
The chairman goes on to face the club of another committee member the Walthamstow Reds manager.
Should AJFC win, the chairman could face yet another executive peer in the semi finals in the form of the Burqini Pool Party manager.
The weather was fair, the hangover manageable and because Cape Town Piotr had searched ‘Manchester hipster pubs’ the Kenna League chairman found himself standing in a 170-year-old basement filled with ping pong tables.
Phillipe Coutinho was putting the finishing touches on a decent shift for Two Goals One Cup, but members of the pub crawl were far from elite sport.
They were too busy doing a terrible impression of three people playing table tennis. At least the Brooklyn Lager was passable.
Twenty Twenty Two: Cape Piotr close to jacking it in
After a few minutes it became the clear the homemade quince vodka of the previous evening was not entirely shaken off. The group retired to the bar area.
What it lacked in ventilation, the Northern Quarter’s Twenty Twenty Two more than made up for in classic arcade games. House of the Dead 2 of particular note.
Quite what the founding pillars of the industrial revolution would make of four girls in short shorts playing beer pong remains moustache-bristling conjecture.
Pub number two was The Whiskey Jar, which appeared to be a popular venue for hen dos and Tinder dates.
Perhaps cheap dates. The early hour meant it was possible to get two whiskey sours for a tenner.
Now, there are two types of cocktail bar in the world.
There are cocktail bars that anticipate drinks and prepare accordingly and there are ones where the customer watches the barman fiddling around with paraphernalia for an interminable amount of time.
The Whiskey Jar was sadly the latter.
Although he didn’t express it in the usual fashion, Cape Town Chris was delighted to join the crawl just in time for a debate on whether a hipster restaurant was correct to serve pizza straight from MDF tables without a plate. Opinion was split.
Next up was the recently-opened pub of Seven Bro7hers Brewery. Split level exposed brickwork and a fantastic IPA.
Seven Bro7hers IPA
Crawlers were pleased to learn from the barman there were two brewery tap rooms in the locale. What could be more hipster than drinking craft beer surrounded by pallets?
The crawl stopped by Manchester Piccadilly to pick up a late straggler. It was thirsty work and The Waldorf’s convenience was, in hindsight, all it had going for it.
Taking a cab to a rail arch on North Western Street, the party entered the alternative Beer Nouveau. A smattering of patrons, a friendly owner and large barrels where the beer is brewed on site were there to greet them.
Beer Nouveau
One crawler – who through a second-language, workplace gaffe is known as ‘The Master of the Flaps’ – took great pleasure in sampling the local mead on offer.
A keen amateur mead maker, he also turned out to be The Master of the Put Downs, telling an enthusiastic beekeeper from the area he was only interested in Polish honey.
The crawl struck out in search of the Cloudwater tap room. A constant hazard of visiting craft breweries is drinkers can find themselves walking through deserted industrial estates looking daggers at the guy frowning at his smartphone’s location app.
Such was the case here, until it turned out the taproom had recently moved around the corner.
Cloudwater directions
Cloudwater: what a find! Again a rail arch was the venue, this time underneath Manchester Piccadilly station.
A tremendous array of beer was on offer as were MDF tables you either could or couldn’t eat your pizza off of depending on your point of view.
Cloudwater tap room: The Master of the Flaps not a fan of MDF
The 11.5 per cent Imperial stout was served in halves, so wanting to soak in more of the atmosphere the crawl stopped for a second drink. The pilsner was gorgeous and much less dangerous.
By this time hunger was an issue. The party attempted to get a no-doubt-MDF table at Almost Famous burgers but the 90-minute waiting time was not agreeable.
In the face of adversity, all pretence this was still a hipster crawl crumbled.
Weatherspoon’s in the Printworks is not by any stretch of the imagination a trendy venue but it does have two clear benefits.
Lagunitas IPA is £1.79 a bottle and it’s a convenient place to wait for your table at the adjacent Nandos.
The Seven Stars: Lagunitas is an anagram of ‘slag unit’
Say what you like about its unchallenging hot sauce, the Mozambican-themed restaurant does sell the excellent Super Bock.
Having lived in east London for half the noughties, it can be easy to dismiss another area’s attempts as hipsterism. The unrendered walls, beards and – you guessed it – MDF tables of the Northern Quarter can come across as forced at times.
