Palace Terriers

[talisman]

League Round 18, away at FC Iban, in Haarlem, Netherlands. Level 1, AQ -3.1
Terriers visited table-topping FC Iban, and shocked their hosts, emerging with the three points in a 3-0 victory. An early injury to right-back Aad Roemgens meant an out-of-position substitution, central defender Luke George coming on and playing 85 minutes. You can't give attacking midfielder Xabier Moran a chance from a set-piece, and Iban found that to their cost in the 11th minute when Rasskazanov fouled on the left wing, and Moran crossed for striker Freddy Jones to head in for the opener. With their tails up after gaining the advantage, Terriers scored twice in five minutes before the half-hour mark, left winger Nathan Masegela firing home from 30 yards and Moran scoring himself direct from a free-kick. After half-time, the home side asserted themselves more, but the Terriers defence, particularly George, played heroically and the half-time score stood at the end.





Palace Terriers injury stats - 11 injuries, 39 days

[talisman]

League Round 19, home vs Avicena FC, of Pemalang, Indonesia. Level 1, AQ -5.1
Palace Terriers kept up their recent winning run, racking up the points and goal-difference in advance of their tricky run-in against several of the 'I-6' teams. Avicena were third from bottom of the League and playing several outfield players out of position. Attacking midfielder Xabier Moran notched himself another hat-trick - and third consecutive '10' rating and fourth consecutive MoM, and goals from Martin Silny, Nathan Masegela and Tom Clare made up the rest in a 6-0 demolition of their opponents. Home 'keeper Adriano Mateus certainly earned his keep - and a '9' rating - with a penalty save in the 64th minute, but there was momentary confusion prior to this while the ref made up his mind what he was doing. Terriers have now scored 21 goals without reply in their past four matches.

[talisman]

League Round 20, home vs PSBL of Lampung, Indonesia. Level 1, AQ -2.5
Clash of the form teams today, Palace Terriers four game winning run vs the visitors' five game winning run, and deadlock ensued. After a goal-less first-half, the games goals occurred in a five minute period around the hour mark. Terriers were the first to strike, defender Tom Clare surging forward and teeing up left-back Ruben Gorrano to slide the ball past the 'keeper for the opening goal. PSBL replied through Thoangpaen. Otherwise the match was a defensive battle with few chances created. Both sides stay within the promotion slots, but fall further behind the teams in the Champions League qualification zone. Terriers picked up another injury, midfielder Martin Silny suffering a Hamstring Grade 3 and will miss the rest of the season. As a result, a utility defender, Giulio Migliorati, was picked up from the transfer market as a stop-gap replacement, defender Luke George being released as a result.



Palace Terriers injury stats - 12 injuries, 46 days.

[talisman]

League Round 21, away at Beni FC, in Jakarta, Indonesia. Level 1, AQ -2.5
Palace Terriers start on three consecutive games against Indonesian opposition, still searching for the elusive tactic which will get a result against them. Beni FC have not uprated their squad as much as the other five 'I-6' teams, but still manage to produce results against, on paper, superior opposition, and this was the situation in this match. After a goal-less first half, Terriers finally found a way through the home defence and it was striker Nicky Jones who prised the defence open and then unselfishly fed the ball to Xabier Moran, and he netted his 21st goal of the season. Despite some Terriers stalwart defence, the home side got back on level terms eleven minutes from time when a similar move to the Terriers' enabled Hermanto to equalise. One more point, and with some other results going their way, no real loss of position for the Terriers.

[talisman]

League Round 22, home vs Astri FC of Jakarta, Indonesia. Level 1, AQ -3.7
The Palace Terriers Management did a lot of research on this match, which saw the current League leaders visit the Terriers Stadium. Astri turned up with a Narrow Diamond formation, which suited Terriers tried and trusted 4-5-1V down to a 'T'. All that was needed was the orders which would counter the unknown orders which see the 'I-6' teams dominate and win against superior teams, and instead of using home advantage to attack, Terriers stayed defensive and added a hard tackling element. 5 minutes in, and something clicked. Midfielder Ondrej Kadlec ventured forward and with the defence parting before him like the Red Sea, found the space to shoot past the keeper for the opening goal, his first in Terriers colours. For the rest of the first half, the defence was under pressure, tackled like demons, and home custodian Adriano Mateus made two magnificent saves from long range shots. Into the second half, and the 54th minute, a long range shot by left winger Nathan Masegela is forced out for a corner, corner again, Xabier Moran crosses and this time utility defender Giulio Migliorati is on hand to open his Terriers account with a towering header. It is obvious Masegela has a 'shoot-on-sight' policy, as the visitors' defence is hard put to block the long-range shots put in by the left-winger. In the end, the pressure told, and the Man-of-the-Match added two more goals to the tally in the 64th and 72nd minutes. In the end, Palace Terriers are rather comfortable 4-0 winners, move up to 4th in the table and a CL berth (for now).

