Day 5 dawned with a mid-morning League match and a mid-afternoon Champions League match looming.
In the League match, bottom-placed team Dennie FC were the visitors and were sent back home with a resounding clip round the ear in the shape of a 5-0 demolition by the rampant Casuals. Omar Hansen led the scoring charge with a well-taken hat-trick, including one Penalty, and Freddie Jones and Catalin Neagu weighed in with one apiece. Downside was the injuries suffered by two of the Palace strike force, first Andres Ramos and then Claude Pinto suffering from the over-zealous attentions of Dennie's Djalma de Souza, who was yellow-carded for each incident and thus made the visitors task a lot more difficult, being sent for an early bath in the 23rd minute.
I think we might be in danger of peaking too soon...
The magic sponge worked overtime in the period between today's matches and Pinto was judged fit to play just in time to lead the line in the away Champions League tie against ROMA.
Playing 4-4-1-1 with Andreas Graf in the shadow striker's spot, Palace Casuals got off to a flyer and were two up in the first 8 minutes, Andrey Tikhiy stepping up to the plate with a Penalty strike and an assist as Pinto put his injury woes behind him with a bullet header past the desperately poor home keeper. Freddy Jones added a third goal six minutes before half-time, and the Casuals eased off in the second half to cruise to an unexpectedly easy win.
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