**CHAMPIONS ACP 2009**

Dear All,

After all the trials and tribulations, the football season has come to an end.

With the AGP (annual general p*ss-up for the uninitiated) approaching on Saturday, managers will be rejoicing, crying into their beers, or too ashamed to show their faces in public.

Indeed, some will already be looking forward to picking their starting line up for a fresh new season.

As usual, the final day has had its thrills and spills but we'll kick off our end of season round-up at the top of the Premiership.

The Premiership

This year's DITB Premier league Champion is Harpic Amsterdam, ending Brother Molloy's long wait for some meaningful silverware. Now he's won the greatest prize of all.

And he did it fairly comfortably, which is no mean feat considering that the other two Champions League qualifiers are ABCDE FC and Making History, who between them have won no fewer than five league titles.

Very steady scoring from Harpic meant that, once Molloy hit the front, competitors never really had a chance of catching him. An excellent well-paced performance from the ultimate crier!

I'm sure I speak on behalf of everyone when I say congratulations to Brother Molloy who will lift the DITB trophy and £200 at the AGP on Saturday.

Having said that, Harpic's winning score of 1620 is less than he scored last year, when he finished 9th! However, last year there were two more points on offer for Man of the Match awards which could make a big difference over a whole season.

Brother McDermott had one of his good seasons this year and will lift £150 for finishing in second place - 37 points behind the leader.

Another late run from The Professor saw Brother Festraerts come in third and receiving £75 for his efforts.

UEFA Cup places and £25 go to Brother Brogan's Diaby Does Dallas and Brother Shields' Blue Monkeys - recording his highest ever finish (much to the chairman's chagrin).

Commiserations to MInus Three FC who after numerous spells at the top of the table, narrowly missed out on a top five finish. Who said 'bottler'????!!!!

Making up the top ten are maclacticos, HIT THE BAR, Feeder Club MUFC and Brendy's Bruisers, while the Grapes of Raff miss out on the top 10 for the first time in their glorious career.

But the Chairman can't complain. It's those at the bottom who have most to cry about...

They left it late but bith KFC Academical and True Blue Strikers can look forward to starting next season in the Premiership, with fresh clean kecks!

Unfiortunately, that's bad news for Prince of Darkness who, having looked safe a few weeks ago, plummeted to finish bottom of the league, with a £20 forfeit to pay.

Minibabybellefc was unable to pull off the great escape this season, finishing in 19th place, and will now join her hubby in marital Conference bliss, with a £15 forfeit to pay.

Finally, it's a case of straight up and straight back down for Gulladuff FF, Brother Henry Jnr becoming the unfortunate manager to be dragged into the relegation zone at the end of the season, incurring a £10 forfeit in the process.

No-one knows when, or if, we'll ever see the above three teams back in the Premier League again.

Such is the price of failure.


The Johnny Hanna Conference League

The Conference League title was never in doubt as Probably The Best romped it from start to finish, with exactly 100 points to spare from second place. Brother Stevenson lifts the Dalkon Shield and the top prize of £125.

Second place saw an amazing comeback by The Busted Sofas - perfectly timed over the past two months to peak on Cup Final Day. Brother Donnelly picks up £100 as runner-up.

Flexys Fairies, having been relegated last season, clinched the last remaining promotion place - as well as £50 for manager Brother Kelly.

Congratulations to all three managers on a fantastic achievement and we look forward to seeing how you fare amongst the big boys next season.

Unfortunately, this means cup final day HEART BREAK for the second season in succession for Sheer Kidology. Having been pipped at the post on the final day last season to be relegated, Brother O'Sullivan (aka Chuckle Brother Junior, aka Paddy Sulls) looked set for promotion going into the Cup Final but a score of just 9 points allowd The Busted Sofas to nip in with 29 points to keep the Premiership an O'Sullivan-free zone.

I'm sure every manager feels for Paddy and will forward their messages of support.

The Conference league certainly will certainly be a family friendly zone next season with four McCabes, three O'Sullivans and two Henrys. Isn't that nice!

Relegated from The Conference this season are Virgin Surfers (£20 forfeit), Cool Dude Zoo AGAIN (£15 forfeit), and, I hate to say it REAL GOLDFISH (£10 forfeit), completing an utterly miserable two years for Brother McAvoy.

If you remember, Mac would have stayed in the premiership last season had he not made any transfers, and now he becomes the first manager to be relegated from the Premiership and Conference in consecutive seasons. This doesn't include a team like Cool Dude Zoo who went down in the initial 20-team cut and has been relegated every season since then.

Anyway, shame on you... the worst teams in the DITB League!!!


The DITB FFA Cup

This year's FFA Cup Final was an all-Conference affair and a very exciting match it proved to be.

Lifting the trophy, and completing a double of sorts, was Probably The Best with a 30-28 victory over Chamonix Albion.

So congratulations to Brother Stevenson whose name will now be entered in the DITB history books, alongside many legends of the game.

For his efforts, he will pick up the prestigious DITB FFA Cup and a cash prize of £50.

Unfortunately for Brother McCabe#3, winner takes all in this competition but well done on a great debut season performance.


The Honours That No-one Wants

The worst accolades to receive in DITB are the ones that don't carry a prize, whether that be silverware or cash.

However, we will show some respect to the following teams:

Premier League Best Starting XI: ABCDE FC (1367)
Premier League Golden Boot: ABCDE FC (85 goals) * last year's winner scored 120 goals

Conference League Best Starting XI: PROBABLY THE BEST (1297)
Conference League Golden Boot: mickey hartes x1 (76 goals) * last year's winner got 107 goals

So starting line-ups had a strong bearing on final position this year, whilst there were obviously a lot less goals scored - which might explain the lower scores across the board.

