The penultimate week of the Premier League season saw another relegation place decided but left the title challenge to play out over the final week. What a season it has been. Perhaps SITF cannot quite match the drama of the real thing, but the top two, or three, are doing their best to prolong the contest. 

Once again Simon has cut into Sandra's lead as the latter's form takes a dip while Kevin's surge is showing signs of stalling. The pressure is on; the nerves are jangling. A loss of focus now could be costly! The final week of the PL season always throws up some strange scores and surprise results so it remains to be seen what difference a handful of hat-tricks or defensive lapses will make to the final placings. 

Michelle top scored but remained in 7th. The Ice Cream Boys understandably enjoyed the sunshine over the weekend and they were the only team to change position - up a place to share 12th with Karen, 

Wow, there's no letting up at the top! With only two more game weeks to go, Sandra cannot afford to make a mistake with Simon just outscoring her this week. He has moved further ahead of Kevin in third, while in fourth, Ken is now threatened by high-flying Chris, whose lovely surge has gained him six places since week 34. This time he has overtaken Brian dropping him back to 6th. The only other movement saw Jon lose a place in 11th.

So, with most PL teams having two games left to play and six with an additional game in hand, there are still plenty of points to play for. Can Ken resist Chris's charge or will Brian bounce back to stop his run? Nick is beginning to look a lost cause and that should be an incentive to Lily to keep up the pressure .. if .. she isn't overhauled by Jenni who is only two points behind her. Jon's downward trajectory throws a lifeline to Karen and an upturn in her form could see her win back a place. At the bottom Tom has a lot of ground to make up on Joe but you never know!

What is there not to like about a week in which there are sixteen matches, two of which were local derbies, plenty of goals, clean sheets and popular players picking up fantasy points in abundance? Don't ask Karen, who probably doesn't share my enthusiasm, as her Western Road Wanderers did exactly what their name suggests, rather than focusing on the task in hand, and losing a place in the process.  She was overtaken by high-scoring Jenni who leapfrogged two places to share 10th with Jon.

It is difficult to know which manager might have been most enlivened by their team's performance. Certainly Chris, with his recently, and very aptly re-named What a lovely surge! would have enjoyed his continuing upward journey into 6th with the week's highest score, albeit it meant both Michelle and Nick were both knocked back a place. 

But I suspect, the biggest smile of all was at the home of Orchard Rovers, where there are few bad apples these days, as Simon's relentless pursuit of Kevin has finally paid off, and he moved into second place. But, with three weeks of the season left, I don't think that battle is yet over. It also remains to be seen whether either of them can make any inroads into Sandra's commanding lead at the top. 

Two very different Semi Finals were effectively decided by (a) poor finishing (notably by Nicolas Jackson) and (b) a toenail that deprived Coventry of victory in an edge-of-the-seat classic. Which means the two Manchester teams meet at Wembley for the second successive season on Saturday 25th May. Another City win perhaps? 

It might yet be back-to-back wins on the pitch but, off it, and at the risk of writing him off too quickly, Mick, who currently sits mid-table, has got a lot to do to replicate his win in last year's competition. The advantage remains with Ken who further extended his lead over Jenni in second and Michelle in third.  

*** NB The latest FA Cup table following the semi finals is now correct.

The league programme saw a depleted number of games because of the cup ties and, arguably, some of those games didn't look obvious contenders for delivering fantasy points. But they were there - if you were prepared to take a gamble. Luck or astuteness? Call it what you like, but it worked for Chris who top scored with his selection of Mateta (Palace) and Bailey (Villa) and moved up a place for the third week running into 8th. Kevin opted for Palace's Eze (as did Michelle) and Bournemouth's Solanke and he was rewarded with the second-highest score that allowed him to make a slight dent into Sandra's lead. Dan shared the same score but achieved that with an unchanged team that fielded three Arsenal and two Villa players. If it ain't broke, why change it!?

With five weeks to go before the final whistle of the season is blown, a Premier League manager whose team is competing for top spot will tell you there is still all to play for. Given that there are only three points separating the top three and results aren't guaranteed to go according to plan, you can see why no-one is taking anything for granted.

Ask the current SITF leader, and she will tell you exactly the same thing - and this, despite the fact that Sandra has now carved out an even greater lead over Kevin, who may yet have his work cut out to repel the advances of Simon in third. The only positional changes occurred in the bottom half of the table where top-scoring Chris moved up again, this time into 9th, pushing Jon down to 10th. Karen also went up, back into 11th, recovering some of the ground she lost the previous week and knocking Jenni down into 12th.