[talisman]

League Round 23, away at Annisa FC in Jakarta, Indonesia. Level 1, AQ -1.6
Having seen off the League leaders in their previous match, Palace Terriers travelled to Indonesia again for this third-in-a-row match against 'I-6' opposition. Confidence was obviously high as the first attack produced a foul, a booking for the opposition player and a free-kick, which was deflected for a corner by the defensive wall. Xabier Moran swung over the corner, and Nathan Masegela continued from where he left off yesterday and nodded it into the net. By the 13th minute, Terriers were three up, right-back Aad Roemgens ran down the right-wing and crossed for Moran to fire home, and 'Shoot-on-Sight' drove another pile driver past the home 'keeper for his second of the match. At the start of the second half, and Masegela chanced from range again, and the 'keeper saved magnificently for another corner. Masegela took the set-piece himself, and Moran was available for the headed goal. Into the last quarter-hour of the match, and at last a recognised striker got onto the score sheet as Ben Atkins followed his left winger in shooting from distance, but this time a defender got in the way and a corner resulted. Moran was the kicker this time, and Atkins leapt up and headed the ball home for the fifth and final goal. Palace Terriers move up to third, pending a late match result.

[talisman]

League Round 24, home vs Thuaan'd FC of Jakarta, Germany (?!). Level 1, AQ -3.5
Palace Terriers kept up their unbeaten run in their efforts to get into a Champions League slot in the League, their visitors are on a four-game winning run, so an interesting match was in prospect. Terriers were out of the traps quickly, putting pressure on their opponents from the first whistle, and it wasn't until just before the half-hour mark that a breakthrough was made. Striker Ben Atkins, getting a start in the absence of the injured Nicky Jones, ran through the defence into a 1-on-1 situation and slid the ball past the 'keeper to open the scoring. Seven minutes later, defender Taulant Doda copied his young forward, and his shot flew past the visitors' 'keeper and in off the far post. Things evened up a bit after the break until Thuaan'd right-winger Zajaczkowski knocked over Terriers left-winger Nathan Masegela on the edge of the box and was given a straight red card for a professional foul. Attacking midfielder Xabier Moran made no mistake from the resulting free-kick to make the score 3-0. A late injury to left-back Ruben Gorrono was a blow to the home side which took the gloss off a good win. Palace Terriers are now third in the table on goal difference, one of four teams on the same number of points, one point behind the league leaders.



Palace Terriers injury stats - 15 injuries, 62 days.

[talisman]

League Round 25, away at Ganesha FC, of Jakarta, Indonesia. Level 1, AQ -3.6
Palace Terriers took on the League leaders for the second time in four games, and like the previous match, produced a sterling performance that brought all three points home. Things were all-square until five minutes into the second-half, when striker Ben Atkins ran through the home defence and squared the ball for defender Taulant Doda to put the Terriers into the lead. Attacking midfielder Xabier Moran finished the scoring with a brace of direct free-kicks, after yellow-card transgressions by home players. Palace Terriers now top the league by 2 points, pending late evening matches in the Far East.

[talisman]

League Round 26, home vs BursaSpor of Ankara, Turkey. Level 1, AQ -3.8
Palace Terriers went into this game needing to win to maximise their chances of winning the Championship, and they went all out their visitors in for a 4-1 win, extending their unbeaten run to 11 games. The newly completed seating upgrade made the new seating capacity 600, and every seat was occupied as Terriers kicked off. On the half-hour, Luis Omar Soto got his name in the referee's book for a foul tackle which left his opposite number limping, but it wasn't until the dying seconds of the half was either goal breached. Striker Ben Atkins chanced his arm from range and the visitors' 'keeper parried the ball out for a corner. Attacking midfielder Xabier Moran swung the corner over and Atkins dived in for the goal. Immediately after the break, the visitors got back on level terms, Canikli heading home a corner. Ten minutes later, central midfielder Ondrej Kadlec rifled home a 25 yard shot to put the home side back into the lead, before the Management decided on a formation change which brought striker Edward Armstrong-Ford on instead of Nathan Masegela, and moved Moran to a central position. Moran's open play certainly benefitted from the change, and with a quarter-hour to go, he netted a 20 yard shot to increase Terriers' lead. A final round of substitutions in the last ten minutes brought defender Tom Clare on in a straight swap for Gonzalo Scornaienchi and central midfielder Craig Powell on for Kadlec. Powell's first touch of the ball was a 30 yard screamer which took a slight deflection on its way into the back of the net, an wonderful way of scoring a first goal of the season, and Palace Terriers had won the game convincingly. Unfortunately, the news came through that Bunga had also won, so retained the lead and won the Championship on goal difference.



Final Table



League records, a certain Palace Terriers player is mentioned a lot:



Palace Terriers Season 1 Player Stats:



Not a great surprise as to the result of the Player of the Season vote:





Palace Terriers Season 1 injury stats - 15 injuries 62 days.

[talisman]

Season 2 for Palace Terriers

Palace Terriers start their 2nd season in Level 2 with an AQ of 18.7, up 6.0 on last season. Last season they finished as Runners-up of the Level 1 League, and went out at the Qualifying Round of the Cup.

Cup: drawn in Preliminary Round against Dinesh FC, from Chilaw, Sri Lanka (Level 3, AQ +0.6) - 1st Leg away.
Champions League: Entering for the first time, drawn in Group H. Opponents in Group stage are:
Santa Maria FC of Milan, Italy. Level 2, AQ 20.2. League Champions last season.
Trieu FC, of Thanh Hoa, Vietnam. Level 2, AQ 19.9. 3rd in League last season.
Christian FC, of Copenhagen, Denmark. Level 2, AQ 14.6. 4th in League last season.

Playing squad is the same as the end of last season, at the moment. Of course, everyone has lost a star, and the squad is mainly a 4*/3* mixture, with one 5* player.

Playing squad details, with Career stats: