Palace Casuals

[talisman]

The Palace Casuals goal machine rolls on through another two matches, winning another Cup round match and extending their lead at the top of the League.

The Cup Qualifying Round 2nd Leg match saw the Casuals host Hoyerswerda eV and qualifying for the next round after a stunning 5-1 win over their Level 22 opponents from Germany. The first chance of the match came in the first minute after the visitors' Zejdler pick up the quickest booking of the season for a foul on Claude Pinto and the Palace striker picked himself up to head in the resulting Anders Graf free kick. The goal provider turned scorer later on in the half, turning in a Andrey Tikhiy cross. Half-time was reached with the home side 2-1 up after Hoyerswerda pulled one back through Melona. In the second half, Pinto helped winger Johan Shaqiri extend Palace's lead before some substitutions stiffened up the defence and replaced some tired legs in midfield, Anurak Arma and Stergios Tzanakakis replacing Sebastian Domanski and Nataniel Silva Lima. Tzanakakis turned in a Man-of-the-Match performance in the remainder of the match, running rampage through the visitors defence, scoring one goal and winning the penalty that Tikhiy converted for the fifth goal. Palace Casuals now progress to the Play-off Round, a rare event...



In the League Round 4, Palace Casuals visited Stahladler FC and after a difficult first half, came away with an impressive 5-0 victory. In an evenly-matched first half, Palace had three clear chances and scored with two of them, Claude Pinto breaking through the defence to set up Catalin Neagu with the easiest of tap-ins and Neagu then crossing for Jack McCaul to head in past the home 'keeper. The second half turned into a war of attrition with neither side giving way until the 74th minute when Pinto scored a dramatic solo goal. The Casuals manager then made a triple substitution and formation change that seemed to change little until the last five minutes, when Pinto added a second solo goal and Omar Hansen copied him to complete the scoring. McCaul picked up a booking which, along with one received in a previous match, means that he will miss the next League game through suspension.