This coming weekend sees a reduced number of league matches to accommodate the FA Cup Semi Finals. The transfer window for that competition is now open and will close at 16:00 on Saturday 20 April, ahead of the first tie between Man City and Chelsea. 

Wow, that was a pretty full and exciting week of fixtures. Lots of goals, some terrific games and, more importantly for fantasy managers, plenty of points from the twenty matches. Sandra's plan to stay ahead of the field worked wonders as she top-scored and again extended her lead over Kevin, who garnered the same number of points as Simon in third. Brian remains 5th, with high-scoring Michelle leapfrogging Nick to take over 6th. Chris (10th) and Jenni (11th) both moved up, whereas Karen took two steps back. The remaining teams didn't move, but special mention must go to Dan, who posted the second-highest score of the week. He didn't move from 14th, but he is now within touching distance of Mick in 13th. 

So, the last international break is now behind us and it's an uninterrupted race to the season's end on Sunday 19 May. With the exception of Chelsea who have ten, teams have either eight or nine matches left to play.  The Easter break has given extra time for injuries to heal, allowing some long-term absentees to make a welcome re-appearance. Not that you'd know it if you listen to certain PL managers, who are still complaining at the size of their injury list!

Is your team in the best of shape for these final weeks of the season?  Are the fixtures going to pan out in a way that you are able to use your transfers to best effect? While the competition at the top of the Premier League continues to grab the headlines as the three main contenders are separated by just a few points, life in fantasy land now has a strong contender for top spot.

With the week's top score, Sandra has stretched her lead over Kevin while Simon is picking up the pace in third. Ken and Brian both gained a place at Nick's expense, and Michelle moved up two places into 7th overtaking Lily and Jon en route. None of the other teams moved.

The run-in to the winning post continues tonight, the first of two sets of fixtures in Week 35. You can't take your eye off the ball at this stage of the season!  

Let's start with the FA Cup. On the pitch Coventry pulled off an upset against Wolves; Man City and Chelsea did what was expected of them, and Man United went through at the expense of Liverpool in an exhilarating contest. Lots of goals and one clean sheet means that there were a fair few fantasy points available. Top scorers were Ken, who retains the lead, Simon, who remains in fourth, together with Mick (6th) and Chris (8th), both of whom gained a place. Jenni and Michelle gained only three points fewer and stayed in second and third respectively. Brian waved goodbye to the foot of the table, moving up two places to 9th, while Sandra, Karen, Tom and Jon all went in the wrong direction.

With most of the big guns involved in the cup, fantasy managers were tested by the five league matches that took place. Transfers involving Luton and Nottingham Forest aren't generally the norm, but sometimes needs must.  Brian and Mick top-scored and, to the latter's credit, he managed to do so with eight players picking up points while others were stressing over the low number of players at their disposal. Kevin took the opportunity to get some points back on Sandra, but there was no movement in the table apart from Dan, the second-highest scorer in 14th, who again changed places with Joe for the third week in a row.

See you after the international break.

It was a week of somewhat unsurprising results on the pitch, but a mixed bag of points off it. Quite a number of the fancied players scored only their appearance points and that is reflected in the relatively low totals achieved by some teams this week. Sandra's performance bucked that trend, and her top-scoring total has seen her stretch her lead and more than double her advantage over Kevin in second place. Simon remains in third with Nick in fourth.

There were no changes to the top six, but Lily moved up another place into 7th as Jon dropped to 8th. Jenni lost the place she'd gained the previous week and returns to 12th. Joe gained the upper hand over Dan and took over 14th. The remaining teams didn't move.

Including tonight's match at Bournemouth, there are only five league games in Week 32 in view of the FA Cup Quarter Finals on Saturday and Sunday, all of which involve Premier League sides. The transfer window for cup transfers is now open and will close at 11:00 on Saturday 16 March ahead of the Wolves v Coventry tie.

A top-scoring week for Kevin helped him reduce some of the ground he had lost to Sandra last week, but the latter still retains her lead at the top. In fact, none of the top seven teams changed places. Lily overtook Michelle to move into 8th; Karen didn't move in 10th, but Jenni moved up another place to share 11th with Chris, who stayed put, as did Mick in 13th. Dan lifted himself up another place to 14th, relegating a tumbling Joe to just one rung above bottom-placed Tom.