Dear All,

As we break for international matches, it's time to give your brain a rest, recharge the batteries and get ready for the home straight as the season nears a close.

With just two months to go, there is still much to play for in terms of championships, european places, promotion and of course the dreaded relegation, not to mention the FFA Cup as well.

Every point is crucial, as is every transfer, and no-one's position, from top to bottom, is yest guaranteed.

We've seen remarkable turnarounds in the closing stages before.

We've seen leaders bottle it when the title race looked well and truly over.

We've seen teams come out of nowhere to mount a late challenge and steal the title - or a last gasp european or promotion place.

We've seen miraculous escapes, and teams that looked safe suddenly dragged into the relegation dogfight.

Yes, you all know who you are - but we've yet to uncover this year's victims.

Sometimes when the pressure at the top or bottom is almost too much to bear, mid table mediocrity can even seem like an oasis of calm in the middle of a scorching desert.

Anyway, it's time to look at the scores on the doors.

Just 13 points separate the top three teams, none of which have lifted the premier league trophy before.

Harpic Amsterdam leads the way but Minus Three has closed the gap, and a top scoring 59 points has seen HIT THE BAR move into real contention also.

ABCDE FC and Maclacticos both saw their title hopes dented by poor scores of 12 and 8 respectively.

The race for a top five place is still wide open in fact with any of the top 10 still in with a chance.

The Premiership relegation battle is hotting up too.

Having looked dead and buried, the Prince is rising from the Darkness once again and now stands just 15 points behind KFC Academical in the fight for survival. Brother McCauley knows all about it as he too looked a goner earlier in the season, before his amazing comeback began.

True Blue Strikers won;t be giving up just yet either, while Minibabybelle will still have a glimmer of hope that she can repeat last year's escape by the skin of her teeth on the final day of the season.

In the Conference league (where the leader would be 8th had he been in the premiership), Probably the Best still leads the way from Flexys Fairies. A slip from Bazking in Glory has allowed Boys of Summer AND Sheer Kidology to leapfrog Brother Baz into third and fourth position - so the promotion race is well and truly on with five teams in contention for three places.

Hard to look outside those five for a shock but you never know.

At the bottom of the Conference it's not looking good for Virgin Surfers but Cool Dude Zoo and Real Godfish still have a realistic chance of catching the Dirty Dubs to avoid relegation (and save McAvoy the embarrassment of being the first manager to be relegated from the Premier League and Conference League in consecutive seasons.

Finally, congratulations to top scorers HIT THE BAR and Cherry United who clocked up 59 points (a cool 50 more than the chairman this week!!!), and Sheer Kidology whose 58 points might help Brother Pads make an instant return to the Premiership.

In a week with some ridiculously low scores, the worst culprits were Virgin Surfers (6), Feederclub MUFC (7), Dirty Dubs XI (8) and Maclacticos (8).

This week's transfer password is one for all you toffees out there... BRACEWELL.

Until next week then brace yourselves indeed and.....

.......... READ 'EM AND WEEP!!!!!!!!!!!!

Michael R.

Diving in the Box FF League Chairman

http://divinginthebox.blogspot.com/

DITB PREMIER LEAGUE Pos Overall Manager Team Week Pts Tot Pts 1 4080 Mr Mark Molloy Harpic Amsterdam 22 1236 2 4851 Mr Geoff Johnston Minus Three FC 38 1229 3 5620 Mr Declan Crudden HIT THE BAR 59 1223 4 8852 Mr John McDermott ABCDE FC 12 1204 5 13839 Dr Owen McNally Maclacticos 8 1183 6 17843 Mr Brian Shields the blue monkeys 15 1170 7 18177 Mr Paul Brogan Diaby Does Dallas 32 1169 8 20214 Mr Kurt Festraerts Making History 26 1163 9 22461 Mr Gary McDonald Gazzas Piping Hots 30 1157 10 25634 Mr Conor Walls Feeder club MUFC 7 1149 11 29664 Mr Michael Rafferty The Grapes of Raff 9 1140 12 44758 Mr Andy Kirby kirbs crawlers 41 1112 13 54865 Mr Brendan Devlin Brendys Bruisers 56 1096 14 65678 Mr Fra Jones Yer Ma's Athletic 50 1080 15 76611 Mr William Cherry Cherry United 59 1065 16 85591 Mr Matthew Henry Gulladuff F.F 9 1053 17 109731 Mr Kevin McCauley KFC Academical 31 1022 18 121118 Mr Gavin Sheehy Prince of Darkness 41 1007 19 130726 Mr Jules Eilledge True Blue Strikers 19 994 20 159513 Miss Claire Baber MINIBABYBELLEFC 30 951 Your league is placed 540 out of 10684 with an average score of 1215. DITB Conference League Pos Overall Manager Team Week Pts Tot Pts 1 18492 Mr Mark Stevenson PROBABLY THE BEST 37 1168 2 29174 Mr Brendan Kelly flexys fairys 29 1141 3 32089 Mr Austin McGinley Boys of Summer 50 1135 4 36678 Mr Simon Patrick O'Sullivan Sheer Kidology 58 1126 5 38862 Mr Barry Corr bazkinginglory 11 1122 6 75878 Mr Brendan Henry HOWRTINGS 30 1066 7 85591 Mr colly mckenna micky hartes x1 33 1053 8 100356 Mr Conor Donnelly The Busted Sofas 22 1034 9 111983 Mr Gareth Bradley Hoofers UTD 30 1019 10 118039 Mr Conor Nugent The Well Hungarian 33 1011 11 120374 Mr Simon Jenkins Stickshifter FC 20 1008 11 120374 Mr Barry Jones Barry's Elite XI 30 1008 13 121118 Mr Alan Stewart Muckamore Uld 26 1007 14 131400 Mr Andrew McCabe Joeys Monsters 19 993 15 158310 Mr paul maynes The fernandos 56 953 16 160127 Mr Philip McCabe Chamonix Albion 16 950 17 164301 Mr Connell McGinley Mighty Con Villa 10 943 18 177672 Mr Stephen O'Sullivan Mersey Miracles 44 919 19 184572 Mr Alan McCabe Dirty Dubs XI 8 905 20 186866 Mr conor mc avoy REAL GOLDFISH 39 900 21 196281 Mr Stephen O'Sullivan Cool Dude Zoo 18 878 22 206745 Master Eamon Eastwood Virgin Surfers 6 849 Your league is placed 3885 out of 10684 with an average score of 1138.