Palace Casuals

[talisman]

With all the euphoria about the previous few days spectacular successes, a mediocre day had to come - and this time it's mostly the management's fault!!

The morning Round 6 League game involved a trip to xhxcx FC in Malaysia, and only a half-time reshuffle broke a very defence heavy game and the Casuals escaped with a 1-0 win. Having tried 4-4-1-1 against 4-4-2 in the cup recently, the management tried it again today, but the first half was dominated by the respective defences and half time was reached with the match scoreless. Two half-time substitutions changed the visitors to a 3N-4-1-2 formation and this bore fruit within 5 minutes, Omar Hansen opening the scoring with one of his trademark solo goals. And there the scoring ended. Later in the half, Andreas Graf picked up his second injury of the season when he pulled up clutching his hamstring, later to be diagnosed as a groin strain (don't you love the Injury mechanics in this game?), and is sidelined for 3 days.



Jackson Babou Noubi was pulled out of a few days rest and given a free run in midfield for the second half, but again turned in a poor performance so was transfer-listed on the team's return to base, and eventually departed for pastures new, the club receiving $87M.

Onward in the Cup! Erm... no. The Playoff Round 1st Leg was at home against Fikikrki FC and here the management have to hold their hands up and say they got the team completely wrong, sending out the boys to do a man's work. Against a team only slightly below in quality, the Second XI (plus a couple of first teamers) were hopelessly outclassed and only making the maximum substitutions just after the hour mark stopped the game being a rout. The visitors scored twice in the first period to make the half-time score 0-2, but were prevented from adding to the total by some dogged defending by the home side. That being said, the forward line, including Andres Ramos returned from injury, came up against a goalkeeper and defence that were on top form. Lessons have been learnt and the 2nd Leg is a chance to put things right.