We are now at the business end of the season, as Big Ron would say, and football fans the length and breadth of South-West London should have been looking forward to seeing some exciting, dramatic and tense on-field battles to decide the title, promotion and relegation issues in the climax to a very closely-fought Division Two campaign. But instead, we find that the glorious or catastrophic outcomes that teams have sweated blood and tears in pursuit or avoidance of for nine months have rather been decided in the mandarinal corridors of power down at Sportmans League HQ in Fulham.

This Monday's weekly meeting must have left a large fleet of Mandarins with some very blunt nibs, as well as rendering the HQ stationery cupboard completely bare of those revered reels of red tape. No fewer than 11 [eleven, as the vidi-printer would doubtless feel obliged to confirm] Division Two matches were decided in one night without a ball being kicked. And in the process, the Championship was decided, as well as probably a couple of promotion places and one relegation slot. It is perhaps a surprise that tickets were not on sale to spectators for this decisive mandarinal decree-fest!

To be fair to the very well organised Sportmans League, most of the decisions were unavoidable. West Ten finally confirmed what we had suspected for some weeks, and folded in the wake of the dramatic fall-out from their abandoned match against Deportivo Galicia back in February. Consequently their last two outstanding fixtures saw three points dished out to Supercala and the Galicians themselves.

Perhaps more surprising was news that bottom side Everyman Utd, so reliable in previous seasons, had thrown in the towel and announced that they would be unable to fulfil any further fixtures this season. Accordingly, Olympia, Spectraprint, Broadway, Supercala and Wanderers were the lucky recipients of three free points each in lieu of Everyman's remaining five matches.

The most significant of these awards saw Wanderers crowned as Champions of Division Two since second placed Olympia can now not catch United despite having two games left to play. The bookies were unlikely to be offering generous odds on an Everyman win in that last game anyway, and few would argue that Wanderers did not deserve their title, certainly since West Ten's spontaneous combustion. Their progress to the title has been relentless, if unspectacular, and we suspect they may have broken the world record in the process for most number of consecutive 2-0 victories in the history of Association Football. Anyway they are a good football club, and we wish them well in a higher division next time out.

The slightly premature end to Everyman's season also rules out any faint worries that Logica might have had of being caught by them, and for once the Match Award lottery may have worked slightly in out favour. However, our recent run of increasingly impressive form (including three wins on the last three Sundays that we have played) made that unlikely anyway as we were 10 [ten] points above them. And whilst match awards are raining all around, the ever traditional Logica club continue almost single-handedly to persevere with the more old-fashioned methods of collecting points. Our first away win of the season on Sunday, an outstanding 5-1 demolition of Deportivo, was the only one of four fixtures actually decided on grass. And we can take no little pride that this club has persevered to the end of the season, and fulfilled all our fixtures despite some pronounced difficulties before Christmas that saw us with nil points as 2004 began.

However, whilst the Galicians were left empty-handed after Logica's footballing lesson, they fared somewhat better the following night when they picked up no fewer than 9 [nine] points at Monday's Charity Awards Ceremony. As well as finally being awarded three points for that abandoned match against West Ten (a ruck started by a Galician reputedly kicking a West Tenian on the deck), they also had further good news when it emerged that Inter Wandsworth are currently suspended for some unspecified misdemeanour. As I'm sure you all know by now, this means that Deportivo, who with a splendid sense of timing were down to play Inter next Sunday in a double-header, immediately picked up the six points on offer. That gives the Galicians a haul of twelve points from match awards this season, without which they would have been below Logica. Incidentally, Supercala also picked up nine points on Monday, and they can also boast four match awards during a season that now finds them in third place.

On the whole this Deportivo-Inter farce is just about good news for Logica, although the Awards glut is rendering the overall divisional outcome nearly as pointless as Logica's first half of the season. Whilst we could have theoretically caught Deportivo, the chances were that they would have picked up the solitary point they needed to avoid that in one of their four remaining games anyway. Meanwhile, our victory on Sunday puts us level on points with Inter Wandsworth, who themselves have been the recipients of six points from match awards this season. With Inter's fixture list now complete, that means that a single point from our last match against Supercala on Sunday would be enough for us to leap-frog above them and out of the theoretical relegation zone. And what an achievement that would be given where we were on 1st January!

See the Results Grid for the results of all Division Two teams this season.

Division Two Results - Sunday 18th April
Deportivo Galicia 1-5 Logica
Olympia v Everyman United (Match awarded to Olympia)
Rapid Decline v Supercala (Match awarded to Supercala)
Spectraprint v Inter Wandsworth (Match awarded to Spectraprint)

Division Two Results - Other Match Awards
Broadway v Everyman United (Match awarded to Broadway)
Deportivo Galicia v Inter Wandsworth (Match awarded to Deportivo)
Everyman United v Wanderers United (Match awarded to Wanderers)
Inter Wandsworth v Deportivo Galicia (Match awarded to Deportivo)
Spectraprint v Everyman United (Match awarded to Spectraprint)
Supercala v Everyman United (Match awarded to Supercala)
West Ten v Deportivo Galicia (Match awarded to Deportivo)
West Ten v Supercala (Match awarded to Supercala)

Division Two Fixtures - Sunday 25th April
Bragança v Olympia
Deportivo Galicia v Broadway
Logica v Supercala

Division Two Fixtures - Sunday 2nd May
Broadway v Olympia