The Chairman concludes that it was a very odd season and that is why The Grapes did not perform as well as usual.

Transfer Excellence

Best use of transfers this season goes to the league winner Harpic Amsterdam. Brother Molloy imporved his starting line-up by a massive 609 points during the season.

In the Conference League, the most improved team was HOWRTINGS with Brother Henry Snr improving his score by 483 points throughout the season.

Three teams should hang their heads in shame as they transpired to make their teams worse over the season.

It gives me no pleasure whatsoever to tell you that for the second year running Brother McAvoy's use of transfers has made his team worse - this time by just a single point.

Mighty Con Villa would have been 24 points better off had Brother McGinley kept his transfer kitty locked up.

Worst of all was Cool Dude Zoo whose transfers meant that his final team scored a massive 133 points LESS than his starting line-up.


The League of Super Leagues

And finally, the true test of each league's strength in depth is shown by their position in the Telegraph's League of Super Leagues, which is 10,680 strong.

The DITB Premier League finished in 171st position overall, placing it in the top 1.6% nationwide. Last year, we finished in 236th position and in the top 2% so scores must have been down across the UK. Pat on the back for Premier League members on a good improvement.

The Conference League finished in 4,268th position overall, placing it in the top 40% nationwide. Last year, the Conference finished in 4,569th position but were in the top 37% so really, they've gone downhill this year.

As you can see, the gulf is enormous and the quality speaks for itself.



The Last Word...

So that's it my friends. It's been another long, tough DITB season. Congratulations to all our prizewinners and commiserations to our poor relegated friends.

I look forward to seeing you all (but not so much to handing over large amounts of cash) at this year's AGP on Saturday.

You know the drill, if you want your prize money, you'd better make sure that you turn up on the day!!!

There will also be plenty of FF stats from this and previous DITB seasons to peruse.

Until then, and for the last time this season,...

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


Michael R.
Diving in the Box FF League Chairman
http://divinginthebox.blogspot.com/

DITB PREMIER LEAGUEEMIER LEAGUE

Pos Overall Manager Team Week Pts Tot Pts
1 1296 Mr Mark Molloy Harpic Amsterdam 21 1620
2 3162 Mr John McDermott ABCDE FC 28 1583
3 4986 Mr Kurt Festraerts Making History 26 1563
4 5097 Mr Paul Brogan Diaby Does Dallas 25 1562
5 6017 Mr Brian Shields the blue monkeys 24 1554
6 6554 Mr Geoff Johnston Minus Three FC 9 1550
7 7947 Dr Owen McNally Maclacticos 31 1540
8 8283 Mr Declan Crudden HIT THE BAR 16 1538
9 28950 Mr Conor Walls Feeder club MUFC 12 1459
10 30488 Mr Brendan Devlin Brendys Bruisers 1 1455
11 34926 Mr Michael Rafferty The Grapes of Raff 9 1444
12 41486 Mr Gary McDonald Gazzas Piping Hots 3 1429
13 53448 Mr William Cherry Cherry United 17 1405
14 82025 Mr Andy Kirby kirbs crawlers 14 1354
14 82025 Mr Fra Jones Yer Ma's Athletic 16 1354
16 82637 Mr Jules Eilledge True Blue Strikers 30 1353
16 82637 Mr Kevin McCauley KFC Academical 24 1353
18 93919 Mr Matthew Henry Gulladuff F.F 21 1334
19 118846 Miss Claire Baber MINIBABYBELLEFC 31 1291
20 126696 Mr Gavin Sheehy Prince of Darkness 9 1277

Your league finished 171 out of 10680 with an average score of 1576.



DITB Conference League

Pos Overall Manager Team Week Pts Tot Pts
1 8283 Mr Mark Stevenson PROBABLY THE BEST 30 1538
2 37418 Mr Conor Donnelly The Busted Sofas 29 1438
3 39181 Mr Brendan Kelly flexys fairys 9 1434
4 44346 Mr Simon Patrick O'Sullivan Sheer Kidology 9 1423
5 46362 Mr Austin McGinley Boys of Summer 14 1419
6 47327 Mr Barry Corr bazkinginglory 24 1417
7 52433 Mr Brendan Henry HOWRTINGS 18 1407
8 83829 Mr Simon Jenkins Stickshifter FC 17 1351
9 113806 Mr Philip McCabe Chamonix Albion 28 1300
10 116679 Mr Barry Jones Barry's Elite XI 24 1295
11 123446 Mr Gareth Bradley Hoofers UTD 8 1283
12 124555 Mr Conor Nugent The Well Hungarian 2 1281
13 125107 Mr Andrew McCabe Joeys Monsters 15 1280
13 125107 Mr colly mckenna micky hartes x1 14 1280
15 145723 Mr Alan Stewart Muckamore Uld 1 1240
16 160042 Mr paul maynes The fernandos 1 1209
17 161315 Mr Connell McGinley Mighty Con Villa 1 1206
18 170079 Mr Stephen O'Sullivan Mersey Miracles 8 1185
19 175589 Mr Alan McCabe Dirty Dubs XI 31 1171
20 178900 Mr conor mc avoy REAL GOLDFISH 17 1162
21 203741 Mr Stephen O'Sullivan Cool Dude Zoo 9 1083
22 209680 Master Eamon Eastwood Virgin Surfers 3 1059

Your league finished 4268 out of 10680 with an average score of 1450.