Ricoh Fantasy Football League nears climax

The battle for the final few places on the plane is hotting up. Who is in? Who is out? There are but two places left in the team to face a PrintWeek XI at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry in May.

The penultimate two spots were grabbed by March's winner NB Group's Wayne Nixon thanks to his team South Shields Massive FC, which totted up 267 points.

He owes his place to another team that enjoyed March, league leaders Chelsea, who went top of the table with a 2-1 win at Old Trafford. His captain was Didier Drogba and his top performer team mate Frank Lampard.

Nixon's colleague John Horn played the Manchester United role in second spot with 263 points, so the banter at NB Group was sure to be high. His team Horny AFC also includes Drogba, but is captained by Steven Gerrard.

Playing the current Arsenal role, so presumably he was discounted from contention for the March title on the third of the month despite never being too far away, was Iain Pape's Papies Players. He finished a point behind with 262 for the month. However, he was embarrassed in Europe by the world's best player.

Elsewhere in the world of football this month Portsmouth fans were singing the name of former West Ham and Liverpool legend Julian Dicks, after he ensured the south coast club would not be the first side relegated in the top five tiers of English football this season.

Dicks's Grays was relegated from the Blue Square Premier (the conference to many), the first club to be relegated on the pitch. Chester City was thrown out of the league on financial grounds.

Portsmouth won't even be the second side relegated after Peterborough, managed by Darren Ferguson, sorry Mark Cooper, sorry Jim Gannon, sorry Gary Johnson, also went down.

Luck may run out for Pompey this weekend. It was in cup action against Tottenham with a place at Wembley at stake - incidentally the game takes place at Wembley. However, a win for West Ham against Sunderland or Hull against Burnley will see it back in the second tier of English football for the first time since 2002/03.

Each month's winner of the Ricoh Fantasy Football League receives two tickets to a Coventry City match, as well as the chance to nominate two people to play at the Ricoh Arena against a printweek.com/Ricoh XI side, plus one month's banner advertising on printweek.com for their company.