But the lack of nonchalance is more than atoned by the fantastic beers and welcoming atmosphere.
It’s highly likely in future residents will spot the Kenna chairman slinking around the side of the train station on a Saturday afternoon.
As for the rest of Saturday evening, the crawl returned to Macclesfield for further tippling in the Red Willow.
Red Willow: The chairman toasts yet another successful all dayer
Kenna League table – week 30
Kenna table week 30 – 4 April 2017
Narcozep Cup – last 16 first leg results
Thieving Magpies 21 – 19 Islington Sports Islam & Leisure
Cowley Casuals 28 – 26 Bala Rinas
FC Testiculadew 27 – 15 Lokomotiv Leeds
Team Panda 23 – 17 Sporting Lesbian
Walthamstow Reds 25 – 27 Judean Peoples’ Front
Young Boys 17 – 37 Adam Johnson Fan Club
Burqini Pool Party 20 – 20 Dynamo Charlton
So Good They Named Him Twice 39 – 23 Two Goals One Cup
LONDON’S top fantasy football league is planning a novelty cup draw in a snooker hall tomorrow night, it has been rumoured.
Kenna League blazers remained tightlipped about the Narcozep Cup knockout stages draw, but did confirm it is due to be broadcast by Periscope.
Should it go ahead the event will save this season’s Narcozep Cup which is more than two months behind schedule.
If the draw is left unmade for another two weeks it will impossible to fit in two legs for the round of last 16, the quarter finals or the semis.
“All I can confirm is the draw will go ahead tomorrow night. Probably,” said the chairman, who stands accused of putting on a PR stunt to deflect from his shambolic organisational skills.
The first leg of the last 16 will take place this weekend.
A LATINO will not take the vacant manager position at Barcelona because of their miserable Kenna League form, the Camp Nou has confirmed.
Luis Enrique’s announcement he will vacate the Barca position at the end of the season prompted club president Josep Maria Bartomeu to play down rumours another Iberian could get the job.
“You look at how a Catalan is performing this season at the highest level of the game and he’s 300 points adrift at the bottom of the Kenna. The chorizo is mouldy,” said Bartomeu referring to the manager of Just Put Carles.
“But it’s not just this season. You look at managers from Catalonia, from Madrid, even from Asturias like Luis, and they’ve historically underachieved while English managers – Ingles! Dios mio! – have had the better of them,” Bartomeu said in thinly-veiled reference to the time a cardboard cutout of Pep Guardiola performed better than a real-life Catalan.
Meanwhile, the Kenna League has come under fire for failing to post an update for three weeks.
Flimsy excuses from Kenna HQ ranged between ‘I was at a black tie jolly in Manchester’ to ‘I was at a gender balance conference in Stockholm’.
The chairman stands accused both of failing to get the knockout rounds of the Narcozep Cup organised and of coming up with weak memes to try and placate managers.
AS soon as liquid was sprayed in his face in departures he knew something was seriously wrong.
Eight months of freedom. Eight months since leaving his position as manager of Real Brexit, his last posting in the so-called ‘world’s greatest London pub-based fantasy football league’.
Now he was sinking to his knees, a wave of nausea sweeping over him.
Contemplating his untimely demise at gate two of Durham Tees Valley Airport.
And when he heard another passenger innocently enquire ‘was that Emanuel Pogatetz dressed like a lass?’ his worst fears were confirmed.
Only one organisation used former professional footballers as assassins: the Kenna League’s manager experiences department.
Cross the manager experiences department and the outcome was far from pretty.
It was no fluke they had chosen Pogatetz as the trigger man. While managing Still Don’t Know Yet in his first season he had signed the Austrian for £3.5m in the February transfer window.
The 14th-place finish was nothing to do with it though.
It was the beginning of that season, his first in the Kenna, where he had made an enemy for life.
He realised it now as the darkness intensified and a woman who smelled strongly of Superkings Menthol wheezed ‘you alright, pet?’
You never really left the Kenna. You went through life thinking you’d left, as he’d done since the summer, but they always caught up with you.
And as his life ebbed away, his head resting on the flabby thighs of a morbidly-obese airport worker, he thought of the strapline on the Durham Tees Valley Airport website.
